Macro beginner

[tbond]

this is a horizontal Orb Web Spider, monitoring its web, waiting for a captive.
I don't have a macro lens so am using a 17-270mm lens with close up filters.
this was taken using a +4 filter.
Comments and feedback please.

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/members/tbond/albums/insects/13985-h-orb-web-2-small.jpg

[Iguanasan]

Lovely colour and pretty nice detail with a nice colourful background. Artistically, I can totally dig seeing only part of the spider and while it kinda works, I would have preferred to see the whole spider. The whole image, though is a little soft. Was it larger than 275KB before you uploaded it? The board software can compress it and make it rather soft.

[tbond]

No, wasn't larger than 275kb. I think I am just struggling to get a precise focus with handheld macro shots. Have taken a few more today using tripod, will post one shortly for comparison.

[tbond]

This is another attempt, this time using a tripod and prefocusing using zoom view. The background is not as interesting as the first effort but the aim is to see if I can get a shot that is not as soft in focus as the last one. I think it may be an improvement focus wise, however using the close up filters on the 17-270 lens means the available depth of field is minute. That may be causing some of the problems.

Here is attempt 2....

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/members/tbond/albums/insects/14006-h-orb-web-6-small.jpg

[Iguanasan]

The depth of field in the macro world is, as you say, minute which is why people resort to focus stacking. So, the trick is, if you are not going to focus stack, making sure that the important parts are in focus. This second shot has the whole spider in the shot (a little too close on the bottom leg) and the focus is nicely done on his/her eyes. I like the second one a lot more.