Stacks Collection (Wasps, Robberfly & Beetle)

Every 30 days the site administrators will pick a favorite macro or close-up image from one of the "Macro and Close-up" galleries to be featured on the front page of the www.photomacrography.net website.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Yousef Alhabshi
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Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:06 am
Location: United Arab Emirates
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Stacks Collection (Wasps, Robberfly & Beetle)

Post by Yousef Alhabshi »

Hi everyone,

I would like to share some stack works I have done recently.. hope you like them.
The full views can be accessed in my Flickr pages.


Bee mouthpart
Image
Camera : Nikon D7000
Objective : Nikon BD Plan 20x/0.4 210/0

Robber fly
Image
Camera : Nikon D7000
Objective : JML21mm

Longhorned Beetle
Image
Camera : Nikon D7000
Objective : JML21mm

Cuckoo Wasp
Image
Camera : Nikon D7000
Objective : JML21mm

Robberfly - Abstract
Image
Camera : Nikon D7000
Objective : Mitutoyo 10x

Thank you for passing by :)
Last edited by Yousef Alhabshi on Sun Aug 07, 2016 2:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Cactusdave
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Post by Cactusdave »

Another excellent set. Lots of variety and beautifully realised.
Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear

dennisua
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Post by dennisua »

Absolutely incredible images.

DQE
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Location: near Portland, Maine, USA

Post by DQE »

Exceptionally beautiful lighting and remarkable detail over the subject and scene.
---------------------

It's interesting how a unique photographic style develops for most dedicated macro photographers. I think I could recognize your photos since they are so distinctive (as well as unusually beautiful).
Last edited by DQE on Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

Ruben Resendiz
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Location: Cd de Mexico, Mexico

Post by Ruben Resendiz »

HI Yousef

I've seen your pictures on your Flickr account a few weeks ago, and they are truly amazing photos, one of my favorites is White Weevil,.

Can I ask how you light your photographs, especially with objects that have a metallic texture like Cuckoo Wasp and does not reflect light.

Wonderful photos
thanks for sharing
RR

pwnell
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Location: Tsawwassen, Canada

Post by pwnell »

All of them are awesome, the last three took my breath away. Excellent work.

Yousef Alhabshi
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Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:06 am
Location: United Arab Emirates
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Post by Yousef Alhabshi »

Thank you everyone for honoring me with your encourging & pleasing comments.. I'm all flattered


@Ruben:
I'm still using dual flashes to lighening my subjects.. I just bought the 3rd flash.. & i'll see if I can fit somehow in a way to enhance the lighting here.
I was hoping to switch to the continous lighting soon.. but unforunately, it seems that i'm still getting a problem with the stability & the viberations in my place. Till recently i got the idea that it could be because of my both cameras (Canon 60D + Nikon D7000) so I borrowed 50D, 7D & 5DMII & did some testing to see since i believe I read that the 60D got some problems with the silent mode comparing to 50D, 7D & 5DII.
Suprisngly, I got excatly the same results of 7D with my 60D in terms of sharpness & stablalitiy. As for 50D, the amount of the captured details were much less & smoother.. therefore I couldn't tell how it performs against the other 2 in term of the EFSC.
I don't thing i'm going to swith to continous lighting any soon.. till I figure out a away to kill these nasty viberations.

As for the metallic texture, I found out that the closer the lighting source, the higher the reflections are.. so simply just have some distance between your light source and the reflecting object. Also, increasing the diffused width + higher flash power will do the trick.. at least for me ;)



Again, thank you everyone for pleasing me with your words & comments.

Yousef

Pau
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Post by Pau »

Yousef Alhabshi wrote:...
I was hoping to switch to the continous lighting soon.. but unforunately, it seems that i'm still getting a problem with the stability & the viberations in my place. Till recently i got the idea that it could be because of my both cameras (Canon 60D + Nikon D7000) so I borrowed 50D, 7D & 5DMII & did some testing to see since i believe I read that the 60D got some problems with the silent mode comparing to 50D, 7D & 5DII.
Suprisngly, I got excatly the same results of 7D with my 60D in terms of sharpness & stablalitiy. As for 50D, the amount of the captured details were much less & smoother.. therefore I couldn't tell how it performs against the other 2 in term of the EFSC.
I don't thing i'm going to swith to continous lighting any soon.. till I figure out a away to kill these nasty viberations. ..
Yousef, your test results seem very surprising for me (I'm the guy who discovered the vibration issue with the 60D)
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... t=60d+efsc
Those Canon cameras have two main Live View options: Quick mode and Silent mode. Quick mode drops the mirror and closes/opens the shutter in order to use the main AF system and its operation and vibration would be similar to Nikon. Silent mode is where EFSC works.
are you sure that you did use this setting?
In EFSC is where there is a significative difference between 60D and tho other Canons.
The only other possible cause may me external (ambiental) vibration that would cancel the EFSC advantage.

