Cranefly

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:55 am

Photographed using my Canon Powershot S50 with Wild M8 stereo microscope. 20 image stack combined using Helicon Focus.

This Cranefly has been waiting some time for its portrait to be taken and today I finally got round to it.

Minimal retouching leaving just a little haloing. Lighting was diffuse filament lamp with white paper reflector.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 11:21 am

Abolutely a gorgous shot there Graham, I neve knew a Cranefly could look so good. Excellent work

Ib Mathiasen · Post by **Ib Mathiasen** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:52 pm

It´s a real beauty

- and a find work of stakking, with many fin detail.
The light at the body are a littel bit to hard, and details is lost here

But superior a find foto

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 7:32 pm

Graham... good results on a tricky (very 3D) subject to stack. I have a question... does the software seem to have any difficulty with the slight "shift" between images that result from using a stereo scope?

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 11:17 pm

Charlie, no problems with image shift. I've noticed that Helicon seems to take this in its stride, and indeed was quite surprised that I could work almost up to the image edges with little problem. I think it is probably important to ensure that focus shifts by fixed increments, then the software can find the best correction.

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:40 am

Graham, that's good to hear. It would be great to have the working distance at the magnification range a stereo can provide. I've become so reliant on the stacking software for so many images in that range that it's an important point to consider. (The few non-stereo "macroscopes" I watch for are usually out of my price range)

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:12 pm

Wonderful photo Graham. I really like the way the head and antennae show off all the detail and the stabilizers are pretty cool also.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:58 pm

Very nice photo Graham - almost certainly a female from the colour, shape and girth of the abdomen.

Hey...and didn't the UK see some craneflies in 2006! Can't remember a year when there were quite so many.

Bruce

svalley · Post by **svalley** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:41 pm

Nice shot Graham. I wonder if you might be able to tone down the hot spot on the thorax with a luminosity mask and a negative curve. It looks like there is still detail there that you could pull out.