Home Forums Gear Photography Shooting Dew Covered Spider Webs

During the late summer and early fall the big spiders are most active on building their webs on fence lines and in meadows. The insects are most abundant at this time so it only makes sense the predators are as well. This offers a great opportunity to capture dew covered spider webs in the early mornings.

In order to have dew covered spider webs you of course need dew. I start to look for the nighttime temps to hit the dew point. Every evening you will see the dew point for that night posted. If the temperature reaches the dew point, you get dew. I also try to pay attention to the forecast of wind. Wind means movement and the webs will dry quicker as well. I live near the Great Smoky Mountains and Cades Cove which is a great spot to shoot them.

A few considerations when shooting dew covered webs. If the dew point is 70 degrees and your body temp is near 100 degrees, these two temps meeting each other have the same effect as when a cold front meets a warm front. I recommend a long lens capable of shooting macro. My favorite is the Tamron SP 180mm Di Macro lens. Another great option is the new Tamron 16-300mm Di-II VC PZD Macro lens. A longer lens keeps your body as far away from the web as possible. Adding a cable release can get your body a little farther away as well. I use a tripod that will get low or into very odd positions since often the fence lines are on hills. You want to get parallel to the web to maximize focus and minimize depth of field. This will keep the background blurry and make it so it is not a distraction.

I tend to use a mirrorless camera via an adapter or a DLSR with Live View to focus. This allows you to zoom in and check the focus on the individual drops. After focusing, if you are using a DSLR, mirror lockup can help with vibration since often you will be shooting in very low light. If I have a slight breeze that I am dealing with I will kick up the ISO a little to help move the shutter speed up a little. I tend to shoot around f8 or f5.6 using Aperture Priority.

Now is a great time to get out and shoot the webs so if you don�t have a good macro lens I am sure Joel at Camera Land would be happy to help get you into one at a good price. I prefer the longer Tamron SP 180mm f3.5 Di Macro lens but if you are using an APS-C sensor you could get by with the Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 Di VC USD Macro lens.

The following photos were made using the Tamron SP 180mm f3.5 Di Macro lens on a Sony a7R via an adapter.