Dew Process

It happens where science meets magic.

May 22, 2025 :: Close Ups

Dew forms when humid air contacts a cool surface. For a spider’s web, water collects in tiny droplets on its strands. Some of them coalesce into larger drops.

Eventually, the condensed water creates finely spaced orbs that look like transparent beads on delicate necklaces.

Even if you understand the science of dew, it still looks like magic.

Dew on orb web.

The formation of a dew-covered web depends on three ingredients: weather, water and the microscopic features of a spider's web.

Weather is where it starts. The air must be calm and nearly saturated with atmospheric water -- water in its gaseous state.

Water and its physical characteristics are next. Water can exist as a gas, a liquid or a solid depending on the surrounding air temperature. When the air is laden with moisture and it comes in contact with a surface that's colder than the air, water condenses on the surface and creates dew. It's the same principle that makes a glass of iced tea sweat on a summer day. And the property of water's surface tension enables the tiny droplets to form and the large drops to grow into perfect orbs on the web.

Lastly is the way a spider's web is constructed. Look beyond the mystery of why a spider knows how to spin an architectural wonder from a material it creates inside of its body. What looks like smooth slender strands are really microscopic threads with intermittent knots of silk called nanofibrils or "puffs." They are protein structures that add to a web strand's strength and elasticity.

The puffs are perfect places for the water to condense. It finds and binds itself to the knots. Surface tension does the work of holding the gathering water molecules in their spherical shape even as the droplets grow.

Without the puffs, the beads of water would run down to the lowest point on each strand. There they would coalesce into singular drops. Eventually, the drops would grow too heavy and would fall off of the web. The necklaces of droplets would never happen.

All of these explanations make sense to the scientist part of the brain. But the artist in there sees the beauty and the mystery that make it magical.

MAKING THE PHOTOGRAPH

SUBJECT: Dew On Orb Web, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

CONDITIONS: Early morning before sunrise. Calm, clear, cool, light fog. 60s F. Mid summer.

EQUIPMENT and SETTINGS: Nikon F5, micro-Nikkor 200mm f/4, Gitzo tripod, Kirk Enterprises ball head, cable release. Unrecorded choices, but likely Spot metering, Manual exposure, Manual focus.

EXPOSURE: Fujichrome Velvia 50 slide film. Settings unrecorded, but possibly 1/30 sec @ f/16, ISO 50.

On a quiet morning in Cades Cove, fog condenses on an orb web just before sunrise. This simple composition depends on a particular combination of elements before you can make a successful photograph of it.

You need all of these ingredients to come together before you click the shutter:

Calm conditions. And I mean dead-calm. Even the slightest whisper of air looks like a hurricane through a close up lens. Dewy conditions are usually best at or near sunrise.

A tripod and a cable release. Movement of the camera is as discouraging as air movement. Even if you choose a fast shutter speed, it's unlikely that you can maintain your best handheld composition or the right camera angle without the rock-solid support of a tripod. A cable release keeps your finger off of the shutter button. The self-timer can be tempting instead, but the web may move during the shutter delay.

If you're determined to hand hold the camera, be ready to choose the vibration reduction feature, a very fast ISO and a small aperture like f/22 or f/32. You'll need the small f-stop since you probably can't hold the camera parallel to the web. Be prepared to crop the image to the most pleasing corners and edges. And then there's the noise that's likely to show up from the fast ISO.

A long lens lets you stay back from the web. A long macro lens like a 180mm or 200mm gives you working distance from the web while it reduces the background coverage around and behind it.

Choose an aperture that gives you sharpness on the web and blurs the background. You can adjust it between exposures or you can use the depth-of-field preview function, if you have it.

Get the sensor plane or film plane parallel to the plane of the web. First, set up your tripod so the camera is centered on the portion of the web you like. Then tilt it up or down. Pan it side to side. Do this until you have sharpness everywhere you want it. Subtle adjustments can make obvious differences in what's sharply focused and what's not.

Move carefully so you don't bump the web or the plants it's attached to. You'd be surprised how far away and at what angle the anchoring guyline-like strands stretch. If you tear one loose, the web will collapse.

Be still and hold your breath before you click the shutter. Really -- you'd be surprised what a little air movement does to a calm situation.

Be patient. There is no substitute for patience. Wait and watch for the best moment to make an exposure. After all the time you've spent carefully composing a pleasing photograph, there's no need to be impatient about what you can't control. Now your mantra is "be patient."

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