Macro-photography

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

No great merit in this, but I thought it might encourage people to take a closer look at the commonplace.

I'm working on a large Russian microscope, and this was just a test shot:

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Excuse the colour-fringes please … There is still some investigation to do.

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It's from an ink-jet print on white paper … part of a 1.8mm high letter B

MichaelG.

[Grizzly bearParticipant @grizzlybear]

Roderick,

Looks like Ed & Neil have got it sorted.

Roger,

Thanks for the bee I.D

Bear..

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Jack, Thanks for posting your macro shots here. Enjoyed looking at those tiny chicks.

Michael, your pictures are all fascinating. Great you can magnify thing much better than the rest of us. I'm at awe the details we can't see with our naked eyes. Keep sharing your work here.

Bill, great close up macro. Is that corrosion in your taps or just work debris? Are you still putting extension tubes on your 150mm Macro? Very nice! Are you using off-camera flash or this is all natural light? Keep posting your pics.

Edited By Raphael Golez on 25/05/2020 21:01:50

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Baer, thanks for sharing your pictures here. Never seen that type of bee before. Roger, thanks for the ID. I remember a species of carpenter bee back home in the Philippines. It is huge and yellow in colour. It bores holes in dead wood. I don't know how they do it though.

Rod, great capture there. Thanks for sharing your macros. Keep it coming.

Ed, great details on your machining. These macro lens opens up a lot of fine detail that we can appreciate. Nice capture on the winged insects.

Michael , keep the high magnification pictures coming.

Enjoyed all the work and discussion here.

BW

Raphael

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Garden Chafer looks correct. Thanks. Here's another pic from this morning. The beetles don't look as shiny as in the references but I suspect this is because:

a) they've only just emerged

b) we have very sandy soil

Stay well,

Rod

P.S. we saw our first Green Hairstreak butterfly yesterday so that's 2 new insects in 2 days

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Posted by Raphael Golez on 25/05/2020 20:53:54:

……..

Bill, great close up macro. Is that corrosion in your taps or just work debris? Are you still putting extension tubes on your 150mm Macro? Very nice! Are you using off-camera flash or this is all natural light? Keep posting your pics.

Edited By Raphael Golez on 25/05/2020 21:01:50

Cheer Raphael, I don't think I've ever used the 1mm one, it just came as part of a very cheap set 35+ years ago, and has probably got a touch of surface rust. Clearly it's quite poor quality, but the dies that came with it have been used for some 1.2mm & 2mm screws I've made to repair a spotting scope.
The 10BA one looks like it's been badly stored in the past, as the shank is unreadable, but that was clearly used before I bought the set second hand as the business end was still full of tapping fluid.

The camera is micro 4/3 but the 150mm Sigma macro lens is normal 4/3s so needs an adaptor to work OK with the newer camera.
The 4/3s standard only allows the use of one accessory at a time, so you can use a teleconverter or an extension tube, but not both at the same time, which is a pain.
It's possible to fiddle things a bit more with micro 4/3, so these last two photos were taken with a combination.
First the camera body, then 10mm + 16mm extension tubes, then the 4/3s to micro 4/3s converter, followed by a 4/3s 25mm extension tube, and lastly the 150mm Sigma.
The lens itself goes up to 1:1 and then a further 51mm of extension tubes, so not sure what final magnification it ends up.
I did try the same setup using the 4/3s 50mm macro, but the focus point was only about 10mm in front of the lens; the 150mm Sigma gives a better working distance.

One clever facility of this Olympus body, is that it allows "in camera" stacking of up to 15 images, each with a slightly different focus point. (It also allows auto stacking of 99 shots, but that one needs to be stacked in an external program.
Unfortunately, with the Sigma lens being non-Olympus, this facility is disabled, hence using F11 for the last two shots.

I do have a later Micro 4/3s Olympus 60mm macro which I used with the pair of extensions in the previous photos.
That allows stacking fine.

All photos were in natural light in the conservatory.
It was more of a problem with the recently uploaded album of Milling Cutter Chucks, I mentioned in another thread I originated a couple of days ago. The lighting angles caused too many highlights. Drawing the blinds didn't help as there was too much light coming through the plastic roof. Arguably I might have been better with a ring flash, or a home made LED ring light I made years ago, before these new halo lights arrived on the scene.

I don't claim to be experienced in macro photography at all, though i do take shots every now and then; it was your initial post that prompted me to have a play, so thanks for the prod with a sharp stick.

Bill

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

This picture has little merit in itself. It’s more about the way and with what it was taken.

