butterfly scales

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

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nanometer
Posts: 324
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 10:14 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ

butterfly scales

Post by nanometer »

Still on my starting road. Got a change to get a few expired butterfly samples. They weren't in great shape, but good enough especially for my first look at these. All with a 20x mitty and my old Minolta 80-200 APO for the tube lens. 6 um steps for each.

First the blue morpho. I read a bit about how this iridescence is created and it's amazing. Scale transparent to red, and then the structured channels seem to only let a blue diffraction band out for any reflectance angle. The fine striations are clearly visible, but not at this image size.

Image

Leopard lacewing:


Image

Cairn's birdwing (I think):

Image

I have a few more up if anyone is interested:

http://lavinia.as.arizona.edu/~swest/butterfly_scales/

In all an informative and fun day.

Steve

Smokedaddy
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Location: Bigfork, Montana
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Post by Smokedaddy »

Nice Steve, just curious, where did you get the specimens?

nanometer
Posts: 324
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 10:14 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ

Post by nanometer »

I got them from a local live butterfly exhibit here in town. They usually give the expired ones to the local schools and nowhere else, but when I showed them a picture of my macro rig, they gave me a few.

Olympusman
Posts: 5090
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm

Scales

Post by Olympusman »

Very very nice images.

Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

razashaikh
Posts: 124
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:40 pm
Location: India

Post by razashaikh »

Wow! Looks Amazing.

nanometer
Posts: 324
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 10:14 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ

Post by nanometer »

Thanks so much for looking and the nice comments.

I made my first attempt with a Madagascan Sunset moth. Lighting is difficult due to their high curvatures and reflectivity.

Image

Smokedaddy
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:16 am
Location: Bigfork, Montana
Contact:

Post by Smokedaddy »

Very nice!

nanometer
Posts: 324
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 10:14 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ

Post by nanometer »

I finally got a decent pic of the sunset moth scales

Image

Still not quite a s nice as I'd like, but it was a big step with the lighting.

Smokedaddy
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:16 am
Location: Bigfork, Montana
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Post by Smokedaddy »

That's outstanding from my perspective. Same setup? What did you change lighting wise?

nanometer
Posts: 324
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 10:14 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ

Post by nanometer »

I couldn't get any configuration with a ring light to work. In the end, just the domed diffuser and a lot of trial and error with 2 FO lights shining on the dome. I found that keeping the lighting aimed low so as to graze over the top of the scales and then the light direction should be along the axis of the scale cylinders.

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