Spider portraiture

It is quite flattering that several people have congratulated me over the years on the invertebrate photos I feature in BugBlog, thank you guys! I don't claim to be a photographer, but I am happy to share a few tips on the white bowl technique, which I regularly use on critters found around the house and garden, especially on non-flying ones. As today I found the first male house spider, Tegenaria sp., of the season, I thought a post on this topic was timely.
Before my daughter finished saying 'spider!' I got the little beast running across the kitchen floor into a little plastic pot. For this, I save any little plastic pot I come across. You know the onion salad pot from an indian takeaway? ideal! To hold the bug for a few minutes the pot does not even need to have holes on the top. I also have a 'proper' bug viewing pot (like the one featured in the photos below). My bug pots are always available on the side of the kitchen and I always carry one in my bag.
The second piece of equipment is the bowl. A flat-bottomed white bowl, like those used for soup, is ideal, as its sides help reflect the light. Better if there is a smooth transition from the bottom to the sides, as it will reduce undesirable reflections.
 I take the bug pot and bowl to the conservatory (or outside, weather permitting), as I like as much natural light as possible.

And push the cat out of the chair (sorry!).

 Then I remove the lid of the bug pot, put the bowl on top, turn it round to transfer the spider to the bowl surface.

I'd like to say that, although it is a common technique, I don't like to use the fridge to cool down the animal, I am impatient and I want to get the photos and release the animal as soon as possible. Many of the bugs are naturally slow and settle quickly on the pot, or stop long enough for the shots. Male spiders at this time of the year are challenging, as they are very jittery and require a bit of attention until they are posing well. Usually, tapping on the table will startle them and they will stop running around. Unfortunately, they often stop leaning on the side of the pot, so when you remove it, they are settled in awkwardly like so...

...which is not ideal. I move the pot slowly until the spider is in the middle and blow softly under the pot, until the spider spread its legs.

Now lets go to camera settings. I don't own a DSLR, just a bridge camera (Canon Powershot G12, if you are wondering), but you can achieve a similar effect with any portable camera. I first set the flash on, and increase the flash setting to +2, this is important if the bug is dark, as the auto flash setting will result on an overall dark animal and not a very white background. You might need to experiment with your camera to find the best flash setting.

No flash

Flash on to +1

Then I set the focal point to the top left hand side of the visual field (nearer to the flash itself), instead of the central position. This ensures the animal is not in the shade of the objective. If I didn't do this, once I cropped the photo, the bottom right corner would be grey, not white, as it would be shaded by the objective. You can simulate this on a cameral without this setting by focusing in the middle point and then moving the camera trying not to lose the focus so that the animal is located in the top left hand side of the visual field.
 Today, I experimented by holding the camera vertical, so that the flash light came exactly in front of the spider.
Set the camera to macro, and fire away. I usually take lots of photos, as I want to get the focus right on the animal's eyes and I try also several angles, which are often useful for ID purposes.
  I download the photos in the computer and do some basic processing. Crop the white/grey space out, adjust the levels so that the white background is actually white, remove specks of dust or dirt and sharpen a little. That's it!

Cropping

White level adjustment

 This one is my favourite of the session today. Although the white background is not perfect, as it is greyer on the right hand side, I like the spooky effect of the spider leg shadows.

Cameraless

I made the mistake of taking photos in a beach on a windy day (what was I thinking?!). You don't need to have much imagination to guess what happened. Some tiny grain of sand got in the camera and it stalled with the objective open, then, an ominous bleeping and a warning 'lens error! restart camera!'. After that, I did some frantic searches in Google to find a simple solution and failure to restart the camera after trying various tricks. The consequence, my Powershot G10 is being now sent to a repair centre, and while I wait, my dear old G6 was rescued from a cupboard and put to action. Now, when you get used to an upgrade you often do not notice the jump in quality, probably as you are often frustrated trying to get used to the new buttons and getting aquainted with you new toy. But going backwards, that's tough. I miss my G10 so much! I miss the image stabilization, I miss the large, bright LCD screen, the optical zoom, the top dial to adjust the aperture...

