Spider Web Photography Tips: Capturing Dew Drops On Spider Webs

Spiders webs are popular photographic subjects that are easy to find but not always easy to capture.

They are very noticeable in the morning as they'll be covered in dew, which can make for some lovely shots. You'll get dew as the season changes when nights get cooler, but don't drop so cold that frost forms. 

You need to be as close to the web as possible to capture the intricate drops and minute drops of dew, so if you have a macro lens use it. Make sure that your camera is fastened to a tripod as any camera movement will be very noticeable. To add highlights try using some flash but generally natural light is the best way to go.

As webs are very delicate if there's even the slightest breeze in the air they're likely to move which will leave you with blurry shots and dewless webs. Generally, early morning is the stillest part of the day and as this is when dew can be found it makes it the perfect time to go spider web hunting.

On your hunt, look for webs on or facing hedges, fences and other plain, dark backgrounds as this will help the web stand out. A large aperture will further throw the background out of focus and leave the web as the feature of the shot. If you're lucky, you'll find some great examples on your garden gate, which you can open and adjust so that the background is more agreeable, like a brick wall, for example, which can easily be defocused and create a plain background. You'll also find that manual focus is the way to create a sharp image as the smallest of focus changes can impact and potentially ruin your shot. 

Shooting head-on will mean the full web is in focus but zooming in and framing to cut a small part of the web out will really add emphasis to the patterns the dew and web create. The centre part of the web is the most interesting but you don't have to have it in the centre of your shot. If you have it slightly off-centre you'll create an image that's more interesting. If the spider's sat there too that's even better as your viewer will have a focal point. Lastly, don't forget that webs have two sides so look at both to see which the light catches best. Some lovely shots can be taken of the morning sun making the dew glisten - it's all about positioning and timing.