Also take a look at
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... t=60d+efsc
Pau

Yousef Alhabshi
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Location: United Arab Emirates
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Post by Yousef Alhabshi »

Pau wrote: Yousef, your test results seem very surprising for me (I'm the guy who discovered the vibration issue with the 60D)
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... t=60d+efsc
Those Canon cameras have two main Live View options: Quick mode and Silent mode. Quick mode drops the mirror and closes/opens the shutter in order to use the main AF system and its operation and vibration would be similar to Nikon. Silent mode is where EFSC works.
are you sure that you did use this setting?
In EFSC is where there is a significative difference between 60D and tho other Canons.
The only other possible cause may me external (ambiental) vibration that would cancel the EFSC advantage.

Also take a look at
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... t=60d+efsc
Hi Pau,
I believe I went thru your topic a while ago -apology as I completely forgot who had post in the forum- & I was totally depressed knowing that my camera 60D was having this problem. I also had a conversation with Javier (Seta666) & he confirmed it to me & point me to Charles's testing page.
I haven't used my 60D since that time except for field's singal shots using my MP-E65.
Luckily, I got some free time two weeks ago & borrowed the cameras from my friends. Yes i'm aware of both Quick & Silent modes in Canon system & i'm only talking here about the Silent Mode (EFSC) & that's why i didn't include my Nikon D7000 in the tests.

Once i'm back home, I'll upload the result's of the three cameras (50D, 60D & 7D) including all the settings.
The magnification was at about ~40X using continous lighting source. As I said before, I'm having some problem with viberations but even so, the results came >95% the same between both 60D & 7D.
The only differences is that the 60D got more yellowish color over the result (which I noticed it a long time ago).

Pau.. Im not confirming anything here as those are some personal tests. Luckily, I still have the 7D with me where I returned the others (50D & 5DM2) so once I got some free time I'll do some more tests between these two.

The results which i'm going to upload aren't good (Actually they are really bad :P) as I was trying shooting using continous lighting+High Mag objective+ reflective surface (I was curious to see the results of the reflection using High Magnification objective with my diffuser).

Yousef

Yousef Alhabshi
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Tests

Post by Yousef Alhabshi »

Hi,

OK.. I re-checked the results and wasn't really convinced with the 40X test. By checking the 20X tests I can see clearly that there was a slightly differences in the results.

Also, I just notice that the exposure for both 7D & 60D were set to 1.3sec, while the 50D was only 1sec!! Funny since I don't remember changing the shutter speed. All coloring profile were set to default. Live view + Silent mode2. I used Nikon BD Plan 20x 210/0 0.4 on Nikon PB-6 Bellows.


Original image
Image


100% crops + 200% re-sized crops
Image
>> Full Size

Can you tell which cameras are each of A, B &C?

I will re-test both the 60D & 7D again with different objectives & i'll share my results.
Last edited by Yousef Alhabshi on Sun Aug 07, 2016 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Yousef,

All these images are excellent! Great work.

A few thoughts about the camera comparisons you are performing. (You may already have considered these points).
The magnification was at about ~40X using continous lighting source
I think 40X is perhaps too high a magnification to use in these comparisons since you will likely be into significant "diffraction territory" (this is probably unavoidable with any 40X objective that has a usable working distance). This might make it more difficult to see subtle but significant vibration effects. While vibration is more of a problem as the magnification increases, a 20X or even 10X might actually make it easier to see vibration effects when you examine the files at 100 or 200%.

Pay attention to the shutter speeds used. If they become longer than about 1/2 to 1 second you will start to get some "equalizing" effect where the vibrations can dampen out at the start of the exposure, but things remain calm for most of it. The shutter speeds where EFSC helps most is in the range of (approx) 1/2 to 1/125 seconds.

Yousef Alhabshi
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Post by Yousef Alhabshi »

Charles,

Thank you for your appreciated highlights on this regards. I believe we almost post our replies at the same time. You can see that I replaced the result of 40X with the 20X. I wasn't aware of the exposure point.. as you can see all the exposures have already exceeded 1sec.

I'll re-do the tests one more time with both cameras using 5X & 10X.

Again thank you for your helpful inputs.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

One other possibility to consider is differences in noise reduction. In the hairs and the white blob I'm seeing only a little difference, but in A, a lot of the fine pebbly texture is almost completely gone. This combination gives me the impression that A has gone through an NR filter. I'm not sure how to investigate that. Maybe shoot raw and run them all through the same converter?

--Rik

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Yousef,

Yes... I was just posting when you uploaded the test images.

Longer exposures can go a long way to minimize equipment induced vibration (like mirror and shutter motions), but at the same time it provides a much larger "window" for any external "environmental" to have a negative effect. If you suspect "environmental" vibration to be an issue than electronic flash may be the simplest solution.

Yousef Alhabshi
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Post by Yousef Alhabshi »

Rik,

By reading your input I think I agree with you. Unfortunately, Camera "A" was the 50D which I already returned so I cannot confirm whether the NR was ON or OFF. By checking both 60D & 7D, NR were OFF on both cameras.
But for only 1sec exposure.. can the NR remove this much of details? to me it's like too much for the built-in NR to do. Anyway, I'll consider testing the NR as well in my next test.


Charles,

Yes, i do have some environmental vibrations issue. The thing is, by using the flash i'm losing the EFSC feature at higher magnification. I thought it would be better to handle Hi-mag with continuous lighting due to the long exposure + EFSC combination.
You said electronic flash.. do you mean using the flash normally or am I missing something with the word "electronic"?

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