Daphnia - 'ghost-like' young ones

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:23 pm

Hi everybody!

I've been lurking here for some time, today I decided to post for the first time. Your images here represent mostly really outstanding quality, its a pleasure to look at them. I'm still waiting for some parts for my setup so a way I'm taking photos is the worst imaginable and about 95% of the results are so as well...

These very young water fleas came out from their mother when the coverslip forced the birth... they looked like ghosts and I really regret that I had no possilbility to take a good quality picture.
Nikon CF 10x PlanApo objective, combined rheinberg/obligue illumination filter

I have noticed that I'm not the only one from Poland here (:

Sorry for my English. For now and for future...

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:24 am

A very nice first image. I like the lighting. Oblique illumination, with or without additional Rheinberg colour effects, can be very effective, very DIC-like in fact. I don't think your photo is at all bad either, even if you don't feel you have optimised your camera couplng method. I think the picture might be improved a little more with some post-processing. I would consider some noise reduction, followed by some contrast enhancement and a little sharpening if you have access to the software to do this. How much you do in post-processing is of course a matter of personal decision. It would be good to know a bit more about your microscope and camera setup.

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:03 am

thank you (: it could be very DIC-like indeed, but only when using low power objectives like 4x or 10x. sometimes it works on 20x, but is impossible on higher magnifications. At least I can't do it well.

My image is edited in PS. if it's not I would not dare to post it here... So things like contrast, sharpness and light balance must have been corrected to make it closer to the image I can see through eyepeieces. I don't like when an image is edited too much but I have no choice right now - the camera is simply placed on the eyepiece to take a photo :/ so the first thing to do is to crop the image - what you see above is about 30% of the frame, so the resolution can't be good... the second thing is to change the way of taking images.

my current camera is canon power shot S5IS. I'm waiting for a DSLR adapter right now, when I get it I will test it with my friend's nikon D80. And if everything goes well I will have to make another custom adapter to make the camera parafocal with eyepieces and to connect it with the microscope (Nikon Microphot FXA)

dennisua · Post by **dennisua** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:09 am

I don't have any experience to comment technical details (although I think the image is very good) but those things are certainly ghost like and fun to watch!

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:14 am

I'm sure you will enjoy having a DSLR. One significant benefit is the reduction in noise. Using my Zeiss Standard, I have found that oblique illumination works best at X25 to X60, but this may be very dependent on the condenser used and the method of obtaining oblique effects.

Marek Mis · Post by **Marek Mis** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:07 pm

Hello Litonotus,
It is very nice to see you at this forum.
I sometimes look at our Polish forum where you present your microphotographs. Some of them are very nice. I can agree with Cactusdave if about the camera. You obviously must get the SLR to minimize the noise. Your image you sent now is interesting and looking three dimensional. If about post processing, in my opinion, sometimes is worth to do it. It certainly depends on quality of your image. Some images are too pale, weak contrast or not enaugh sharp. Then it is better to improve them instead of leaving poor quality (looking similar to this one observed through the eyepiece). I can see you have a good quality microscope.
I hope to see more of you at this forum. So we are already three from Poland here

Pozdrawiam serdecznie,

Marek

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:49 pm

Hi Marek (:
I have nothing against post processing like noise reduction, contrast correction etc. but I think making a 50 year old woman to look like a hot 18 is too much...

Yes, there are three of us here now, but in Poland too...

I decided to use litonotus nick name because planapo is already taken.

I have nikon achr 0.9 swing out condenser. I obtain obligue illumination by inserting custom made slider under it.

I will post more images when I complete my setup, or maybe sooner if I take one that is good enough to show here (:

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:29 pm

Very good pics and wellcome!
if you want to get a good oblique illumination you have to rise up (max extention) the condenser and open all diaphragms..
best
arturo

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:02 pm

Welcome to the group!

I've looked at this picture a few different occasions now. Enjoyed it every time. Very dramatic image.

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 7:04 am

it is very nice to hear something like that from you, thank you (:

that picture is something that happens only once no matter how many times you try to take a similar one... but when I have better equipment I will try