Macro-photography

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Hi Michael, I found this poor little bee on my door step that can barely move prior to cycling this morning. An ant is tugging on his legs so I placed him near a leaf and an early morning sunshine. When I got back from my run the poor thing is dead.

I took a picture of him prior to placing him back in my garden. I took a 180 stack shots. Each picture is taken at an increments of 0.125mm. Taken at 1:1 magnification. HeliconFocus is brilliant and was able to merge all the photos in without any issue despite high numbers of shot taken. I don't think its necessary to take that much but I was testing the software if it can handle it.

First uncropped picture.

 

 

Second with cropped borders.

 

Third cropped which focused closely to the head.

 

Wish I can magnify closer to see more fine details. Each hair looks sharp and the fuzzy look of the bee was captured very well.

BW,

Raphael

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 24/05/2020 18:04:26

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 24/05/2020 18:05:14

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Excellent result, Raphael

I don’t think there is much to choose between Helicon Focus and Zerene Stacker

… I just happen to use Zerene, and knew there was some good introductory text on the link I provided for Hans.

MichaelG.

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

These are in-between my ultrasonic tank and mag-stand.

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Thanks Michael. Here is another algorithm stocking option from Helicon focus. It is 180 stack so they advise if its over 100 shots option C needs to be chosen for rendering. I tried it and observe that the fuzzy area near the wings are all gone.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Raphael Golez on 24/05/2020 18:04:03:

[…]

Wish I can magnify closer to see more fine details.

.

Then you may like this, Raphael

It’s a detail from the wing of Volucella pellucens, near to the root

[ stacked image, from a prepared microscope slide ]

.

I was intrigued to see what looks remarkably like a spring, or an hydraulic ram, or a damper

I think it's a spring, which allows the Alula [winglet] to toggle into one of two positions, to change the aerodynamics … but I have yet to find a clear explanation.

… The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.

MichaelG.

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volucella_pellucens

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/05/2020 19:15:26

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 24/05/2020 19:12:53:

Posted by Raphael Golez on 24/05/2020 18:04:03:

[…]

Wish I can magnify closer to see more fine details.

.

Then you may like this, Raphael

It’s a detail from the wing of Volucella pellucens, near to the root

[ stacked image, from a prepared microscope slide ]

.

I was intrigued to see what looks remarkably like a spring, or an hydraulic ram, or a damper

I think it's a spring, which allows the Alula [winglet] to toggle into one of two positions, to change the aerodynamics … but I have yet to find a clear explanation.

… The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.

MichaelG.

.

**LINK**

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/05/2020 19:15:26

Fantastic magnification Michael. Micro world of arthropods are complicated. The wings of this small flyers are very complicated. Likely they take the flight information generated by their wings and its sensory component (hairs and a lot more structures such as the one you posted) to make minute adjustment during flight and use it to control their wings. Think of it as a very sophisticated structure that allows lift, drag, variable pitch etc. Its the ultimate flying structure made. A wing and a propeller with variable geometry during flight. If we can reverse engineer it and make one I think that would be the ultimate evolution of flight (birds and bat not included here in the discussion).

Great to see this Michael. Post some more. This thread is getting more and more interesting.

BW

Raphael

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Raphael Golez on 24/05/2020 19:42:55:

 

Great to see this Michael. Post some more. This thread is getting more and more interesting.

.

O.K. … one more for now

Mallow pollen, in situ, from a wonderful vintage microscope slide mounted ‘without pressure’

.

.

Any physical resemblance to coronavirus is entirely coincidental

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/05/2020 20:36:09

[peak4Participant @peak4]

I was having a quick play earlier on whilst I was photographing some milling cutter chucks for an album I'll eventually upload on the forum. All the following are pretty much uncropped, save for trimming the edges where I straightened them up, or changed the aspect ratio.

When you look up close, you can see why cheap taps are a bit of a pain to use.

And one from the Clarkson collet chuck; the characters are a little under 2mm tall.

I was quite impressed with the neatness of the engraving, to say it looks hand done.

The last one was taken with the Olympus 60mm macro & 10mm + 16mm extension tubes, on an E-M1 Mk2.

The pair of the tap, I was trying for a bit more magnification, so used the older 4/3 50mm macro with a 25mm extension, which gives a 1:1 magnification, still on the same m4/3s body.
[On the 4/3 DSLRs only one accessory is recognised, hence using it on the micro 4/3s body, where I could cheat, by using an extension tube on either side of the adaptor.]
This meant I could use the m4/3s to 4/3 adaptor and add both 10mm + 16mm extension tubes.
The front of the 50mm also sported a Sigma macro anastigmatic doublet; it doesn't give as much magnification as a Raynox, but it's all I have.