 However, I am so glad this happened at the beginning of november, when Bugblog is feeling a bit sleepy and cold, almost ready to hide under a curly leaf and go into hibernation. I would have been straight to the shops to get myself a G12 if this had happened in the summer. And still, some bugs still refuse to believe that, yes, it is cold and time to hide! While gardening this weekend, I was accompanied by the surprising buzzing of honeybees foraging on the fuschia, I disturbed a healthy female Tegenaria when moving a compost bag. I also came across this tiny snail, probably born only this summer, having a walkabout. Despite all of the above, when I saw the photo above I realised I can survive without my G10...at least for a few days.

Invertebrate macro photography

Painted Lady enjoying the sun

I thought I put together some details of how I take the photos I post in this blog. Unless otherwise stated they are all my photos. I actually started using my digital camera as a recording device. It is much easier to go to a photo and ID a bug than to try and remember it. Until 2009 my camera was a Canon Powershot G6, portable and with a superb macro. I have often considered going for a dSLR. I used to have a lot of - non digital - camera gear, macro lenses, flash arms, etc, but the advantage of the semi-pro G6 is that you don't have to carry stuff around, they are very light and you still get pretty decent photos. The quality of macro (and the 'supermacro' mode) in this camera is widely recognised and amazing value for money. I am a self-tought photographer, reading around and with trial and error I came out with this little collection of bug-photo hunting tips.

No flash
Personally, I am seriously alergic to flash. I love the look of photos with natural light and it is also less disturbing for your subject. Also, if you value portability taking macros wiht a flash would mean to get a flash arm, so, in this sense for me is also impractical. This of course is more challenging and means that many photos are not as good as they could have been with flash, and limits the photos you can get with poor light conditions. I actually don't take many photos in the winter, as there are not so many bugs around so it's not too bad.
Get close and personal

I like to see my subject eyes, so, I often go level with my beasts, with is often ground level. Some species do have bright patterns when photographed from above (butteflies, hoverflies), but all come into their own when photographed eye to eye

A Common Rough Woodlouse, Porcellio scaber

Know your subject
Finally, you do need to get very close, so you need to get some idea of how different invertebrates react to you. Some do not seem to react at all, making exemplar models (for example, garden spiders). Many do only react (negatively) to being exposed to the light and run away as fast as they can when you uncover them (centipedes, woodlice); others do show some avoidance behaviour when approached or normally move quite fast (butterflies, dragonflies). In any case, slowly approaching your subject won't do any harm. Only in very rare instances will the subject actually come to you to get his/her photo taken.

Zebra Spider, Salticus scenicus, looking at the camera

Hold your hand steady
If you can, rest your hand on anythin solid that happens to be close to your subject - ground, trunk, wall, rock - this will reduce camera shake and will result in crisper images in poor light conditions, when shutter speed is slow. The point is to keep your hand steady when pressing the shutter. Some people become aware of their own heartbeat and claim to shoot between heartbeats. I am just happy to hold my breath when shooting.

Azure damselfly

Shoot, shoot and shoot

When you are in a position to shoot, do not think twice and keep taking photographs if your subject allows. I start by taking some distant shots in normal mode. Then I get closer little by little. A poor quality distant shot is often enough for identification purposes. There will be time to delete, edit and label over the long, dark winter!

Garden ants on Peony bud

Choose your background
Blackground often makes the difference between a great and an OK photo. You don't have to move your subject. Most of the time changing the angle at which you take the photo will do. On the photo on top, taking a photo from the side of the bud would have shown a house in the background. A top to bottom shot just adds a green background and makes the wine-red of the Peony petals stand up.

Ectemnius hunting hoverflies

Show behaviour
Macro becomes very interesting when it shows the animal doing something. The photo above shows some behaviour but is also an example of a poor background, my son's blue plastic car. Doh!
Powershot G10
My recent upgrade has been to a Powershot G10. I thought about it a long time (I had started considering the G9, but the G9 came along. Its macro lenses do not allow for Supermacro and you have to change the zoom if you get closer to your subject, but the 15 megapixels leave room for quite a lot of cropping. I did some comparisons and I was satisfied I was actually getting better photos with the G10. It is even smaller and lighter than the G9, with a larger, brighter LCD screen, so now I actually carry it with me at all times.