Spider webs are beautiful, delicate yet strong, and are often covered in beautiful, pearly dew on a fresh morning. This makes them an irresistable, yet challenging subjects to shoot. Below are some tips for sucess.

  • While spider webs are very strong for their size, they are very light and should be shot on a still morning to avoid motion blur. Movement of the web can also reult in it breaking, and the fresh morning dew can be shaken off.
  • Be enviroment friendly, remember, the web was made by a creature, and this creature still needs the web, so dont break or pollute it.
  • Choose a wide aperture, to ensure the web stands out nicely, and that the background is blurred.
  • Choose a plain, and preferably dark background, because this will make your subject stand out more.
  • Shooting from various angles, especially the side, generates very interesting shots, and varying the aperture gives a different depth of field to each image…
  • …But, even though it seems common, photographing from the front gives the whole web well in focus.
  • Contrasting background, and intricately detailed web makes camera shake noticeable, so use a tripod, or image stabilization, or, a faster shutter speed.
  • Dew!! This is one that we cant neglect, it is a common practice for photographing spider webs, it highlights the web, and makes it wider. The best time is the morning.
  • Use a macro lens. This means that you can focus close, filling your frame. If you dont have a macro lens, use a zoom lens, and shallow depth of field to give the illusion of being close.
  • Experiment with lighting- Try to use natural light, but experiment with highlights and shadows, and try flash. Flash is the most common, and also worst type of lighting, but it is sometimes useful for spiders webs because it can give interesting effects.

You can view more how to photograph posts here.