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Post by peatmoss on May 19, 2016 20:14:54 GMT -5
Hey Everyone, I figured I'd stop bumping the thread in the materials section with my dubiously related wild springtail pictures. I just finished constructing an improved macro setup, so the springtail (and other tiny critter) images will be coming in great volume over the summer. Here are a few Collembola from the last few days: Tomocerus minor - Elongate Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Leptocyrtrus paradoxus - Slender Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Smithurinus henshawi - Globular Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Willowsia buski - Damp Grain Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Orchesella sp. - Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Entomobrya multifasciata - Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Isotoma sp. - Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr And a few other interesting invertebrates: A lovely introduced weevil from Europe: Polydrusus impressifrons - Pale Green Weevil by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr A nice big velvet mite: Trombidiidae - Velvet Mite by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr An interesting little Scarab beetle that I found trundling across a path: Scarabaeidae (possibly Ataenius) sp. - Beetle by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr A pauropod, a class of Myriapod related to centipedes and millipedes: Pauropoda sp. - Pauropod by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr A nice looking leaf beetle: Chrysadellidae sp. - Leaf Beetle by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr I'll have more images whenever I get out next, which will probably be soon! It's proving to be a lovely year for photography so far! Cheers, Gabriel
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Post by amanitovirosa on May 19, 2016 21:26:54 GMT -5
...wow, I'm not a 'bug guy' but those are some really great pics man!
AV.
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Post by Apoplast on May 20, 2016 13:44:07 GMT -5
Hi Peat - Wow, very nice shots! Your identification is awfully specific. Do you work with arthropods in more than a passing fashion?
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Post by peatmoss on May 20, 2016 16:02:42 GMT -5
Thanks guys!
Apoplast - relatively speaking, I'm studying zoology, and arthropods are a definite point of focus for me. The springtails were all IDd by Frans Janssens, as I can't even get close to the species level for most. Same with the Ataenius, which was a tentative ID from a member on bugguide.net. I am able to get most things down to family myself, though, so all the other IDs are mine. Unfortunately for most small invertebrates there's nothing approaching a convenient dichotomous key (there's barely even one down to the family level sometimes!) so to get it down to genus or species an expert is required.
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Post by WillyCKH on May 20, 2016 20:07:01 GMT -5
wow, amazing photos! Do you mind sharing your macro setup with us?
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Post by Apoplast on May 20, 2016 21:21:55 GMT -5
Hi Peat - I suspected you had more than a passing interest in entomology. I'm surprised you have gotten as far as you can with your IDing species. I know how hard it can be. You are making good use of BugGuide! Very nicely done! Keep the great shots coming1
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Post by peatmoss on May 20, 2016 21:28:32 GMT -5
Absolutely! My macro rig is by no means professional, but it is the combined results of the past six months of investigation and learning into the mechanics of macrophotography. Here are two key things to know about optics and lighting before I describe my rig: - Magnification of a reversed lens is inversely proportional to the focal length, meaning that the highest magnification reversed lens will be the one with the lowest focal length (so 10mm reversed lens has higher magnification than a 100mm lens when reversed). - There is a an absolutely bizarre relationship between the size of your diffusing surface and distance/size of subject. I'm not yet certain how it works, but it essentially means that if you're up close to a tiny springtail, you can get away with a diffuser the diameter of a pringles can, but if you've moved back, you need a bigger diffuser to get equally smooth lighting. With that, here's my macro rig, nicknamed "The Springtail Stunner": 1. Nikon D7100, a very lovely camera which yields 6000x4000 pixel images, giving lots of fine resolution. Obviously, any DSLR will do in its place. 