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Ever seen a Spider's face up close? (pic)

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Phillips40

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These are from my first session with the MP-E macro lens...these range from 2:1 to 4:1 magnification. This little guy was no more than 1/4" in total body length...you can imagine what kind of magnification this is. Also used was the MT-24EX flash (you can tell by the dual key lights in the eyes of the first photo). Camera: D60.

Entomologists out there, you are welcome to answer one question: how many eyes does this guy REALLY have?

Many thanks to Eric Sterns, Rob Martin, and many others who provided valuable information on the MP-E lens before I bought one.
--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro





 
Phillips40 said:
These are from my first session with the MP-E macro lens...these
range from 2:1 to 4:1 magnification. This little guy was no more
than 1/4" in total body length...you can imagine what kind of
magnification this is. Also used was the MT-24EX flash (you can
tell by the dual key lights in the eyes of the first photo).
Camera: D60.
Entomologists out there, you are welcome to answer one question:
how many eyes does this guy REALLY have?
Many thanks to Eric Sterns, Rob Martin, and many others who
provided valuable information on the MP-E lens before I bought one.
--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro





Click to expand...
--
Burt
 
See sig ;)

That's really nice. I wish we had those here in Ohio, but I'm pretty sure we don't. Where do you live? You probably said, but I forget.

Spiders have eight eyes. Jumping spiders like this one always have two enlarged eyes in the first row which they use for stereoscopic vision, just like us. Jumping spiders can actually look in a different direction from that which their head is pointed by shifting their retinas.

Nice shots!
Phillips40 said:
These are from my first session with the MP-E macro lens...these
range from 2:1 to 4:1 magnification. This little guy was no more
than 1/4" in total body length...you can imagine what kind of
magnification this is. Also used was the MT-24EX flash (you can
tell by the dual key lights in the eyes of the first photo).
Camera: D60.
Entomologists out there, you are welcome to answer one question:
how many eyes does this guy REALLY have?
Many thanks to Eric Sterns, Rob Martin, and many others who
provided valuable information on the MP-E lens before I bought one.
--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro





Click to expand...
--
'The ability to turn molehills into mountains is no small task.'

 
No. The farthest out it will focus is 1:1. All you could ever shoot with it is macro. Focus is actually fixed; you set the magnification you want and then move the camera and lens to achieve focus. Kind of cumbersome, but it yields results that no other combo can easliy.
Frostfrog said:
I have never heard of this lens before. It is now on my "must get"
list. Can it focus on infinity?
Click to expand...
--
'The ability to turn molehills into mountains is no small task.'

 
A technique I use to minimize the effect of the double catchlights is to put one of the flash heads almost vertical to the subject, and the other one about 90-100 degrees from that. So you have one around the top of the setup and one off to the side. I set the ratio to 8:1 with the top flash being the brighter of the two. Then I click the dim flash head out two or three clicks away from the subject. That gives one bright head up top, pointed at the subject, and one dim head off to the side pointed past the subject. This gives bright overhead light, with some fill in the shadows, and greatly minimizes the double catchlight effect. If you need to do a vertical shot the whole thing turns all in one piece. It's really an amazing flash system. YMMV.
Phillips40 said:
These are from my first session with the MP-E macro lens...these
range from 2:1 to 4:1 magnification. This little guy was no more
than 1/4" in total body length...you can imagine what kind of
magnification this is. Also used was the MT-24EX flash (you can
tell by the dual key lights in the eyes of the first photo).
Camera: D60.
Entomologists out there, you are welcome to answer one question:
how many eyes does this guy REALLY have?
Many thanks to Eric Sterns, Rob Martin, and many others who
provided valuable information on the MP-E lens before I bought one.
--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro





Click to expand...
--
'The ability to turn molehills into mountains is no small task.'

 
According to my reference they only live as far north as North Carolina, so not much chance of finding any here. We have a lot of other jumping spiders though, but none as colorful as that one.
Phillips40 said:
Eric Sterns said:
That's really nice. I wish we had those here in Ohio, but I'm
pretty sure we don't. Where do you live? You probably said, but I
forget.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
'The ability to turn molehills into mountains is no small task.'

