I noticed yesterday a spider had built a web in our front yard and caught a fly. I very seldom try to shoot macro - flowers OR insects - but I could not resist the temptation. I wasn't UNhappy about what I came up with and I'm not looking to become a prize-winning bug photographer (like, for example,
Thomas Shahan!). But I would like to know how to do this a little better, especially if it doesn't involve spending money. :-)
The attached shot was taken with a K10D and a Tamron 70-300 f/4-5.6 LD Di macro, set to macro mode. ISO 400, f/8, 1/350th sec. It was late afternoon and the sun was pretty good. I did not use flash. The whole small gallery can be found
here.
I was of course focusing manually. I was dealing with what I thought was a serious problem: there was a bit of a breeze and the spider's web was rocking back and forth an inch or two, so it kept going in and out of focus. I decided that using a tripod was out of the question for this reason.
I have several questions.
First, what exactly does it mean to put the Tamron 70-300 into macro mode? I know how to lock the lens to "macro" using the switch on the barrel. I just don't understand what this accomplishes, if anything. Is shooting at 300mm in macro mode different from just shooting in normal mode at the same focal length?
Second, is this the wrong lens for this kind of thing? I have a Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 macro lens. But using the Sigma lens requires that I get so close to the spider that I'd almost guarantee either (a) the spider would run away or (b) the web would sway into the camera, causing the spider to crawl on to my camera, bite me in the hand, and cause me to lose all future interest in spider photography. So I decided to use the longer lens, which allowed me to shoot from a distance of a couple feet.
Third, I have the feeling I'm probably doing everything wrong here. Any suggestions about alternate approaches? For example, should I use flash and stop the lens down even further, say to f/11 or f/16?
Fourth, what should I be going for here? I'm not even clear about that. I seem to have gotten some part of the spider's body - a leg or something like that - in nice sharp focus in some of my shots but depth of field was quite shallow. Should I be happy with that, or should I be trying to increase depth of field so that the whole spider is in focus?
Thanks in advance.
Will