If I’m alert to their demise, I tend to rescue the few flying insects that have fallen into the birdbath. There has been the occasional bee struggling for her life and for which I see no threat. With their unpredictable nature however, wasps lose out. The ladybird presented no such threat that I was aware of.

While it sat on my finger as a drying-out option, it was also a good opportunity for my wife to grab the relatively new Sony-HDR-CX405 Handycam. The camera specification boasts a 30x optical zoom and a digital zoom (extension) of unmentionable range.

Here was a unique occasion to test the zoom.

Unfortunately, in the brilliant Australian sunshine, it was almost impossible to see the image in the LCD. Focus was supposed to be both automatic and manual, although I can only recall being unable to stop the camera from grabbing a sharp image of the brick wall in the background. It should also have been easy to operate the camera with one hand while my other hand was preoccupied. It wasn’t.

Struggling to keep the insect in frame while the camera preferred to focus on the background, in my haste to get the picture, I couldn’t remember which button to press or where it was on the camera. It took a smart woman to come to my rescue and between us … Success!

There have been other specimens to survive the birdbath experience, but this will do for now.

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 26/05/2020 02:16:31

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

I forgot to mention …

Thank you Bandersnatch for the '3DStereo.com' **LINK**

Nick, I can offer no extra help, but after years of on/off practice, I can squint and grab the images in seconds.

It must be a special gift … well not really.

To everyone … 'Good luck, and keep safe'.

Sam

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

To Mr and Mrs Stones … and the wizards at Sony

My greatest admiration and respect.

MichaelG.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

My claim for the smallest object so far. The 3 curly gentlemen going about their lawful occasions here are Spirochaete Bacteria, taken with an oil immersion apochromat.

1200x magnification is approaching the limit of optical imagery because objects are becoming large in terms of the wavelength of light. Even the very best lens struggle and really big magnifications dump light microscopy in favour of an electron beam. So beware of taking fine details in images like this too literally – they may be optical aberrations rather than biological structure. Particularly when the photo was taken on an inexpensive microscope!

Syphilis is the best known Spirochaete. No idea what these guys are, they came from a Hay Infusion, not an STD I picked up off a toilet seat. A Hay Infusion is posh microscopy-speak for bunging a handful of grass into a jam-jar half-full of water and watching it decompose over several weeks! Bacteria appear first, then an entire eco-system of larger animalcules until pollution kills the whole lot. Disintegrating vegetable matter is interesting too.

Dave

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Very impressive, Dave … nicely done !!

MichaelG.

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Edit:

Couldn’t resist the visual similarity to Astro images

’All aboard for the Spirochæte Galaxy’

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 26/05/2020 09:35:59

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Nice picture Dave, However I don't think this is T. Pallidum. It could not exist long out side the human body as its is the only known reservoir of the disease. I don't think it will exist in your hay infusion either but you might be right that this might be a Spirochaete. The other most important Spirochaete (there a several) that exist in nature that cause a significant medical problem in humans is Leptospira which causes Leptospirosis. It can be found in moist soil, water area, ponds, river, sewer, agriculture area (rice paddies) etc.

I'm not saying that the one you found is Leptospira but that's a possibility. It seems like you did a Dark Field microscopy, did you intend to look for Spirochaete? Last case of Weil's disease I treated was back home in the Philippines. Young farmer who waded across the field during typhoon season ended up with severe hepatic and renal failure. Barely made it out.

Very interesting. Keep it coming. Enjoyed it a lot.

Raphael

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Raphael Golez on 26/05/2020 14:19:13:

Nice picture Dave, However I don't think this is T. Pallidum. It could not exist long out side the human body as its is the only known reservoir of the disease. …

I'd be amazed if it was T.Pallidum because it didn't come from an animal source, which I generally avoid as a precaution. Otherwise I'm a bit gung-ho about bacteria because we're surrounded by them, some helpful, most neutral, and fortunately the nasty ones are rare, unless you're a doctor that is! But no way would I drink Hay Infusion water or want to get it in a cut – who knows what's in it!

I ought to have another go at Junior Bacteriology; I've got a few books covering research technique up to about 1930 which means a well-equipped laboratory isn't needed, just a decent microscope, test-tubes, and some dyes. The state-of-the-art described is rather primitive; one of them talks about 'non-filterable pathogens', ie it was written before the word 'virus' was coined. I find them far more readable than modern equivalents because the latter contain another century's worth of accumulated knowledge, and modern methods are far less accessible to amateurs.

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Looking at all this magnification, it's amusing how many people getting into astrophotography as what 'magnification' their rig will give.