 
That's a great idea, Eric. I'm going to end up stealing all of your secrets!

Are you an entomologist? Have you seen Alex Wild's work with ants? He also uses this lens/flash combo:
http://www.myrmecos.net/
--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro
Eric Sterns said:
A technique I use to minimize the effect of the double catchlights
is to put one of the flash heads almost vertical to the subject,
and the other one about 90-100 degrees from that. So you have one
around the top of the setup and one off to the side. I set the
ratio to 8:1 with the top flash being the brighter of the two.
Then I click the dim flash head out two or three clicks away from
the subject. That gives one bright head up top, pointed at the
subject, and one dim head off to the side pointed past the subject.
This gives bright overhead light, with some fill in the shadows,
and greatly minimizes the double catchlight effect. If you need to
do a vertical shot the whole thing turns all in one piece. It's
really an amazing flash system. YMMV.
Click to expand...
 
That's the one thing I forgot to mention...this guy kept jumping onto my lens, and then I'd have to stop and let him jump back into my studio!

--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro
Eric Sterns said:
According to my reference they only live as far north as North
Carolina, so not much chance of finding any here. We have a lot of
other jumping spiders though, but none as colorful as that one.
Click to expand...
 
I'm no entomologist, just an afficionado. Thanks for the link, I don't remember seeing that before.
Phillips40 said:
Eric Sterns said:
A technique I use to minimize the effect of the double catchlights
is to put one of the flash heads almost vertical to the subject,
and the other one about 90-100 degrees from that. So you have one
around the top of the setup and one off to the side. I set the
ratio to 8:1 with the top flash being the brighter of the two.
Then I click the dim flash head out two or three clicks away from
the subject. That gives one bright head up top, pointed at the
subject, and one dim head off to the side pointed past the subject.
This gives bright overhead light, with some fill in the shadows,
and greatly minimizes the double catchlight effect. If you need to
do a vertical shot the whole thing turns all in one piece. It's
really an amazing flash system. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
'The ability to turn molehills into mountains is no small task.'

 
Phillips40 said:
These are from my first session with the MP-E macro lens...these
range from 2:1 to 4:1 magnification. This little guy was no more
than 1/4" in total body length...you can imagine what kind of
magnification this is. Also used was the MT-24EX flash (you can
tell by the dual key lights in the eyes of the first photo).
Camera: D60.
Entomologists out there, you are welcome to answer one question:
how many eyes does this guy REALLY have?
Many thanks to Eric Sterns, Rob Martin, and many others who
provided valuable information on the MP-E lens before I bought one.
--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro





Click to expand...
--
BobM
 
...what a truly AMAZING shot of yours!!! Thank you so much for sharing! Jumping spiders are truly wonderful creatures, and very "expressive" too, given the way they are able to turn their heads and the 2 largeish eyes in front. And yes, I agree with you - they like jumping onto the camera lens every opportunity they get :)))

There is NO way I can get this using my CP4500 macro mode, but I just thought I'd share with you one of my lucky captures, in which my reflection appeared in the spider's eyes:



Thank you, again, for presenting these wonderful pics!
Phillips40 said:
These are from my first session with the MP-E macro lens...these
range from 2:1 to 4:1 magnification. This little guy was no more
than 1/4" in total body length...you can imagine what kind of
magnification this is. Also used was the MT-24EX flash (you can
tell by the dual key lights in the eyes of the first photo).
Camera: D60.
Entomologists out there, you are welcome to answer one question:
how many eyes does this guy REALLY have?
Many thanks to Eric Sterns, Rob Martin, and many others who
provided valuable information on the MP-E lens before I bought one.
--
Frank Phillips
http://www.frankphillips.com/macro





Click to expand...
--
Rgds,
David

Coolpix 4500
~ Out-of-the camera series: http://www.pbase.com/dlcmh/outofthecamera
~ Fantastic Majeske's 4500 gallery: http://www.pbase.com/ryenke/coolpix_4500

~ THE post that convinced me to buy 4500: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=3087176
 
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