Nocturnal...V 2.0 (The Day After)

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Fri Mar 29, 2019 5:57 pm

For V.2,0 The Day after scroll a bit down .. just to don't open another post.

This weekend the clocks will advance one hour.. that's good for macro photography. I will start to have a window of a couple of hours after work to shoot before the sunset, and the sunrise will not be so early.

So far I'm going out almost every night.
This week I also had the visit of the Police.. I'm not sure if they were doing a routine patrol and saw the flashes or if someone saw weird lights and flashes in the filed and called the Police... anyway it was not fun to have to identify myself and answer to a long row of silly questions... I was so concentrated I did not notice it was already 1AM...

Here are some of only today (Friday, the 29th)
I left the butterfly and the robber-fly marked.to try bracketing in the morning.... let's see if I am lucky enough to find them there again at 6.30 AM or if I am able to get up.

a young Araneus diadematus

MA294830 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

an asilidae .. probably of the Paraphamartania genus.

MA294841 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

I believe it is an Hesperidae - Carcharodus tripolina

MA294808 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

and surprise... an Empusa
I never saw those in this area.. usually I have to travel 10 miles to a certain wood.
In fact this years I'm finding around my place some species I never saw here before...

this is an "adolescent" Empusa pennata.. the wings are starting to grow .. later the curled abdomen will be straight and it will turn to green / pink

MA294853 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

1:1 on such a big animal doesn't gets much of the animal in focus

MA294856 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

this is how the adult (female) looks like - older photo

empusa pennata 0004 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Fri Mar 29, 2019 6:49 pm

These are beautiful, especially the dramatic spider picture. Sorry to hear about your police encounter..

Harald · Post by **Harald** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 2:05 am

Hi,
Great shots from the field

You have very good light in your images

"Macro-Police" maybe

They don't know the beauty of photographing!

This has happen to me when shooting models or friends....

Thanks for sharing

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:36 am

Last night I just removed my boots and laid like that.. Otherwise in the morning I will not want to leave the comfort of the bed.

Anyway I only woke up at 7 and that's kind of late.. The sun was already over the roof of the smaller villas around. But it was cold... I got to the place at 7.20.
The butterfly was gone.. (my first mark), but the Asillidae and the Empusa were in the same place

Spent an hour around both and later 5 hours only to preview all the sequences and quick edit 8 of them

All in Priority to aperture (A), metering at focus point, f/3,5 differential 2

The Empusa

Shot 262; stacked 166

Empusa pennata by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

78 Photos - 2019-03-30 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

76 photoss, but only about half are necessary

76 Photos - 2019-03-30 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

The Robber-fly in it's original position...
70photos..

70 Photos - 2019-03-30 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

scissors and clamp... to get a different composition
174 photos

174 Photos - 2019-03-30 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

now the logistic / technical side s more or less resolved...
I need to start to work in the artistic / photographic side...

for example...

I'm having to many problems with the exposure.. specially with the meetering.... I'm getting to many "silhouettes" .. even with natutral light, white areas or white hairs tend to blow etc...

this one got loads of Dodge & Burn (Dodge) to enhance the insect

81 Photos - 2019-03-30 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

it's problematic to shoot if the stick /support is oblique ... to get all in focus the number of shots is outrageous and the more time it takes the bigger is the risk to have movement ... if the shots only scan the insect.. looks pretty weird as the transition focused / unfocused in he stick is very abrupt...

142 shots.. i guess it would take like 400 t cover it all... that's almost one minute shooting with my camera

147 Photos - 2019-03-30 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Troels · Post by **Troels** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:36 am

Excellent and interesting photos, Antonio.

looks pretty weird as the transition focused / unfocused in he stick is very abrupt...

The standard cure against theese sharp transitions is to add a few shots with a higher f-number at the front and rear end of the stack. The problem is of course if it is possible to avoid shaking the camera with the slower shutter speed needed!

If possible the effect can be very nice.

MarkSturtevant · Post by **MarkSturtevant** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:19 am

Such great pictures! Yours is a method and result to emulate and hope to come close to.
For that last one, although this would be a pretty challenging case I would not be above trying to use the focused part of the twig to replace the out of focus area. Doing this in small, blended increments can work pretty well.

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:22 am

As an addition to Mark's comment, since it is predictable that the branch will be mostly out-of-focus, one can shoot the out-of-focus parts of the branch separately, even if the insect moves or flies away. Since the details aren't important, you could use a smaller aperture so more would be in focus and you wouldn't have to spend much time on it...

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:56 pm

Hello.. Troels
I'm sorry I don't know how to to do multiple quotes ...

Thank you for your suggestions and encouragement.
I'm going to try all f your suggestions and see how it works.. I had a very busy week and last weekend I went to demonstrate photo stacking with an auto-rail (Wemacro) and microscope lenses, and also focus bracketing with the Oly in a photography meeting ...

besides that the weather changed and it's now very unpredictable with constant sudden showers, even hail.. the normal April showers here.
It's very uncomfortable to go around in wet grass and mud and the light can turn poor suddenly

IMG_20190331_175332 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

mainly very dark backgrounds, even in the afternoon long before the sunset.

4,30 PM

MA317555 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

but just came to my mind I can try your suggestions with an oblique stick and a test dummy in my desktop.

My next step is to try bracketing at night in the location.
with a pair of led panels.. I'm sure it will work. Worked fine in the tabletop.
I'm just waiting for a parcel with 2 mini tripods, to try it for real

56627486_124739475358325_423425677362987008_o by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

56608880_124739418691664_3391295323539243008_o by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:21 pm

Super stuff Antonio.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 3:39 pm

My first bracketing at night... 11 PM... it works ... only used one led panel in the camera shoe with 60% power..5,600k kelvin (the maximum it does)

I forgot a cheap 4+ mounted in the objective... yesterday when I was measuring magnifications for Pitufo
When I saw all those CA and lack of detail my first thought was condensation in the lens (it's cool and humid outside) .. just thought about the diopter to late

60 shots, f3,5, 1/30,

60 Photos - 2019-04-08 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 3:44 pm

If you get the chance, I recommend the Century Optics +4.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:16 pm

ChrisR wrote:Super stuff Antonio.

Thank you Chris