I think this is about as magnified as I can get without trying something more exotic; I was struggling for depth of field on the tap as it was.

Bill

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Raphael,

Until I scanned the Internet, I had only known of the cross-eyed method of unaided stereo viewing. This **LINK** explains various techniques including free-viewing which might work for you. For me, it doesn’t.

My brain seems to have been exercised on too many occasions to only take a cross-eyed view of things.

I've arranged this for free-viewing, and hope it works for you.

Sam

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Sam Stones on 24/05/2020 23:16:34:

This **LINK** explains various techniques including free-viewing which might work for you. For me, it doesn’t.

My brain seems to have been exercised on too many occasions to only take a cross-eyed view of things.

Just to be clear, Sam "free-viewing" encompasses both wall-eyed (parallel) and cross-eyed viewing.

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Yes, I 'see' what you mean

What a wonderful thread, and so much to learn.

Keep it going Bandersnatch.

Sam

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Sam, I still can't see this type by unaided stereo viewing even using the unaided techniques in the link, I remember trying on this Stereoscopic 1 which Michael Gilligan posted back in May 2015, it woks with my stereoscopic viewer though as do this Stereoscopic 2 or this Stereoscopic 3 which I've downloaded on my phone and your one works very well on my phone too.

Regards Nick.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Raphael, really excellent photo of the bee.

Jack Hobson, beautiful photos of your birds.

Regards Nick.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi MichaelG, very good microscopic photos, this is probably the best I'm ever going to achieve Digital Microscope taken with one of those cheap USB microscopes.

Regards Nick.

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

My macro lens goes closer than those birds, but this is as close as it gets…

Today I used my lock-down purchase Oxygen Concentrator to silver solder this (watch hands) hole gaugeback together. I was incredibly annoyed when I snapped it this morning but I think I'm more than happy that I managed to to fix this – and it is very strong! Still needs a tidy up.

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Just been having another quick play as a diversionary tactic to doing something useful.

I thought I'd try a slightly different setup to attempt a bit more magnification, which I achieved, but at the expense of it being almost impossible to grab focus without a movable stage.
Camera is on a decent tripod, and tap is on a folding coffee table, but both on a laminate floor, so taking a good 10 seconds for vibrations to die down after trying to set the focus.

Same M1 tap as before;

and a slightly larger 10BA one;

Both images uncropped, barring change of format to 16:9

Olympus E-M1 Mk2 150mm Sigma 4/3s + 25mm 4/3s extension tube, adaptor to m4/3s, & 10mm + 16mm tubes.
F11, so maybe a bit of diffraction coming into play to blur the image as well.
Clearly I need more practice (and some better metric taps).

Not sure the photography's much better, but the tap seems to be higher quality.

Bill

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Sam, if you're interested – or becoming interested – in 3D Stereo, you might want to browse this site.

[Grizzly bearParticipant @grizzlybear]

This is not a competitor. Just asking if anyone can put a name to it. Ruler in mm

. Attempted suicide in a bucket of water. It had a sting (Untested).

The bee was as black as a crow.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Dozens of these emerged from our pocket handkerchief sized "lawn" this morning. I've no idea what they are – about 8mm from nose to tail.

Nikon D90, Sigma 50mm Macro lens and 12mmextension tube.

Stay well,

Rod

[Grizzly bearParticipant @grizzlybear]

Roderick,

Cockchafer beetle adult.

The larvae live in the soil, eating your grass roots.https://www.bing.com/search?

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/other-garden-wildlife/insects-and-other-invertebrates/beetles-and-bugs/cockchafer/

[Roger Provins 2Participant @rogerprovins2]

 

First one is Carpenter bee.

Edited By Roger Provins 2 on 25/05/2020 18:44:09

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Hi Grizzly,

The bug is much smaller than a cockchafer or a summer chafer – less than half an inch in length. It looks similar to a cockchafer but in miniature.

Rod

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

A Garden Chafer?

Neil

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

Hi Rod, might be a "Harpalus Affinis" when compared to the bugs in my Collins British insect book.

Ed.

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

An experiment in making model split big-end bearings for a twin marine engine and a couple of insects from the garden. More insects in the album. The bearings are Ø5.0mm ID.

Ed.

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