Question about the eyes of insects

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ghaith
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Question about the eyes of insects

Post by ghaith »

Hi

I have a question
How to keep the eye of insects and insect body clean after stuffed
I hunt a total of insects, but after leaving it found that the insects damaged eye
  So what is the way to maintain the insect eye
  To Photograph inside the studio?
Thank you :)

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Insect eyes can get damaged in several ways.

First: While you transport them home. If the animal rattles around or fly around in a container it will easily be damaged. You can use a poisson jar til make them quiet and then transport them in a container with soft padding.

But it might be a better idea to give them something to hook themself firmly on. A living insect kept in a litle tube with some grass or leaves and placed in a dark pocket or bag will soon calm down and perhaps even start cleaning itself!

I think most photographers use a freezer to kill the animal. But take care: I once saw a little wasp come to live after a whole night in my freezer!
When you thaw the animal you must be prepared to make your pictures as fast as possible. Every room is filled with dust, fibres and particles and they immediataly start to settle on your model. The second threat. Always keep your containers washed and cleaned and closed! And the room of course.

Third problem is time. If you choose to position antennas, legs or wings on your model it must be done with needles while it is fresh and soft. After a day or two a little insect wil start to dry and get stiff. Then you can remove the needles and support and move it around.

At the same time the eyes start to detoriate by temselves. They can shrink, crack and look like they are beaten. In addition they can change color, often to an annoying brownish uneven color instead of the fresh black or shiny color. So it is important to be ready to take pictures as soon as the animal is in the right condition. Age often look ugly.

As you see, quite a bit of work and rather time consuming. That is why it is so much appreciated when we see a beatiful stack.

Good luck,
Troels
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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fbuitrag
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Post by fbuitrag »

Let me hijack this topic and ask a question myself...

I read somewhere that you can restore the eyes with some chemicals... but I have not found them available in US. so what i tried is random quantities of warm water, dish soap, alcohol, acetone but the eyes don't seem to get the awesome color I see in pictures but rather I find them brownish.. So would you share any tips or tricks to restore the eyes colors ?

Thanks

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Yes, there are developed methods for restoring the shape and surface of compound eyes, more or less. I don't have the reciepts near me for the moment.

But I am pretty shure that the nice colors in some insect eyes after some time will be gone for ever.

Troels
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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JH
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Post by JH »

Hi

I keep my insects in the fridge.

A while ago I destroyed the eyes of an insect with to much epi light (first picture).

To restore the eye I placed the insect in the fridge, in a closed petri dish with a moist piece of cotton. After one night in the fridge the eye was restored (second picture).

Regards Jörgen

Image



Image

Troels
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Post by Troels »

An guide to insect eye restoration can be found at the very informative website extreme-macro by Johan J. Ingles-Le Nobel.

Troels
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Troels, what an interesting link! I often visit Johan's site for technical info on lenses etc but did not realize he also had these kinds of articles.

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Yes, Johan offers an astonishing amount of knowledge of every thinkable aspect of macro photography.

More than once I have thought I was through every one of his pages just to discover new exciting hidden gems later on. And it is frequently updated.

Troels
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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fbuitrag
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Post by fbuitrag »

yes, this is the article I was thinking of.. great one... still he uses decon 90 (in UK) and I don't see how to find in US (my location), so wondering if there is an alternative. I think the end problem is basically hydrating the bug's eyes...

I got a test subject I found already dead for some time. I put it in warm water and seemed to work a bit (not fully) though, maybe it was too dry

after testing some pictures I let it dry for a few days. Here is the picture I took at the time. See completely brown eyes:

Image

I wanted to give it another try (after reading this post) so I left it in a mix of water, alcohol and acetone for a several hours, I then took it out of the water and put in a closed plastic container (still wet) . Here a picture from today:


Image

slophotopro
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Post by slophotopro »

Very informative
Thanks to all. ...thumbsup

MarkSturtevant
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Post by MarkSturtevant »

Johan J Ingles-Le Nobel is very often a fountain of wisdom for macro techniques, and he comes thru here very nicely:
http://extreme-macro.co.uk/restoring-insects/
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

lolhonk
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Post by lolhonk »

Hi,

it seems that decon90 etc. changes the color of the insects, are there methods which avoid this?

I will try to put them in the fridge overnight like JH mentioned. We will see.

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