I've tried doing high-mag macro with an Alien Bees monolight. If it is positioned far from the subject and directed through longish .5-inch fiber optic light guides, it seems to work OK. But if aimed directly on the subject, it seems to cause wild subject movement during the exposure. At this point,...

JPEGs are _nasty_ things. Open a jpeg, make a tiny change, save it, open it back up again, make a tiny change, save it and those compression artefacts soon start to stack up. If all you have is a JPEG you'd better hope you don't want to make several changes.... Laurie, this assumes an all-jpeg work...

A few thoughts. . . Just about everything in Photoshop can be easily automated. I don't use Photoshop for processing my RAW files (Nikon software seems to produce slightly better results for Nikon images), so I can't say off the top of my head how to automate Photoshop's Camera Raw. But for most oth...

Short answers first ;) . What is the distance from the bottom of B and top of the L (eg the surface of the tripod to the top of the camera)? Conny, this distance is 35 cm (13.75 inches). By the way, a friend who looked at this rig objected: “But it’s so tall!” She thought the lens would be separated...

Thanks, Rik. Good point. What I do is orient the focus block in whichever direction lets the spring and gravity work together. For these pictures, the camera was aimed slightly upward, so the spring faces to the rear. With the quick-release clamps, I can flip around the camera, the block, or both in...

Ah spring, when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of field macro. :) Since recent threads have touched on field rigs, I thought it might be useful to share mine. Those following the Bratcam will recognize this focus block, here configured for field use. (Since the Bratcam went motorized,...

Keifer, welcome to the community! (Edit--I wrote this while you were composing your response, above, and didn't see it prior to posting.) I doubt you’ll get many comments in this thread, as most of us will look and see that you’ve already been given super-solid advice. I hope you’ll repost with some...

Chris, I’m really, really flattered to hear that you've found the Bratcam worthy of being an influence--am pretty sure you’re a tough, savvy observer. I'm chagrined to think I might have been inadvertently misleading. But hey, I’ve only had one linear stage in the Bratcam, and two microscope blocks....

Enrico, thanks for the explanation of differential micrometers. Now, looking at one of the illustrations shown for the micrometer Chris Lilley mentions, I see what you mean—it’s pretty much a fine micrometer stuck onto the end of a coarse one. The limited length of fine travel would be a substantial...

Mitch, do your local box elder bugs appear hairless even under hard side or back lighting? I'm wondering if the diffuse lighting used in your image simply doesn't show them.

--Chris

You've likely studied the specs already at the Newport Website, but just in case, here is the page: http://www.newport.com/store/product.aspx?id=3161 . While these units could be used for stacking, they would not be my choice for what I think is your use. I take it that by "20:1 or more" you mean th...

From the title of Sonynut's post, I assumed it was a box elder bug, which does look similar to a milkweed bug. Here is a comparison: http://unexco.com/boxelder.html

I think Gene's recommendation of a Schott-Fostec illuminator--at least for the U.S. market--is very wise. My own Schott-Fostec illuminator is first rate, and there are a wide variety of fiber-optic light guides available for it. One of my collaborators lent me a Dolan Jenner unit, and it seems like ...

Rik, thanks for your very well-thought-out and useful response. I've taken quite a bit of time to say anything about it because I've returned to your response several times, with thinking breaks in between, in order to thoroughly digest what you wrote. I find it very, very useful. Thanks again! --Ch...

Well, some sucker bought it, and will soon have a 60-pound boat anchor landing on his doorstep. Here's hoping I don't throw my back out carrying it to the basement. ;) Couldn't resist, as several parts of the assemblage look like nifty project fodder. I won't, of course, try to reassemble it into an...