The mildly deranged penguin notes the rings in the background are a giveaway. That is, she asserts, a false-colour image of an arc of Saturn’s rings. So either the spider is over 100,000 km wide, or else someone needs to clean their lens.
marcolisays
I peeked at the Exif data of your picture, and I can see the make and model of the camera, the lens, and the various settings used to take this picture.
You shot at 85mm focal length with a 17-85mm lens. The shutter speed used was 1/32, and the aperture was f/8. Both of these contribute to a blurry picture. A rule of thumb for taking hand-held pictures is to use a shutter speed that is faster than the inverse of the focal length. So at 85mm you would want a shutter speed of at least 1/85. Realistically that would be 1/100. This removes most effects of camera shake.
The aperture is pretty wide (understandable if shooting in low light), but f/8 has a very shallow depth of focus. f/10 or f/11 will do better.
Use the flash to add more light at faster shutter speeds / smaller apertures.
The least expensive way to make this lens better at close up focus is to lock down its aperture at, say, f/11. Turn off the camera, then mount the lens in reverse with a reversing ring. Focus by moving the camera back and forth. Led lights can provide supplemental lighting. I have used a cheap bicycle light, strapped onto the lens with rubber bands.
starskeptic says
Google image search says it’s a ‘spider web’…
blf says
The mildly deranged penguin notes the rings in the background are a giveaway. That is, she asserts, a false-colour image of an arc of Saturn’s rings. So either the spider is over 100,000 km wide, or else someone needs to clean their lens.
marcoli says
I peeked at the Exif data of your picture, and I can see the make and model of the camera, the lens, and the various settings used to take this picture.
You shot at 85mm focal length with a 17-85mm lens. The shutter speed used was 1/32, and the aperture was f/8. Both of these contribute to a blurry picture. A rule of thumb for taking hand-held pictures is to use a shutter speed that is faster than the inverse of the focal length. So at 85mm you would want a shutter speed of at least 1/85. Realistically that would be 1/100. This removes most effects of camera shake.
The aperture is pretty wide (understandable if shooting in low light), but f/8 has a very shallow depth of focus. f/10 or f/11 will do better.
Use the flash to add more light at faster shutter speeds / smaller apertures.
The least expensive way to make this lens better at close up focus is to lock down its aperture at, say, f/11. Turn off the camera, then mount the lens in reverse with a reversing ring. Focus by moving the camera back and forth. Led lights can provide supplemental lighting. I have used a cheap bicycle light, strapped onto the lens with rubber bands.