Creepy Crawly

[Duncaji]

5D with 100mm macro and 580 ex flash. Hand held. May have put this in before, but I've made some tweaks with PS that I think impove it.

[dpastern]

I like the colours, but I'd rotate it 90º clockwise myself. I took a shot very similar to this the other day, but with a crab spider instead. Really need to see more of the Spider's face/eyes though.

Dave

[LordV]

Good shot but as Dave says you really need to try to get some of the spiders face/eyes in focus.
Brian V.

[Duncaji]

Good shot but as Dave says you really need to try to get some of the spiders face/eyes in focus.
Brian V.

I do agree, and will aim to get this in for future trips out.

I still like this image and I've a print of it at A3, where the sections that are in focus lift it enought to make it an effective image. I'm very new to Macro and will hopefully come up with more details shots as this one was taken at F3.5 with fast shutter speed in order that I could hand hold, however I've since learned that I can hand hold and still have everything sharp as far down as F16 with a Shutter speed of 1/125th.

[LordV]

I do agree, and will aim to get this in for future trips out.

I still like this image and I've a print of it at A3, where the sections that are in focus lift it enought to make it an effective image. I'm very new to Macro and will hopefully come up with more details shots as this one was taken at F3.5 with fast shutter speed in order that I could hand hold, however I've since learned that I can hand hold and still have everything sharp as far down as F16 with a Shutter speed of 1/125th.

Agree- still an excellent image.
As far as settings are concerned you are right- many of us regularly use diffused flash to allow fast shutter speeds and reasonable apertures. You will find going smaller than about F11 at 1:1 does give you better DOF but loses some sharpness due to diffraction softening.
Brian V.

[Duncaji]

Would having a dedicated macro flash unit make much difference, I've seen the post here with everyone showing their macro rig, and a lot of people just use their flash guns?

[LordV]

Most of us just use a normal flashgun on a suitable flash bracket. Tends to give better results on bugs and flowers than a dedicated macro flash rig.
Brian V.