Eye of ant

[JH]

Eye of ant


Sometimes you want to make a picture but it takes some time to figure out how to do it. A lot of my pictures of eyes have turned out like the first example...



Finally I got the possibility to use cross polarized EPI light and the pictures started to look like this.



Final picture, eye of ant (Formica) Nikon plan 60x ELWD and cross polarized light, ZereneStacker, SlabberJockey.



Regards Jörgen

[rjlittlefield]

Thanks for the illustrations.

Finally I got the possibility to use cross polarized EPI light

Just checking... Does this mean delivered through the objective?

--Rik

[JH]

Hello Rik

Yes - I use an old Nikon universal epi-illuminator with a polarizing slider (rotating polarizing lens) and an analyzer (fixed polarizing lens).

I have tried to use polarizing filters on my led-lamps and on a flash but the EPI light gives the best result so far. Without the polarizers the EPI-light tends to give a lot of haze/flare.

I would like to know if anyone has tried this combination - flash/diffuser/polarizing filter/subject/ polarizing filter/camera -

I guess that some of the problems I have (the first example) could be solved with plan apo -lenses.

Regards Jörgen

[Pau]

I guess that some of the problems I have (the first example) could be solved with plan apo -lenses.

This is axial (longitudinal) chromatic aberration. Apochromatic lenses are better corrected in this regard but not always fully corrected. The advantage is that it's present only in out of focus areas and -while difficult to remove in single images- stacking can remove it very effectively as it ignores OOF areas, this can be easily seen in your images.

Are your polarizers fully crossed?. I ask it because they still show lot of reglection at the omatidia surface.

[JH]

Hello Pau

Are your polarizers fully crossed?. I ask it because they still show lot of reglection at the omatidia surface.

I did try to use a fully crossed polarization - but probably not perfect.

Do you think that there could be something happening inside the ommatidium? I ask because I have had problems with remaining reflections in semi transparent objects before, reflections that I do not have when I use a diffuser and flash or led light.

Jörgen

[Pau]

I don't know, perhaps there is some birrefringence inside that may alter the polarization of light, I haven't enough experience in this case.