Playing with a lesser stag beetle

eurythyrea · Post by **eurythyrea** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:25 pm

A couple of months ago I took a promise to Craig Gerard on posting a new topic about my work below. These studio focus stacks were made at the end of last winter, when I was extremely hungry of field work. My Mitutoyo was new, so decided to take a set of stacks about several particulars of the body. Lesser stag beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus) is a common species in Hungary, also it can be seen in many natural publications, therefore I wanted to show it from unusual point of views. Note: all pics are clickable, except the animated 3D.

The fore part of the body, ventral view:

5D+MP-E65@2,5x; f/2.8 1/125s ISO50; diffused flashlight. 42 exposures in Zerene PMax.

Head, ventral view:

5D+MP-E65@3,8x; f/2.8 1/125s ISO50; diffused flashlight. 37 exposures in Zerene PMax.

Mouthpart with palps, ventral view:

5D+Mitutoyo BD Plan APO 10@9,5x; 1/125s ISO50; diffused flashlight. 101 exposures in Zerene PMax.

Right eye, dorsal view:

5D+Mitutoyo BD Plan APO 10@10x; 1/125s ISO50; diffused flashlight. 101 exposures in Zerene PMax.

Right mandible, dorsal view:

5D+Mitutoyo BD Plan APO 10@12x; 1/125s ISO50; diffused flashlight. 134 exposures in Zerene PMax.

Cross your eyes

:

Animated 3D from the pair of the stereo:

Tom Jones · Post by **Tom Jones** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:30 pm

Nikola,

Absolutely stunning!!

Tom

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:48 pm

Ditto -- especially the large stereo. Super work!

--Rik

Yousef Alhabshi · Post by **Yousef Alhabshi** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:56 pm

Super Super results

Excellent work eurythyrea

Brodie Foster · Post by **Brodie Foster** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:46 am

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:37 am

Wow!

For many years there was a rotten tree stump in my garden, in which this species would congregate, each summer, and burrow to breed. Sadly, the stump became too fragile to remain in place and I now miss those summer visits.

Harold

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:47 am

Exquisite work. You are creating a new benchmark.

Patrik92 · Post by **Patrik92** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 7:20 am

Nikola,
absolutely gorgeous pictures!

canonian · Post by **canonian** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 8:16 am

Amazing, such clarity and detail, wonderful, Nikola !

eurythyrea · Post by **eurythyrea** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:50 pm

Thank you guys!
Rik, the stereo would be better using DMap, but then I only used PMax, which isn't such good at this low magnification. Since then I tried the other method and absolutely enjoy it. Perhaps I will do it with the source files in DMap.
Patrik, welcome aboard! Hope to see work from you some time

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 4:25 pm

Exceptional work Nikola, in the cleaning/lighting, all though.
Which tube lens did you use for these? I see you've tried several but haven't kept track of your changes!

yeatzee · Post by **yeatzee** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:50 pm

could you go more into detail the lighting setup Nikola?

eurythyrea · Post by **eurythyrea** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:09 am

ChrisR wrote:Exceptional work Nikola, in the cleaning/lighting, all though.
Which tube lens did you use for these? I see you've tried several but haven't kept track of your changes!

Thank you Chris. I used the SurplusShed 172mm tube lens (also known as morfanon) with the Mitutoyo. Here you can find the setup used:

yeatzee wrote:could you go more into detail the lighting setup Nikola? Smile

See the picture above!

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:12 am

I used the SurplusShed 172mm tube lens

Outrageous! That's far too cheap!

Craig Gerard · Post by **Craig Gerard** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:36 am

Nikola,

Thank you for uploading the images and discussing your setup.

ISO 50.....nice

Do you calculate the increments by a predetermined method or by visual observation?

The clarity of these images are astounding and the lighting exquisite!

Craig