An 11 shot stack of a relatively small marbled orb weaver. She was on the porch post, but disappeared for a bit only to reappear on the door. I moved her so she wouldn’t get caught in the hinge and she posed for a bit. I wish I’d gotten that front leg joint in focus, but she lost patience and skedaddled when my neighbor called me for a quick chat. I couldn’t find her again, but maybe she’ll come out of hiding sometime. She makes a pretty good living on the porch.
Specific Feedback Requested
Does that OOF joint ruin the whole thing?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Camera on beanbag, spider on a stick and the LCD panel added for some light.
Used focus bracketing - 11 images, 4 step between focus settings, 0/-/+ method starting on the an eye.
Lr processed for general exposure and other improvements, Zerene for a stack, ON1 No Noise for nr & sharpening, back to Lr for a crop and straighten as well as a few local adjustments to bring down exposure around the spider. Used a brush on the pedi palps to increase exposure.
Of course it would have been good to have the joint in focus, but it is a great image anyhow. The details are amazing. Eventually, the white parts in the BG could be darkened somewhat.
Kris, what a shot. Everything that needed to be in focus is, so I would very satisfied with this image. I like where he sat and posed for you. I am just not sure about the BG. @Ola_Jovall mentioned toning it down, and you might want to see how that looks. For me, I think the lighter BG actually is making the reds/browns of him show up better. Another thought would be, selectively changing the color hues in the BG that seem whiter, and make them more blue, which would really compliment the colors of the spider. Just some thoughts, but to me, this image needs no improvement!
Wonderful capture of the spider and a fantastic setting! The OOF joint isn’t a deal-breaker by any means as it’s such a strong image otherwise. But you might be able to pull a joint replacement on this! A little more challenging than an eye, but it might work. I love the tiny lichen! I think some crop from the top and right might serve to emphasize the spider even more.
Really nice look at this spider. I’ve never tried photo stacking but there is great detail and the setting is marvelous. Maybe a crop from the right to eliminate that little blue patch? It seems to draw my eye.
Thanks Ola - I wish she stayed put, but oh well. Better this than nothing.
I’ve done that with a mask in Photoshop. Will see if I can post another image or if we’re still having issues.
Thanks, Shirley. Yeah, the background is a bit much, I’ve lowered the exposure there.
I think the lower exposure had an effect similar to this, but I can always try to change the color more directly.
Thanks, Diane. She’s on a stick I collected to do more lichen stack images, and it was handy so that’s where she went.
Hm…I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s probably beyond my abilities. And I don’t have a shot where it’s in focus so … hm…
Thanks, Terry. Stacking is an involved process sometimes, but I like using it when I remember to do it. So glad my current camera has focus bracketing. My previous one didn’t.
Place ice pack on foot
Prop foot on Drobo
Use a quick mask to select the corresponding segment of the in-focus right leg below the knee
Ctrl-J to copy to new layer
Flip horizontal
Move over the OOF knee, lining up the joint
Edit – transform – rotate to match alignment
Mask out any edge areas as needed
Repeat for the area above the joint
I tried to edit-free transform or puppet warp with a larger segment but changing the bend in the knee was tedious so I did this separately for above and below the joint.
Omg that’s amazing. I could probably do the first step, you know, with the ice pack, but the rest - oh boy. I wouldn’t even know where to start on something like that. You are a wonder.
I will see if I can produce anything nearly as good by following your directions. Without the drobo or the ice!
