Macro photograph of a jumping spider in black and white

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The story:
The little critter in the photo above is a boreal jumping spider (Phidippus borealis). They are the largest species of jumping spider I have seen in BC and the prettiest too. They are jet black except for the back of their abdomen which is a colourful rusty red.

I spotted this little guy (gal?) on the railing of my deck. I was right in the middle of barbecuing dinner for some guests, but went and grabbed my camera anyhow. Jumping spiders have good vision, and long before I was close enough to take a photo he/she was watching me and promptly dashed for cover under my pruning shears, which happened to be lying nearby. He/she then proceeded to peer out at me—watching my every move. They really are cute critters! I proceeded to snap off a couple of photos using the on-camera flash. But most of the spider was hidden in the shadows so I decided to go get my ring flash so that I could better illuminate under the shears. It only took me a minute inside the house to get the ring flash, but by the tie I came back the spider was gone. I kind of got the feeling that he/she was watching and waiting for me to leave and took off the moment I did!

Anyhow, the best photo I got of this little beast is below. There are three problems with the picture: firstly I wasn’t able to get as close as I would have liked. Secondly, I had to shoot from an awkward angle and the image is skewed clockwise. And thirdly, the bright red plastic piece of the pruning shears tends to distract attention away from the actual subject—the spider.

Using Photoshop elements 8.0 I resolved the first two issues by rotating the picture 10 degrees counter-clockwise and then giving it a tighter crop. The result (below) is much better.

But the red plastic was still distracting. So it occurred to me that the plastic was the only bright colour in the photo, and therefore the picture would work really well in black and white. Converting the image to black and white just took a click using Photoshop Elements 8.0 (under the Enhance tap). I chose the “Newspaper” style which resulted in the red plastic looking similar in tone to the rest of the pruning shears, and with good contrast between the spider and the foreground.

But the red plastic was still distracting. So it occurred to me that the plastic was the only bright colour in the photo, and therefore the picture would work really well in black and white. Converting the image to black and white just took a click using Photoshop Elements 8.0 (under the Enhance tap). I chose the “Newspaper” style which resulted in the red plastic looking similar in tone to the rest of the pruning shears, and with good contrast between the spider and the foreground. The final photo is at the top of the page. It’s a little different from my usual work. I like it.

Cheers,
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F14 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: on-camera flash

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