Hello and it feels really good to finally track down a well managed and truly specialist forum where I can feed off your combined knowledge as I delve into photomicrography.
I have a personal art based photographic project which I intend to exhibit sometime next year here at www.windmillart.co.uk (a private, not for profit, commission free art gallery). With the forum's members' help, I hope to discover the equipment necessities required to photograph the scales found on the wings of butterflies and moths. Already I have seen a number of excellent images on this subject within the forum so I am confident I am in the right place.
Of course money as always is an issue but so it getting it right (the final image may be printed as large as 1600mm x 2240mm) and ultimately I will prefer to get it right rather than save a few pounds within reason. Other images (non microscopic) within the project are forcing me to deal with gigapanning and focus-stacking techniques and for the butterfly scales I also intend to use focus-stacking. Gigapanning would be a lovely option to have on this particular image but I fear that the equipment need to do that under a such high magnification would be well beyond my scope.
So later on - perhaps today or over the weekend I will post my current equipment specifications, a more detailed explanation of what I am trying to do and my current ideas as to what equipment I think I need. I am already looking forward to everyone's opinions and thoughts on the subject.
Many thanks
Hi from Conrad @WindmillArt, Linton, Cambridgeshire
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