Photography lighting.

[skinheaddave]

For those of you who take pictures of your spiders, what do you use for lighting? I have had good results with sunlight, but is there something better for bringing out the blues of my H.lividum or my C.cyaneopubescens?

Cheers,
Dave

 

[MrDeranged]

The few times that I've been able to take pictures in sunlight, they've come out pretty good. Most of the time, I just keep snapping picture after picture with my digital camera no matter what the lighting. If you take 20 or 30 of the same picture, at least one or two of them are generally pretty good

Scott

 

[wayne]

What works for me is flourescent light.
I mounted one above the area where i keep
my spiders, kill all the other light, and experiment
with the flash settings a bit. Sometimes
i'll have to cover a portion of the flash with my
finger. In the pic enclosed i used full flash and
it makes the pic a tad too bright. But anyway the
flourescent seems to work best for me.
C-ya

 

[skinheaddave]

Nice pics everyone. I took a bunch today as we were feeding our entire collection. Unfortuantely, I haven't been home during daylight hours for a while so I used a wide-spectrum flourescent setup I borrowed from my aquatic plant setup. I'll get the roll developed tommorow and let people know how they turned out. Any good pics I may post here, though they are ultimately destined for my web-page (under construction).

Mrderanged: what digital cam do you have? I was shopping around recently and couldn't find any that would do a really good job of macro photoraphy. Most will do an okay job for Ts and myriopods, but I have some very small scorpions that require a much greater magnification.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[MrDeranged]

Hey Dave,

My Digital camera is pretty old. It's a Sony DSC-P30. As a few of my pictures attest, it has a fairly decent macro function. Some of the pictures I take are with additional close up lenses that I purchased. One is +10 and one is +7 and they can be combined for +17. If you're looking for a really good macro digi cam, from what I've heard and read up on is you can't do better than either the Nikon coolpix 995 or coolpix 5000. These have a macro function that you can still focus within 3/4 of an inch of the subject being photographed. I'm actually thinking about buying the 5000 myself, but the price is a bit out of my range right now.

Scott

 

[skinheaddave]

Scott,

Thanks. I'll look into it.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Immortal_sin]

my link is not working on my sig...but I have had good luck with a flash, and incandescent lighting. If you can get to my pics, you can see the H lividum that I took. Actually, now that I think of it, I think Scott is using it in the gallery section of this site.
I wish I had a better macro too...it's just not that good. I'm using at Canon Digital Elph, which is great for 2-3' away, but not great for close up work.

 

[krucz36]

i've found that many flourescent lights can give you a green cast to your pics. its hard to notice sometime with t's. just experiment. if you can get a nice bright incandescent light and turn it around, facing a wall or something, so it reflects the light back on your lovely model. then use the flash on the cam with a tripod. personally, i think a tripod's more important than a great lighting setup...you can adjust settings to deal with lower light, but nothing can get those 14 cups of coffee out of your system.

 

[skinheaddave]

Fortunately I can have a very steady hand for short periods of time. I've taken some great low-light pics with films as slow as 400ASA. I tend not to use a flash at all, actualy.

It is unfortunate to hear that flourescents may cast a greenish hue. I am using Fuji film these days, which is already biased towards the green. Anyways, I am getting the film developed tonight so I'll let people know how it worked.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[skinheaddave]

Okay. The full-spectrum flourescent didn't do too badly. My costa rican zebras didn't really work too well, but most of my other specimens were pretty average.

Here is a pic of my mature female B.vagans:

Cheers,
Dave

 

[skinheaddave]

I also got a nice pic of one of my H.trilineatus (don't tell Scott I'm posting pics in the wrong forum ... Scott, if you read this, ignore the fact that I'm posting pics on the wrong forum.) And yes, for those who are keeping track I have swapped pics.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[The_Phantom]

WoW =D That Indian Ornimental is TOOOO beautiful for words ! HEY ! ARE THERE ANY CANADIANS ON BOARD or RICH people who can travel ?? THere is a bug zoo in Victoria, British Columbia, (Canada for you simpletons) This is the web page, there are lots of ARTHROPODS and ARACHNIDS if you like other bugs like me. I love bugs ! They also sell bugs and the admission is great !

http://www.bugzoo.bc.ca/

 

[skinheaddave]

Well I'm in Canada, but B.C. is a bit out of my driving range and well out of my biking range.

Cheers,
Dave