Amazon Pics Part 32

Moebius · Post by **Moebius** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 7:11 am

This guy was hard to capture with his shiny black head/thorax. I have a mature specimen I will show later on.

Didn't see it at the time, but the prismatic effect on the wing membranes adds to the pic.

For some reason, this guy reminds me of a fish

Ken Nelson
Canon 30D
Sigma 150mm

Carl_Constantine · Post by **Carl_Constantine** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:45 am

I must say, you're getting some amazing shots out of that Sigma 150mm lens. How close are you to the subjects in each image, what kind of flash are you using (if any) and are these full frame or crops?

That cicada is quite pretty with those wing colors.

Moebius · Post by **Moebius** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:38 am

Carl,

I am using a Sigma 150mm with a Sigma DG Super 500 flash in the shoe with a lumiquest softbox. Lighting was a real problem down there. Fortunately, RAW processing allows me to lighten these photos as many were slightly underexposed.

How close? Hmm, typical focal range for the lens...roughly 9-12 inches.

I have been showing a mixture of full-frames and crops. I believe the cicada is full frame and the katydid is near full frame (just trimmed off an edge to balance). Other days I have shown some images that were cropped quite a bit.

Thanks for the interest.

Ken

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:40 pm

Ken, great shots. I love the wings on #2. Keep it up and even I will shot some insects.

Irwin

Carl_Constantine · Post by **Carl_Constantine** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:55 pm

Moebius wrote:Carl,

I am using a Sigma 150mm with a Sigma DG Super 500 flash in the shoe with a lumiquest softbox. Lighting was a real problem down there. Fortunately, RAW processing allows me to lighten these photos as many were slightly underexposed.

Thanks for the info. I also have a Sigma DG SUper 500 Flash on my Rebel (300D) and an omnibounce diffuser. Really need to chat with you about how to really use my flash effectively. There's a post by me in one of the technical discussion forums. Maybe you can comment on it.

Thanks Ken.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:17 pm

Another wonderful set of insect pictures....YES, the wings are great on #2. The katydid sorta looks like he is trying to look like leaf litter

and I cannot wait to see the adult of the first one!!

Moebius · Post by **Moebius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:16 am

Carl,

I will try to help, even though I am not happy with my current lighting setup (perhaps it could be experience as well). I have found that the Sigma flash consistently underexposes for me. I have a buddy that has the exact same setup except for the flash (he uses a Canon 580) and when we use the same camera settings, mine are always darker than his.

I did not see the post you were referring to though. I saw one authored by you on "PanoTools". Is that the one?

Ken

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:07 am

Ken...
I hang out over in the microscope section, but lurk over here from time to time. Your amazon series is very impressive. I am amazed at the variety and quality of shots you obtained. On my monitor I have noticed that a few have looked too dark, as with the first image in this post. I loaded this image in Photoshop and the histogram and it looked like this:

A quick levels adjustment made a huge improvement in the histogram, and showed much more detail in the screen image. (Best to do this in the RAW conversion or with a 16bit/color rendition). Hope you don't mind the suggestion. When you have such fascinating images it's nice to see all the detail they hold!

Moebius · Post by **Moebius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:18 am

Charles,

I appreciate the response. That histogram looks all too familiar...most of my shots look like that with the gap on the right side. I have been learning lately to correct for that (so much to learn), but don't think I applied that knowledge to this shot. I do like to keep a somewhat dark pic of each subject, as that is how they appeared to me down there (not much sunshine poking through the trees). However, I do agree the first image is too dark and also several I have posted over the past few weeks. I will go back and do these over again, and will try adjusting the levels/curves on this one and repost tomorrow to see if it looks better.

I am also thinking my monitor at home is too bright, as they don't look so dark there. Adjusted the monitor via adjustment software (WiziWYG, but do not have a colorimeter to go with it...perhaps an investment in this may be in order.)

Honored to have garnered your attention; your microscope pics are unparalleled.

Ken

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:32 am

Ken, I also think your photographs will benefit if you adjust histogram. If result appear too bright for your opinion you can move a middle slider to the right somewhere between 0.95 and 0.90.

Moebius · Post by **Moebius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:25 pm

Is this one better? I went home during lunch and changed the levels a bit.

Reposts and reedits of my pics are always welcome...that is how I learn.

K

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:30 pm

I got custom with your "dark" style so I'm not sure now!