Image is a female Sargus bipunctaus, until someone corrects me. I think the pale lateral stripe on the mesonotum is indicative along with the metallic colouration ?
Taken with a reversed Ek-Nikkor 80mm at f8, about 200mm extension, black flock lens hood, lighting is two Nikon SB-800 flashes at about 45deg up and forward of the subject, diffused through a yoghurt pot.
The dorsal black markings are actually just reflections of the lens pupil and surround ? I don't see them under my stereo scope. So how can you control artefacts like these in a highly reflective somewhat flat surface ? Put a light coloured aperture in front of the lens ? Adjust angle of lighting ?
ps: I was getting envious about all the colourful bugs our antipodean friends have and then this beauty expired on my windowsill
Sargus bipunctatus (and controlling reflections, or not)
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The only way I know to avoid black central reflections from mirrored surfaces is to use a beamsplitter in front of the lens. The idea is to start with a diffuse source that's pointed sideways and reflect it toward the subject along the optical path. In microscopy, this is typically done using a cover slip for the beamsplitter. Ordinary glass will reflect only something like 10% of the light that hits it at a 45 degree angle, so you'll probably have to worry about properly balancing direct versus reflected illumination.
That's a very pretty fly, by the way! And very clean too, for a windowsill specimen. Did you use your electrostatic duster?
--Rik
That's a very pretty fly, by the way! And very clean too, for a windowsill specimen. Did you use your electrostatic duster?
--Rik