First Post, moth antenna

[BugEZ]

I discovered stacked macros from a friend who shared stunning images of slime mold fruiting bodies. I have been tinkering on my macro rig in my home’s basement hobby room (my colleagues call it the "bat cave" ) for about 2 years. I have had good success with my 50mm macro lens, a small machining x-y table and 3 sets of extension tubes, but the transition to microscope lenses has proven to be more of a challenge.

My optical equipment: a Pentax 50mm macro lens (purchased in the 70's), 3 sets of extension tubes, a 7.5X Hastings Triplet Loupe that is glued to a drilled out lens cap and nests inside the 50mm macro, Olympus SPlan 10X lens that is mounted to a drilled out black plastic body cap that mates with the extension tubes. I have a Pentax ist DS body that captures the images.

The camera is supported by the small but heavy x-y table and is quite sturdy. Initially I used the table for translation and captured the stacks by manual adjustment of the axial crank. Last year I constructed an actuator that uses a stepper motor-linear actuator to translate the subject. Now I keep the camera fixed during stacking. I built and programmed a microcontroller to run the actuator and trigger the shutter. I am quite satisfied with the man-machine interface. The minimum step size with this actuator is .001". I decided I needed to be able to go to smaller step sized (in anticipation of buying some microscope lenses) and built a second actuator very similar in construction to the first with .000056" minimum step size.

For lighting I am using a home built LED ring light. It has worked well for my macro photos with the 50mm lens. For shiny subjects such as a tiger beetle, I use a paper diffuser to eliminate annoying bright spots. Most of my exposures are about 1 second long.

My rig sets in the basement of my home on a Black and Decker Workmate . The concrete floor provides a good stable base.

I have been stacking with CombineZM.

The first image shows the head and shoulders of a moth taken with the 50mm lens and extension tubes. This is a 29 shot stack, .008" steps.

The second shows the moth taken with the 50mm with the 7.5X loupe installed and more extension tubes. This is a 48 shot stack, .001" steps

The third shows the moth antenna taken with the Olympus SPLAN 10X lens and 3 sets of extension tubes. this is a 71 shot stack, .0005" steps.

The size limit on these images has forced some cropping. They look a bit better than in the posting.

While I am reasonably satisfied with the macro 50mm images, the microscope image has more halo and is not as crisp as I had hoped. I suspect vibration is part of the "crisp" problem, and contemplate changes to the actuator to make the image more stable.

Any suggestions on the technique are welcome.

I am glad I discovered this web site and have gotten some great ideas for improvements to my rig. I have also greatly enjoy your images.

Keith

[phreakocious]

Wow, those are awesome! The variety of different approaches people take to get these pictures is a source of continuous amazement.

[lauriek]

These are really good, you don't need to be posting in the beginners forum!

Halo is an almost universal problem with stacking, particularly with certain subjects/compositions, I can see how it would be a problem with these moth antennae.

Honestly the only thing I can suggest to improve these is to tidy up some of the stuff in the background. The odd bits in the first shot would only take a few seconds, the bits in and around the antennae would take considerably longer, depending on your cloning skills...

Maybe post some pics of the rig and a full size crop of one of these and I'm sure you'll get more advice!

[rjlittlefield]

Keith, welcome aboard! As Laurie says, these are plenty good enough that you should be posting in the main gallery.

Regarding the halos... I pulled your images into Photoshop and added a Levels Adjustment layer to brighten things up so I could see the issues better. What I'm seeing are sort of hard-edged "blobby" halos, especially in and around the fine detail of the antenna. Those artifacts are typical of depth map algorithms such as Do Stack in CombineZM.

You might try instead upgrading to CombineZP and using its "Pyramoid Maximum Contrast" macro. Be sure to "Align and Balance Used Frames" first. That used to be done automatically, but last I checked, it had to be done manually.

In addition, you might want to download a trial of Zerene Stacker and try its Stack > Align & Stack All (PMax). That will take care of alignment and stacking at a single go. Then if you need finer control you can also Align & Stack All (DMap) and use retouching to put together the best aspects of both methods as described in the retouching tutorials HERE and HERE. Standard disclaimer: I wrote Zerene Stacker so it's optimized for the kinds of things I like to do. As it happens, I like to do hairy bristly stuff like moth antennae.

I hope this is helpful. I'm looking forward to more pictures.

--Rik

[NikonUser]

The Oly 10x SPLAN objective, and all the Oly SPLANs and SPLAN Apos. need
a corrective lens (usually an eyepiece or a NFK relay lens) to function at 100%.

Nikon CF Plan objectives are are better choice for your setup; they do not need corrective eyepieces.

Lots of discussion on PMG.net.

[BugEZ]

Many thanks for the comments.

I will have to check out Zerene Stacker.

The need for additional glass between the bug and the sensor is a bit discouraging with the Olympus objective... I had not anticipated that. I will definitely consult the gurus prior to my next purchase...

Keith

[rjlittlefield]

It may be counterintuitive, but all of the newer excellent objectives require additional glass between the objective and the sensor. This is because they are "infinity" designs that require a "tube lens" to complete the image formation. There is lots about this in the forum also, but definitely ask before purchasing. For some discussion see HERE.

--Rik

[BugEZ]

Thanks for the link to the tube lens stuff. I will see what I can rig up.

So many projects now that the ground has thawed and bugs start to emerge. Garden to till, leaves to rake, and soon the dreaded mowing...

Keith