EOS 90D & EF-S 18-135mm: Advice for shooting spiders!

[Ramsden]

Morning folks

Just captured this little beast indoors and thought it worthy of a shot or two.

Eos 90D with 18-135 USM attached. Camera set on M with fast multi shots to capture release. Back button focus set up - but unsure of aperture and shutter speed.

Any advice welcome

Ramsden 

 

[stevet1]

Ramsden,

You could try P Mode and let the camera decide. If you want to make sure you freeze his movement, you could try Shutter Priority with a shutter speed of 800 or 1000 and Auto ISO and let the camera set the aperture.

Steve Thomas

[Ramsden]

Thanks Steve. 

I hardly use the P mode so I'll give it a try. The spider is now free because it was suffering - but I'm always on the look out for insects in my garden so I'm on the case. Equally, I hardly ever use shutter priority, so another thing to try out.

Cheers

Ramsden

[p4pictures]

Hi Ramsden. In your post you said you used manual but don't know what settings to use, so it makes sense to work in a slightly more automated way. To simplify the approach you can use shutter priority with auto ISO when you want to control the movement of the subject, or use aperture priority with auto ISO to control the depth of field. Initially it helps to simplify getting the initial picture to choose one of these two approaches. In the case of a close up shot, depth of field is often a key requirement so aperture priority with f/11 would be a good starting point, and then vary the aperture to f/5.6, f/8, f/16 even f/22 to see how the images change and how much of the subject is in focus. If you find that aperture priority results in enough depth of field, but the spider is moving too fast for the camera selected shutter speed then it makes more sense to choose manual where you control both shutter speed and aperture. However you can look at the previous shots and see what settings gave you enough depth of field to help you determine a suitable aperture value. Also look at the shutter speed that resulted in the spider become blurred as it moved, and then set a shutter speed faster than that. 

Also the EF-S 18-135mm lens only focuses as close as 40cm, any subject closer will be out of focus. The 40cm is measured from the sensor position, not the front of the lens. Your camera has an icon on the top to the right of the flash hotshoe, it looks like a circle with a line through it. This is the point from which the 40cm is measured. 

[Ramsden]

Hi Brian 

Thanks as ever for your detailed response. The spider was loosing the will to live so I let it go - but the points you make are really useful. I was going down the shutter speed route, thinking it would run and wanted to catch the speed. Your depth of field was a more interesting point and I hadn’t really dwelt on that. It’s still a massive learning curve with a camera that has a lot to offer. What I struggle most with, is the quick decisions, and knowing how to apply the speed, aperture etc etc at a moments notice. It’s still not an intuitive process - but I try to keep away from the big A button as much as possible.

I love the new lens which you recommended. The first one went back because it had about 2mm play in the focal part of the lens. So I went to Wex, and got one as new, and it’s superb. As you said, there’s a lot of photography in that lens.

Regards

Ramsden

[p4pictures · Accepted solution]

Thank you. The key is practice with the camera on subjects that are similar but less challenging. A plastic spider of a similar size is a much easier way to build your skills to know how much depth of field you might need (aperture value) and also how close you can get. Plastic spiders are also a little more patient with photographers 🙂 

[Ramsden]

I’ll give it - or them a trial. Makes complete sense.