First Photo Post

cincy244 · Post by **cincy244** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 12:40 pm

Mosquito Larvae
Nikon D300 with 105mm Nikkor Micro,PB4 Bellows,12mm ext ring,21 images stacked with Stackshot and Helicon,post edited in Bibble.

Beetle (not sure what kind)
Nikon D300 with 105mm Nikkor Micro,PB4 Bellows,12mm ext ring,23 images stacked with Stackshot and CombineZP,post edited in Bibble

This is my current setup

setup

The learning curve is steep for me but l keep at it. I think I enjoy building different setups just as much as taking the photographs

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 12:50 pm

Looking good!

What sort of lighting & post-processing did you use to get the white background around the mosquito larva? I see a bit of light gray halo right around subject, but I'm not seeing the signs of retouching that are so common with plain white backgrounds so I'm thinking this is not retouched. Either way, nice work!

--Rik

cincy244 · Post by **cincy244** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 12:58 pm

Thanks Rik
I am using Nikons R1C1 flash system mounted at the end of the lens. The mosiquito was placed on a small white pill bottle cap to get the white background. As far as post processing I sharpened and adjusted the curves a little. I also removed a few dust specks. Any idea what I can do to get rid of the halo?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:13 pm

cincy244 wrote:Any idea what I can do to get rid of the halo?

The halo is caused by the subject casting shadows on the white substrate. One approach to getting rid of them is to suspend the subject on a clear slide, above the white background far enough that the shadows get all washed out. Illuminating the background separately can also help. To reduce reflections from the clear slide you might want to use a high quality anti-reflection coated filter instead.

--Rik