house ant, take 6
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
house ant, take 6
I'm skipping "take 5" because the result came out far less than optimal. After seeing the poor results, it was time to somehow fit my newest homemade diffuser over the specimen and lens. I wasn't sure how to do it as I really have only a temporary set up at best, but a little tape and some re-purposed work light stands helped lots. So here is my latest, homemade diffuser, at least 375 stacked images in Zerene. First attempt at supporting this tiny ant from the back. Difficult to get the ant to stick to the support. Single flash only. This is still around 6.7x, have not switched out the 135mm tube lens for the 200mm yet to precede the Nikon 10x objective. Lighting is still somewhat off, more coming in at the top and not quite enough at the bottom. Will post images of the set up in another section later.
The detail looks good, and I think that the distribution of light looks good as well. You want some shadows, especially on a focus stacked shot. We use out of focus areas and shadows to determine depth. If you get everything in focus, and evenly lit, then the resulting image will look very flat.
What's not working in the image is your diffusion. See the Apparent Light Size article at Strobist. In a nutshell the size of your diffuser is relative to the subject -get the diffuser closer to the subject and the diffusion gets better because the diffuser seems to be larger. Also make sure that you're actually forcing the light to spread out and not just blocking it. I cringe every time I see someone using a plastic cutting board for a diffuser, or stuffing packing foam into a diffuser...
What's not working in the image is your diffusion. See the Apparent Light Size article at Strobist. In a nutshell the size of your diffuser is relative to the subject -get the diffuser closer to the subject and the diffusion gets better because the diffuser seems to be larger. Also make sure that you're actually forcing the light to spread out and not just blocking it. I cringe every time I see someone using a plastic cutting board for a diffuser, or stuffing packing foam into a diffuser...
I just tried a new diffuser, based on methods both recommended and seen on this site. This concept has been the "Achille's heel" for me, unfortunately.Dalantech wrote:The detail looks good, and I think that the distribution of light looks good as well. You want some shadows, especially on a focus stacked shot. We use out of focus areas and shadows to determine depth. If you get everything in focus, and evenly lit, then the resulting image will look very flat.
What's not working in the image is your diffusion. See the Apparent Light Size article at Strobist. In a nutshell the size of your diffuser is relative to the subject -get the diffuser closer to the subject and the diffusion gets better because the diffuser seems to be larger. Also make sure that you're actually forcing the light to spread out and not just blocking it. I cringe every time I see someone using a plastic cutting board for a diffuser, or stuffing packing foam into a diffuser...
Keep at it -you're doing a lot better than most!ctron wrote: I just tried a new diffuser, based on methods both recommended and seen on this site. This concept has been the "Achille's heel" for me, unfortunately.
I've lost track of which diffuser you're using here, but you would expect this result if you:
use something like a tube of paper very near the subject(good) but then light it strongly from very close, eg by putting a flash head right next to it. That makes the lighting on the tube very uneven, so the bug sees light coming strongly from one side.
The inverse square law means that when the source is very close, its directionality is much more apparent then when it's back a bit.
EG
if your subject is 1cm across and you light it from 1cm away from the closer side, the difference is 1cm to 2cm giving a ratio of 1/1 to 1/4, or 4:1
If it's 9cm away, you get 1/81 to 1/100 or 1.2:1.
You have to be aware of that effect while considering the angle over which the light's coming from.
Given the tube of paper, move the light back a bit, and put a mirror behind the tube so it's more evenly lit, then you can get very even lighting on the bug. What gets through the paper will be bounced around inside.
If the light's still too strong on the side of the source, then it's perfectly OK to attenuate it with say an extra layer of paper on that side - the overlap on the tube, can work quite well.
use something like a tube of paper very near the subject(good) but then light it strongly from very close, eg by putting a flash head right next to it. That makes the lighting on the tube very uneven, so the bug sees light coming strongly from one side.
The inverse square law means that when the source is very close, its directionality is much more apparent then when it's back a bit.
EG
if your subject is 1cm across and you light it from 1cm away from the closer side, the difference is 1cm to 2cm giving a ratio of 1/1 to 1/4, or 4:1
If it's 9cm away, you get 1/81 to 1/100 or 1.2:1.
You have to be aware of that effect while considering the angle over which the light's coming from.
Given the tube of paper, move the light back a bit, and put a mirror behind the tube so it's more evenly lit, then you can get very even lighting on the bug. What gets through the paper will be bounced around inside.
If the light's still too strong on the side of the source, then it's perfectly OK to attenuate it with say an extra layer of paper on that side - the overlap on the tube, can work quite well.
Chris R