2. Nikon SB700 Flash, this is the heart and soul of the imaging rig. Good macrophotography simply is not achievable without good lighting, and this thing can shine brighter than Trump's bald spot before he applies the combover. 3. Nikon 18-105mm Lens, mounted in reverse using copious amounts of duct tape. The thing on the front is a threaded mount for extension tubes. I use it because normally nikon lenses lock down their aperture when they're not attached to the camera, but this attachment opens the aperture and allows me to adjust it finely without electronic controls. 4. Modified Pringles Tube, this was a trick I learned from fellow CP grower Kulamauiman. There's some white fabric on the end to diffuse the light coming from the flash, and the reflective inside of the pringles tube really helps funnel the light down to the subject. Attached to the top are some cheap LED christmas lights I modified into a spotlight, since it's very difficult to see the subjects without sunlight, and some extra light is really helpful when I'm in the woods. Max resolution for this setup is 1000 pixels/mm, allowing me to photograph very small subjects. I've actually pushed this lens to 3000 pixels/mm using extension tubes, but that isn't really useful for anything. When I zoom in, the magnification decreases, allowing me to photograph larger subjects, this is what I really like about this rig. It can't do anything bigger than probably 40mm, but it's good enough for the vast majority of arthropods. When I do this, I switch out to a larger diffuser to continue getting smooth lighting with no sharp highlights. The image quality is completely sufficient unless you start pixel peeping (which I do!) - when you look more closely you'll find that sharpness is not ideal at any magnification, but it looks fine in the overall image. This is completely reasonable, as this isn't really a good quality lens in the first place (it was the kit lens that came with my last camera when I bought it), so the sharpness issues probably exist when it's mounted the right way round too! There's also some chromatic aberration and distortion towards the edges of the frames when zoomed out fully. This is also ok, but it can be displeasing in certain situations. I also run into some bloom in the middle of the frame when photographing straight down at light coloured surfaces, which can be irritating, but is pretty easily removed in post processing. Overall it's a pretty nifty little setup - and as you can see from the results it does some pretty great work! Just for fun, here's the highest resolution I've ever gone to with this rig, 3000 pixels/mm - this is a cropped section of an image of a morning cloak butterfly wing (from a mounted specimen) with a field size of 0.9x0.6mm. Cheers, Gabriel
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Post by WillyCKH on May 20, 2016 21:38:25 GMT -5
Thanks!! What an inspiration! Next time we are trading remind me, I can make you a brighter LED spotlight if you like
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Post by dvg on May 21, 2016 16:12:53 GMT -5
Love those macro shots! Looking forward to seeing a full summer's worth of creepy-crawly close-ups of Collembola and his cousins. dvg
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Post by Apoplast on May 21, 2016 19:49:27 GMT -5
Hi Peat - Very nice set up! You clearly have a great handle on the mechanics behind optics. That's even more impressive than buying a setup! I don't know if you know this Flicker stream, from Andreas Kay in Ecuador: www.flickr.com/photos/andreaskay/His photos are amazing! You mike also like geeking out to the really cool animals and plants he finds (I know I do!). I went hiking with him a little over a year ago in the Andes, and what makes his photos even more impressive is that all he uses is a little point-and-shoot with a TP roll and an extra lens taped to the end to get the gorgeous macros you see. He doesn't advertise that, but I found detail to make his photography even more awe-inspiring in my mind.
