Green Headed Ant

ejcruz · Post by **ejcruz** » Mon Dec 23, 2013 4:03 am

I think it is a Green-Headed ant - usually dark coloured with a metallic sheen that varies from blue-green to purple-green. I didn't expect to see the rough ridges, was expecting to see the usual smooth surface, image was taken with Canon 40D+MP-E 65mm f/2.8 macro, X5, f/2.8, StackShot 0.01mm steps, 191 frames, PMAX stacked using Zerene.

Here is the link to larger version:
http://ejcruz.smugmug.com/Category/Inse ... Ant_ps.jpg

C & C welcome

Thank you for looking.

Eddie

Rikisub · Post by **Rikisub** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 3:02 pm

Good sharpness, the MP-E is great. Aren't 191 shots too many for a 5X?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 7:04 pm

Nice image! Ants vary widely in their surface texturing. Some of the smallest ones from my garden look just like this when viewed at high mag. (By naked eye, it's pretty simple to tell that they're ants but that's about it.)

Rikisub wrote:Aren't 191 shots too many for a 5X?

Yes, the step size of 0.01 mm listed here is significantly smaller than what's needed at 5X and f/2.8 . The conservative value calculated HERE (Table 2-A) shows 0.025 mm as a step size that guarantees no focus banding. Some people like to go finer than that in order to get some overlap, but dropping down to only 40% of what's needed to get the guarantee is definitely overkill. Still, if you don't shoot many stacks, it may be a good tradeoff to consistently go finer than you need in order to never screw up a stack by going too coarse.

--Rik

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 6:50 am

Rik: an excellent well-illustrated book with colour photos'
Ants make great subjects for closeups

http://www.amazon.com/Ants-North-Americ ... words=ants

Rikisub · Post by **Rikisub** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 11:59 am

Thank you Rik, it is good to know your opinion.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 1:16 pm

NikonUser wrote:Rik: an excellent well-illustrated book with colour photos

Yep! That one lives on the bookshelf above my monitors.

I have to confess, though -- I've never had courage enough to try running anything through their technical keys.

--Rik

ejcruz · Post by **ejcruz** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 4:05 am

Thank you everyone for the comments, as what Rik said I'm one of the people that usually go fine therefore ending up with extra frames.

Eddie