Some kind of fly?

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

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mjkzz
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Some kind of fly?

Post by mjkzz »

not sure what it is but a good subject to stack :D

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Again, the mitty 5x

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Sony A7III in electronic shutter and full frame mode
Mitutoyo 5x 0.14
Raynox 150 as tube lens
2 Strobes triggered by stacking controller
MJKZZ Ultra Rail
372 images at 15um step size
Plastic sheet domed over subject

mawyatt
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Post by mawyatt »

Peter,

Awesome as usual :D

I can't get that good an image with a new Mitty :roll:

What shutter time do you need with Sony to ensure that the strobe fires within the exposure period?

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

Macrero
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Location: Valladolid , Spain

Post by Macrero »

Hmm, I can clearly see the 0.5% quality loss cause of those scratches on the front element. :lol: I always found it funny when people get crazy about the minimal flaw on their lenses and objectives. I've had (and have) optics with apparently serious flaws: scratches, coating damage, dust and even slight delamination that after testing and comparison performs as a near mint unit.

By the way, have you tried the pixel shift mode on the a7R III? I am planning to get an a7R II ot III. Not sure if the pixel shift and 14 bits RAW with electronic shutter are worth the $$$ difference.


Best,

- Macrero
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Nice image. The fly appears to be a tabanid of some sort, like a horse fly or deer fly. The mouthparts that you can see are hiding sharp lancets that pierce skin to draw blood.

--Rik

razashaikh
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Post by razashaikh »

Stunning!

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

Mike,

thanks. I set L.On at 500ms and shutter speed to be 0.5s, due to shutter lag, this works very well, ie, the flash is fired during exposure.

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

Macrero wrote:Hmm, I can clearly see the 0.5% quality loss cause of those scratches on the front element. :lol: I always found it funny when people get crazy about the minimal flaw on their lenses and objectives. I've had (and have) optics with apparently serious flaws: scratches, coating damage, dust and even slight delamination that after testing and comparison performs as a near mint unit.

By the way, have you tried the pixel shift mode on the a7R III? I am planning to get an a7R II ot III. Not sure if the pixel shift and 14 bits RAW with electronic shutter are worth the $$$ difference.


Best,

- Macrero
hahaha, I do not know if that is sarcastic or you can really tell 0.5% degradation.

No, I have not tried pixel shift yet, but I will.

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

thanks Rik for clarification, so this is a blood sucking fly. When I caught it, I thought it was a hover fly, its belly is very green, no blood there :D

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

razashaikh wrote:Stunning!
thanks

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

Spent 4 hours learning how to do manual retouch in Zerene, I would suggest Rik to change the tutorial or I am missing something. One does not have to do both DMap and PMax to do retouch. I retouched the antenna + eye part, particularly the right antenna. What I did was to do a full PMax (1 whole hour) and the two antennas by selecting all input files only for the antenna part, then painted over the "transparent" part of antennas. This feature is so powerful!

These were done with 10x Mitutoyo, 501 images at 10um step size.

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Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

Super clean - very nice. Still can't get over how well that battered mitty works :)

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

mjkzz wrote:I am missing something. One does not have to do both DMap and PMax to do retouch. I retouched the antenna + eye part, particularly the right antenna. What I did was to do a full PMax (1 whole hour) and the two antennas by selecting all input files only for the antenna part, then painted over the "transparent" part of antennas.
Perhaps some of the context and motivation was not clear.

You're correct that it is not required to run both DMap and PMax. You can run either one, skip the other, then retouch just from original source or from some stack-selected intermediate output, as you did.

However, I generally recommend that people go the route of DMap+PMax because DMap is more faithful to color, contrast, and noise, while PMax is better for retaining detail with complex geometry, and going clear back to original source is tedious with deep stacks.

So in my experience the least-effort path to best possible results is to do what is shown in the tutorial: run both DMap and PMax, then start with DMap, retouch mostly from PMax where DMap messed up, then go clear back to original source only where PMax messed up also.

For the special case of "transparent foreground" artifact, some time may be saved by using the trick described in the tutorial "Using Stack Selected to Retouch Transparent Foreground". I'm guessing that's what you're describing by "selecting all input files only for the antenna part".
This feature is so powerful!
Thanks. Retouching is a big part of getting best possible results. That's why a good retouching capability is provided in every edition of Zerene Stacker, no matter what price point.

--Rik

Macrero
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Post by Macrero »

mjkzz wrote: hahaha, I do not know if that is sarcastic or you can really tell 0.5% degradation.

No, I have not tried pixel shift yet, but I will.
Pure sarcasm... There actually may be 0.5%, 5% or whatever % degradation due to the scratches, but that's imperceptible, even at 100%.

- Macrero
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

mawyatt
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Post by mawyatt »

rjlittlefield wrote:
mjkzz wrote:I am missing something. One does not have to do both DMap and PMax to do retouch. I retouched the antenna + eye part, particularly the right antenna. What I did was to do a full PMax (1 whole hour) and the two antennas by selecting all input files only for the antenna part, then painted over the "transparent" part of antennas.
Perhaps some of the context and motivation was not clear.

You're correct that it is not required to run both DMap and PMax. You can run either one, skip the other, then retouch just from original source or from some stack-selected intermediate output, as you did.

However, I generally recommend that people go the route of DMap+PMax because DMap is more faithful to color, contrast, and noise, while PMax is better for retaining detail with complex geometry, and going clear back to original source is tedious with deep stacks.

So in my experience the least-effort path to best possible results is to do what is shown in the tutorial: run both DMap and PMax, then start with DMap, retouch mostly from PMax where DMap messed up, then go clear back to original source only where PMax messed up also.

For the special case of "transparent foreground" artifact, some time may be saved by using the trick described in the tutorial "Using Stack Selected to Retouch Transparent Foreground". I'm guessing that's what you're describing by "selecting all input files only for the antenna part".
This feature is so powerful!
Thanks. Retouching is a big part of getting best possible results. That's why a good retouching capability is provided in every edition of Zerene Stacker, no matter what price point.

--Rik
Peter, Rik,

Interesting useful feature/technique "Using Stack Selected to Retouch Transparent Foreground" I was unaware of :shock:

Guess I need to read the tutorials again :roll:

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

mawyatt wrote:...Interesting useful feature/technique "Using Stack Selected to Retouch Transparent Foreground" I was unaware of :shock:
Don't worry. I only discovered the "Use all color channels in decisions" checkbox (for PMax) a couple of weeks ago. Haven't suffered a "problem stack" since (and I've done quite a few more than usual). Happiness :)

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