Now a the Andromeda Galaxy is 110,000 light years across and the image size might be 20mm across.

That's a magnification of about 2 x 10^-23

Neil

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Neil, that's interesting, can/does anybody know how much it's changed since the year 1023?

Regards Nick.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Now’s the time for a re-run of this, I think: … **LINK**

Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe

MichaelG.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, this thread has prompted me to spend some money, which was earmarked for a holiday, which ain't gonna happen this year, on a couple of camera accessories, which I took delivery of late this afternoon. One piece is a Canon EF25 II extension tube and the other is a EFS 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM lens. So after having a little read of the extension tube, fitted it to my EOS 400D body with a EF-S 18-55 1:3.5-5.6 II lens and took a couple of trial photos.

The first one was hand held but was a bit shaky, the subject yellow growth is about 7mm wide. The second one was with a tripod, but the light was dulling fast and the growth is about 5mm wide. Neither photo has been cropped or modified. Not bad for a quick first attempt, but a little practice may help. I think the new lens will probably need a bit more studying.

Regards Nick.

P.S. these are on a concrete fence post.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 26/05/2020 19:28:16

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Neil, please feel free to post your Astro photography here as I feel its a very relevant subject with regards to magnification. It would be very interesting to know the ratio and proportion of the cosmos.

Michael thanks for the link.

Nick, congratulations. I'm sure you will have a blast doing more macro shots with your new lens. Brilliant pictures and subjects as always. Its fascinating what we all can find under our nose. Bringing it up with macro lenses opens up a new appreciation of things our eye seldom see. Good choice with the extension tubes. I'm waiting for mine to arrive. I would encourage you to read on photostacking to improve the depth of field of the pictures. Try a burst shot on a freehand shooting and do an image stack.

Raphael

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Raphael, thanks for your comments, it may take some time for me to get to grips with photostacking, but I'll keep it in mind, millions of things to do already, and I thought I'd have loads of time in retirement.

Regards Nick.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Have taken a few more pics with the NiSi lens but not uploaded then as yet. I am waiting for a set of extension rings and a ring flash I found on Ebay a few days ago. Will be interesting to see if I can use the NiSi lens and the extension tubes and get a picture that is in focus. Was trying to take pictures of the stamens in flowers yesterday but there was a very slight breeze, every time I achieved focus the wind blew and everything went out of focus.

This thread has certainly got everyone going and there are some fantastic pictures.

Colin

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Another birdbath rescue, Raphael.

This time it was a Fiddler beetle – Eupoecila australasiae. **LINK**

Lots of 'free-style' swimming against a blue-glazed birdbath, it was difficult to follow. Fortunately, the camera has both an LCD and a viewfinder.

Uncertain of its potential to bite or poison me, it is unlikely I would have lifted it clear with my finger.

The image is a single-frame snapshot from a different video camera, a Canon Legria HF G40. I sold the Sony-HDR-CX405 when the far greater flexibility of the G40 caught my attention. It also sports the 58mm filter-ring thread and thus accepts a couple of my other bits. The latter were a part of the kit from the old digital Canon 300D I’d been using for years. More recently still were the two Canon close-up lenses.

With a passion for close-ups and long before I bought the 300D, I’d been using its roll-film predecessor and a Novoflex bellows, which I still use from time to time.

The electronics between the lens and camera, pass along a flexible printed circuit embedded in the folds of the bellows. Having the extra rack for camera positioning is very useful.

To skew this topic slightly, it might be an idea to show my crude slide-copier cobbled together when I was copying some of my extremely old (50's) Kodachrome slides. It features a Canon f/2.8 – 100mm macro USM lens.

Anyone interested?

Sam

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Not sure what happened to my latest post.

However, I need to wake up. The cobbled-up slide-copier was described here …

**LINK**

Call it another of my Senior's Moments.

"Must try harder!"

Now where did I hear that before?

[LainchyParticipant @lainchy]

I took this one in 2016 via Konus microscope and a phone. Looks almost sci-fi/steampunk. I think it was a mozzi. Too long ago now.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I'm not sure that this Adonis Blue butterfly taken yesterday at Martin Down NNR on the Hants/Wilts border really counts as a macro shot.

However it was taken with a 12mm extension tube behind my Tamron 150-600 zoom on a Nikon 7100. This combination works suprisingly well because although it won't focus at infinity I can still focus on a bird in tree 20m away as well a butterfly at my feet.

Stay well,

Rod

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

If anyone wants to have a play with focus stacking, PICOLAY is a free program. Is it better to move the camera while stacking or to use the focus ring ? Do you focus front to back or back to front ?

Have fun

Roy

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