Common green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata)

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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Beatsy
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Common green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata)

Post by Beatsy »

690-image stack shot with a 5x Mitty on a 105mm Pentax prime (for ~2.6x). PMax with minimal retouching.
Image
Last edited by Beatsy on Fri Aug 31, 2018 5:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

dolmadis
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Post by dolmadis »

Hi

Can't find a Pentax 115mm prime on Google so far so please can you provide some more details?

Thanks

John

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

dolmadis wrote:Can't find a Pentax 115mm prime on Google so far so please can you provide some more details?
Oops - brain fade on my part. It's 105mm Super Takumar (so 2.6x on sensor). Sorry for any confusion, I'll correct the original post.

dolmadis
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Post by dolmadis »

Thanks, no problem.

Helps produce a nice image with the Mitty.

BR

John

mawyatt
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Post by mawyatt »

Beats,

Very nice!!

Wow, 690 shots!! What was your step size 15~20 microns?

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

mawyatt wrote:Beats,

Very nice!!

Wow, 690 shots!! What was your step size 15~20 microns?

Best,
Thanks Mike,

actually, I've taken to using 10 micron steps with the 5x on 200mm (because it makes stereos a bit better IMO) and forgot to increase that to allow for the lens being pushed down to half the mag. So this was done with 10 micron steps too - doh! :roll: I'd have probably chosen about 15 microns anyway. New PC makes deep stacks so effortless, (allows me to do other stuff at the same time with next to no slowdown) so I've been slightly over killing it lately. As one does with new toys... :)

Harald
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Post by Harald »

Hi Beatsy,
Great work from you again. Very nice soft light.
Love the colors and details. The mood is nice too

Thanks for sharing :D
Kind Regards
Harald

Lier Fotoklubb / NSFF
AFIAP / CPS
BGF / GMV
http://www.500px.com/blender11

hero
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Post by hero »

Really impressive stack! I also really like the quality of light that you've got there. The diffusion lets you see the iridescence without the distraction of blown-out specular highlights.

Also...did you do any cleaning of the specimen? Because it looks SO CLEAN :shock:

Given the stack depth and the numerous hairs on the subject, did you employ any slabbing? If so, any tips or advice? I've been stacking for a while now but have limited my stack depth to < 150 images. Most of my stacks are in the 40 to 80 range, but I'm starting to deal with some very tricky subjects and I think slabbing will help, but I haven't tried it yet. Some of the reasons are that I'm only now just feeling like I understand my workflow, and I've not yet gone above 5x magnification with a high NA objective.

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

hero wrote:Really impressive stack! I also really like the quality of light that you've got there. The diffusion lets you see the iridescence without the distraction of blown-out specular highlights.
Thanks. Just good ol' ping-pong ball "mini light tent" lit with two flat panel LED lamps (Trond). Effectively double diffusion which works well with metallic-looking subjects.
Also...did you do any cleaning of the specimen? Because it looks SO CLEAN :shock:
Yes. Three stages. 1) When catching critters, I leave the dusty looking ones alone. 2) After mounting I spend 30 mins or more picking dust and fluff off the critter under a stereo microscope. I use very fine brushes, single hairs from those or the tip of fine forceps to remove detritus. I usually only bother cleaning the parts that will face the lens - especially if I've glued a pin or fat, ugly wire to (what's going to be) the back. 3) After stacking, I remove any specks I missed using the "inpainting brush" in Affinity Photo (a content-aware spot removal tool).
Given the stack depth and the numerous hairs on the subject, did you employ any slabbing? If so, any tips or advice? I've been stacking for a while now but have limited my stack depth to < 150 images. Most of my stacks are in the 40 to 80 range, but I'm starting to deal with some very tricky subjects and I think slabbing will help, but I haven't tried it yet. Some of the reasons are that I'm only now just feeling like I understand my workflow, and I've not yet gone above 5x magnification with a high NA objective.
No slabbing. I do use it sometimes, but I generally find it quicker to identify the bits that have gone transparent (when viewed at the required output resolution), select a range of source images to suit, stack selected, then retouch the relevant part with that hand-picked "slab". Then look around again, select another range if needed, and retouch the last retouched result with that. And so on. In this case, I only retouched the antennae and big hairs on the face (one extra stack). If I were going to print big - I'd do a few of the larger hairs on the back too - but their "transparency" isn't too objectionable at this display resolution - so I didn't bother. I have the project archived - so I can revisit it if needed in future.

Hope that helps

Sumguy01
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Post by Sumguy01 »

=D> Amazing photo.
Thanks for sharing.

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

I did a closer one which I posted on a Facebook group. A lady there commented "at first glance it looks someone in fishnet stockings bending over". I can't stop seeing it that way now! Eewww! Pass the mind bleach please :)
Image

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Good lord that's gross, it will never look the same after that.

hero
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Post by hero »

:shock:

I had to squint a little to see it, but when I did... let's just say I had a good laugh!

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

6.9mm deep stack!

PRG29

Post by PRG29 »

Wow!! Beautiful close-up shot.

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