Egg clutches

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

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Guppy
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Egg clutches

Post by Guppy »

Hi

Between the edge of the forest and the fields was a pile of freshly cut branches.
There I discovered on a leaf underside (black poplar?) this Egg clutches with 56 eggs,
presumably from an owl butterfly species, more details are welcome.
From macro to micro.

Image
www.focus-stacking.ch/B/05288_00.JPG
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Rodenstock APO Rodagon N 1:2.8, f = 50mm
Aperture: 4.8
ISO: 64
Lighting: 3 flash units, YONGNUO YN560III
Diffuser: White writing paper
Shooting file format (RAW/JPG): RAW
Bleed amount in % (width & height): 5, 5
Tripod: Reprostand
habitat found: forest edge
Stacking Software / Method: Zerene Stacker / PMax
Imaging scale: 3:1
Number of stack steps: 56
Average stack step size (µm) with Cognisys StackShot: 30

Image
www.focus-stacking.ch/B/05293_00.JPG
Lens: Laowa 25mm F 2.8, 2.5-5X Ultra Macro
Exposure time: Flash
Aperture: 2.8
Lighting: 3 flashes, YONGNUO YN560III
magnification: 4.5:1
Number of stack steps: 397
Average stack step size (µm) with Cognisys StackShot: 20

Image
www.focus-stacking.ch/B/05292_00.JPG
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: MITUTOYO M Plan Apo 10X/0.28 ∞/0 f=200
Tube lens: Nikon ITL200
Illumination: 1 flash unit, YONGNUO YN560III
magnification: 10:1
Number of stack steps: 813
Average stack step size (µm) with Cognisys StackShot: 5

Image
www.focus-stacking.ch/B/05291_00.JPG
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: MITUTOYO M Plan Apo 20X/0.42 ∞/0 f=200
Tube lens: Nikon ITL200
Illumination: 2 flash units, YONGNUO YN560III
magnification: 20:1
Number of stack steps: 672
Average stack step size (µm) with Cognisys StackShot: 2

Kurt
Last edited by Guppy on Wed Sep 22, 2021 1:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Beautiful! As I understand it, the sculptured pattern on insect egg shells are the outlines of the cells in the female ovary. The egg shell is secreted by cells surrounding the eggs, and they leave an outline of the same cells.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

leonardturner
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by leonardturner »

A most impressive sequence, beautifully presented. Thank you!

Leonard

Sumguy01
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Sumguy01 »

=D> Very nice
Thanks for sharing.

rjlittlefield
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by rjlittlefield »

These are lovely!

I see in the second image, there are some obvious dark spots that are absent or almost so in all the other photos.

I wonder, was that stack shot last, and the spots are developing larvae?

MarkSurtevant wrote:As I understand it, the sculptured pattern on insect egg shells are the outlines of the cells in the female ovary. The egg shell is secreted by cells surrounding the eggs, and they leave an outline of the same cells.
That makes sense, but it's the first I have heard of this. Do you have a link handy, where I could read more?

--Rik

jurkovicovic
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by jurkovicovic »

Guppy! perfect work, like always.
I like it!
rjlittlefield wrote:
Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:56 am
I see in the second image, there are some obvious dark spots that are absent or almost so in all the other photos.
I wonder, was that stack shot last, and the spots are developing larvae?
--Rik
Just a thought ...
It seems to me that the transparent parts of the eggs in the detailed photos are colored / contaminated with a diffuser.
canon EOS *

Guppy
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Guppy »

Hi Rik

Very well observed, that is interesting!
First I stacked the first picture (overview), then the fourth (very close 20x), then the third (10x) and the second picture one day later.
In the third picture you can already see some dark spots, probably the head of the caterpillars.
On the second picture, one day later, the caterpillars are already developed, you can see the dark spots on almost every egg.

Kurt

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by MarkSturtevant »

rjlittlefield wrote:
Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:56 am
That makes sense, but it's the first I have heard of this. Do you have a link handy, where I could read more?
--Rik
It was a thing mentioned in one of my Entomology classes long, long ago. But I did manage to find this mention of it:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730735/. 3rd paragraph down.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

rjlittlefield
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by rjlittlefield »

MarkSturtevant wrote:
Mon Sep 20, 2021 5:03 pm
I did manage to find this mention of it:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730735/. 3rd paragraph down.
Excellent, thanks!

--Rik

Lou Jost
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Lou Jost »

These are very beautiful. I am curious about why you chose the Apo Rodagon for the m=3 photos rather than the Laowa 2.5x-5x, which you used for the m=4.5 shots. Also I am curious about your choice of aperture for the m=4.5 shots. In my copy of that lens, the best aperture is about halfway between 2.8 and 4. Your results are great, maybe the smaller aperture you used makes the images easier to stack?

Sym P. le
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Sym P. le »

MarkSturtevant » Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:31 am

... the sculptured pattern on insect egg shells are the outlines of the cells in the female ovary
(whoops, I hit submit instead of preview, but it's a good quote, really :? )

So there would be a copy pattern in all of the eggs given the same orientation? I sense an inner compulsive battle brewing.

Guppy
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Guppy »

Hi Lou

I'm glad you like the pictures.

At 3:1 the Laowa resolves a little higher than the APO Rodagon N 50mm.

Directly on the repro stand I have the Nikon bellows mounted, Nikon D810 in the back and lenses in the front.
For 3:1 I would have to mount the Laowa directly to the camera and the camera directly to the repro stand, remounting was too cumbersome for me, I'm ashamed!

For 4.5:1 I can use the Laowa on the bellows (49mm) if the lens is at 2.5:1.

From the lens side, the difference in image quality between f/2.8 and f/3.4 is small, not visible in the stacked image,
but I can expose half a stop brighter for the same light (ETTR) and get more light values in the range of one stop and the noise is rather lower as a result, ....
this is also not visible in the image 😊

The sum of 5 factors for image enhancement that cannot be seen individually is visible in the image!

Kurt

Lou Jost
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Lou Jost »

Thank you for the additional information, Kurt. Thee was one part that I did not understand:
From the lens side, the difference in image quality between f/2.8 and f/3.4 is small, not visible in the stacked image,
but I can expose half a stop brighter for the same light (ETTR) and get more light values in the range of one stop and the noise is rather lower as a result, ....
That makes good sense. But my puzzlement wasn't about why you used the wider aperture, rather the opposite. Your caption said you used a very small aperture (4.5) for that shot. I guess that was just a misprint. Then it all makes sense! And that explains why the picture is so nice.

Guppy
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Guppy »

Hi Lou

Now I understand, I wrote that wrong!
With the Laowa I used the aperture 2.8.
I have corrected it now.
Very attentive, thank you very much.

Kurt

Lou Jost
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Re: Egg clutches

Post by Lou Jost »

Thanks for your confirmation. Your photos are so good that I wanted to understand all details,.

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