Simple diffusion

A forum to ask questions, post setups, and generally discuss anything having to do with photomacrography and photomicroscopy.

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NikonUser
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Simple diffusion

Post by NikonUser »

Saw my 1st fly yesterday (31 iii 17) although we still have about 2 feet + of snow in the garden. It is a late Spring!
As expected this species is always one of the first to appear, just had to take some photos.
Thought I would show my simple technique along with one of the original frames and the final Zerene PMax stack.

Image


Image
Image
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

JH
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Post by JH »

Nice stack - and I like the no dust sollution! :D
Regards Jörgen
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

siliconGary
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Post by siliconGary »

Awesome image! The question I always have looking at these fantastic bug shots is "How do you capture and kill the fly and keep it looking good" especially with 2 foot of snow on the ground :)

+7C here (Ottawa) tomorrow - we might soon be seeing Spring at last!

NikonUser
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Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

siliconGary wrote: "How do you capture and kill the fly and keep it looking good" !
Mostly luck. This is a small,length 4 mm, House Fly (Caricea, Muscidae). Likely overwinters as an adult. It landed on my hand whilst I was sitting in the sun on a snow-free patch on my deck. Captured in a snap-cap pill vial (these have to be scrupulously clean inside!). With all the snow I guess it did not have the opportunity to get dirty.
A few hours in a freezer was enough to kill the fly and fortunately it died with its wings raised.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

Deanimator
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Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Post by Deanimator »

It's a beautiful image.

How many images were stacked?

I ask because DSLR Controller sometimes chooses seventy or more exposures. I'm using continuous lighting because I'm not terribly inclined to cook my good Sigma flash with 77 consecutive actuations.

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

You should find you only need a very low flash power, maybe 1/16th or 1/8th. With no moving parts I think they'd last a long time doing that.

When you get to much higher magnification, it's surprising how directional this sort of bounced light appears to be. Then you need, eg., more flash guns, double diffusers, etc.
Chris R

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

I regularly make my cheap Yongnuo flashes do 700-800 consecutive flashes 6-8 seconds apart. Sometimes running these stacks repeatedly all day. They are fine. They are at 1/32 power or less. I use an external battery pack to get them through the stack.

Deanimator
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Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, U.S.A.

Post by Deanimator »

Lou Jost wrote:I regularly make my cheap Yongnuo flashes do 700-800 consecutive flashes 6-8 seconds apart. Sometimes running these stacks repeatedly all day. They are fine. They are at 1/32 power or less. I use an external battery pack to get them through the stack.
What are you using to control the camera(s)?

I don't think that DSLR Controller allows you to control the time between exposures.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

I use an Olympus MFT camera when focus-bracketing. Its in-camera focus-bracketing function includes a user-input interval for charging time. [Edit--the Yongnuos (usually at least two at once, which lets me use lower power per flash) are triggered as slaves from a master battery-less flash on the hot shoe of the Oly.] I also use Stackshot which is adjustable of course.
Last edited by Lou Jost on Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Deanimator wrote: How many images were stacked?
I ask because DSLR Controller sometimes chooses seventy or more exposures. I'm using continuous lighting because I'm not terribly inclined to cook my good Sigma flash with 77 consecutive actuations.
As others have noted using low magnification, even @ ISO 64, I need only about 1/64 or 1/32 power for my Nikon SB-900 flash @ 1/200 sec.
For this image I used 41 images @ 0.1 mm for the stack, hand cranking for each shot and a manual wired (to the camera) trigger for the flash.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

billjanes1
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 1:59 pm
Location: Lake Forest, IL, USA

Post by billjanes1 »

NikonUser wrote:
Deanimator wrote: How many images were stacked?
I ask because DSLR Controller sometimes chooses seventy or more exposures. I'm using continuous lighting because I'm not terribly inclined to cook my good Sigma flash with 77 consecutive actuations.
As others have noted using low magnification, even @ ISO 64, I need only about 1/64 or 1/32 power for my Nikon SB-900 flash @ 1/200 sec.
For this image I used 41 images @ 0.1 mm for the stack, hand cranking for each shot and a manual wired (to the camera) trigger for the flash.
Beautiful image. How did you mount the specimen? I see no pins or obvious means of attachment. Thank you very much for sharing the image and some of your setup. It helps those of us who are just getting started in this type of work.

Bill

NikonUser
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Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Bill: see
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=18020
One can use just 1 pin as I did for this image. Important to have quite a long pin so as not to have any shadows.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

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