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Post by peatmoss on Jun 9, 2016 23:26:40 GMT -5
Thanks Guys! Apoplast - I hadn't heard of Andreas before, he has some great stuff, and impressive considering the equipment! I've been busy photographing almost daily lately, I made a slight switch in my setup to a reversed 35-105mm lens from the late 1980s. Reversed it acts as a 105mm prime with good macro capabilities, and it has actual functional aperture and focusing capabilities, so it's a bit better for more casual work than the reversed 18-105, which I still prefer for tiny subjects. It does allow me the opportunity (in combination with a big diffuser) to take some very lovely pictures of larger invertebrates like Diptera and Hymenoptera, so that's an advantage. I'm embedding smaller images, because I don't want to cause too much lag for those who open this thread; clicking on the image should open it on flicker, where one can view the full sized version. There's also a bunch of stuff I don't post on my flickr, like lots of herp photography. First, more springtails: Collembola - Globular Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Orchesella sp. (?) - Slender Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Poduromorpha - Primitive Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Tomocerus minor - Elongate Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Willowsia buski - Damp Grain Springtail by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr And some other stuff: Very pretty micromoth in the Tortrix family: Ancylis muricana - Red-headed Ancylis by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Really cool tachnid fly: Cylindromyia sp. - Tachnid Fly by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Despite the fact that they bite, Deerflies have some of the most beautiful eyes of any insect as far as I'm concerned: Tabanidae - Horse Fly by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr A robber fly that I interrupted in the middle of lunch: Asilidae - Robber Fly by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr A beautiful Orchard Web Weaver, I didn't even realize Ontario had any weaving spiders that were this colourful! Leucauge venusta - Orchard Web Weaver by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr The highlight of my week was finding my first Cuckoo Wasp, a family of Hymenopterans I had only previously enjoyed in images and in pinned specimens. I think they're one of the most beautiful insects we have in North America: Chrysididae - Cuckoo Wasp by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Unfortunately they're also very small, so they're hard to enjoy, unless you have a macro rig! Chrysididae - Cuckoo Wasp by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Can't resist including a few Herp pics that were shot with the same rig: Nice S. occipitomaculata that was found under an old headboard next to a parking lot - these are one of my favourite snake species I find locally: Storeria o. occipitomaculata - Redbelly Snake by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr This little guy has probably been heard by most of us in the northern latitudes of Eastern NA - the ubiquitous spring peeper: Pseudacris crucifer - Spring Peeper by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr A friend of mine maintains a large breeding colony of Uroplatus phantasticus, and I take pictures for him sometimes (here's his instagram for those interested: www.instagram.com/reptiliatus/). They're absolutely beautiful animals, and it's always a pleasure to get to try out my macro equipment on more docile subjects: Uroplatus phantasticus - Satanic Leaf Tailed Gecko by Gabriel Levac, on Flickr Sorry for the long post, again! Turns out macrophotography is just about as addictive as growing CPs!
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Post by WillyCKH on Jun 10, 2016 0:36:16 GMT -5
I like the micromoth, nice and cute eyes!
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Post by vraev on Jun 10, 2016 9:56:08 GMT -5
Insane pics man. I can't believe you took them with the kit lens. wow. Spectacular. What other lenses do u use for your photography on your flickr page? The birds etc... I have been playing with a used 300mm F4, but I still can't get the reach necessary to get those shots.
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Post by peatmoss on Jun 10, 2016 11:08:53 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Varun - I use a 70-300mm telephoto for my bird pics ( this one) that performs very well for sharpness ect. On a crop sensor camera (like my D7100), the focal length is equivalent to ~480mm, but the key with that is having a high resolution sensor so you can stretch things a bit in post if you can't quite get close enough to the bird to really fill the frame. Crop Sensors are often used in wildlife/macro because with distant or small subjects, resolution is much more important than light gathering, and one can use shorter lenses to the same effect as a longer one on a full frame sensor. The lens also has really great VR, which is super helpful when shooting in less than ideal lighting conditions. That said, the main thing with birds is being patient and waiting for opportunities where they're very close to you. For most of the bird pictures on my flickr I was reasonably close to the subject, either because I snuck up on it, or I waited in a good spot for an opportunity. Being closer also means better bokeh in the background, like on this shot, which makes a huge difference for a lens that shoots at f/5.6.
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Post by vraev on Jun 10, 2016 13:22:49 GMT -5
Thats awesome that you can get so much detail from that lens man. Great job. I am using the 300mm on a D90. That already is half the resolution on your D7100 and hence that significantly limits the cropping that I can do. But hey...I think I need to learn that patience more than anything and wait to get a good shot rather than just pre-emptively take shots from too far away. Clearly a matter of utilizing the equipment that I have in a better way. Thanks for the tips. Will definitely try to employ that patience next time I go for shooting birds this weekend.
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