A Spider and a Fly

[Nostromo]

This is the first time i've used the flash with close up shots, i usually rely on a good sunny day. I had to modify the flash with a piece of cardboard to reflect the light down onto my subjects (i think it worked quite well and it didn't cost anything, which is always good in my book).


untitled-679 by Dominic Rodgers, on Flickr

untitled-676 by Dominic Rodgers, on Flickr

untitled-662 by Dominic Rodgers, on Flickr

 

[Phrasemaker]

Nice shots, I always struggle with spiders, mostly because I never feel happy about the composition and subsequently don't do what I ought and persevere with getting some decent shots. I quite like the jumping spiders, but the damn things see me coming from fifty feet, so aside from coating the surface they're on with super glue and chasing them onto that area I'll just have to keep after them. Nice shot of the fly, maybe try adding a piece of white card to the underside of your lens just to bounce some fill into the underparts.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Well done. I think the spider worked out well, particularly the first shot.

I agree with Tim about the darkness of the underside of the fly. You might want to experiment, trying what Tim suggests and perhaps also experimenting with diffusion. If you haven't already you might want to look through the Show us your macro rig thread to see various approaches to flash illumination, often home-made and often inexpensive or pretty much free.

For the fly you might find that you could reveal some more in the dark areas by raising the shadows, but better illumination would be better I think.