Polyphemus Eye Spot

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

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Lindaavitt
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2017 7:49 am
Location: Austin, Texas

Polyphemus Eye Spot

Post by Lindaavitt »

Here is another favorite. All my subjects originate in my home pollinator garden.

Polyphemus Eye Spot, 4x
Kirk focusing rail
MPE-65 with 5dm3
21 photo-stacked images, Helicon Focus

Image

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8668
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

I looked it up - 6" wingspan, wow! That's Texas, I suppose..
A strange eye indeed., nicely done. :smt023

By the way I see it looks like you shrunk the dimensions of the image to get under the 300k limit.
Normally 50-60% "Quality" makes it fit easily, when larger. Up to 1012 square.
Chris R

Lindaavitt
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2017 7:49 am
Location: Austin, Texas

Post by Lindaavitt »

Thanks, Chris. Yes, they’re huge moths. And, yes, I did shrink the size. Next time I’ll do the 50 percent.

zzffnn
Posts: 1896
Joined: Thu May 22, 2014 1:25 pm
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Contact:

Post by zzffnn »

Nice photo!

Welcome to the forum, Linda. Another Texan here :twisted: I am in Houston.

We Texans have quite many Lepidoptera around, don't we? Have you seen Actias luna and Hyalophora cecropia in your area?

Austin area may have quite many interesting beetles too.

Cheers,
Fan
Selling my Canon FD 200mm F/2.8 lens

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4042
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Chris S. »

Linda, welcome aboard! :D

I like your composition of this interesting subject. However, it looks to me as if something is very wrong in terms of sharpness. (I've had similar effects in some of my wing-scale images; in such cases, there has been some issue that needed to be corrected.)

How are you lighting this? Could you show us a shot of your setup? Can you share a "100-percent" crop or two from this image?

Your Polyphemus brings back a memory: When I was a boy, my grandfather found a large cocoon and brought it to me. The cocoon was sewn inside a leaf that been folded in half, apparently as protection/camouflage. Neither of us knew what butterfly or moth had made it, and I was curious to find out. So I made a cage, put the cocoon into the cage, and put the cage on my windowsill. Weeks went by, and one day I came home from school to find that a big, beautiful Polyphemus female had hatched. Outside my window screen were a number of males, apparently attracted across the miles by her pheromones. Of course I released her to join her suitors.

Cheers,

--Chris S.

Lindaavitt
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2017 7:49 am
Location: Austin, Texas

Post by Lindaavitt »

zzffnn wrote:Nice photo!

Welcome to the forum, Linda. Another Texan here :twisted: I am in Houston.

We Texans have quite many Lepidoptera around, don't we? Have you seen Actias luna and Hyalophora cecropia in your area?

Austin area may have quite many interesting beetles too.

Cheers,
Fan
Nice to meet you, zzffnn.

I've had the pleasure of raising a few luna moths, but no cecropia. Pretty sure they're in the area, though.

Linda

Lindaavitt
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2017 7:49 am
Location: Austin, Texas

Post by Lindaavitt »

Chris S. wrote:Linda, welcome aboard! :D

I like your composition of this interesting subject. However, it looks to me as if something is very wrong in terms of sharpness. (I've had similar effects in some of my wing-scale images; in such cases, there has been some issue that needed to be corrected.)

How are you lighting this? Could you show us a shot of your setup? Can you share a "100-percent" crop or two from this image?

Your Polyphemus brings back a memory: When I was a boy, my grandfather found a large cocoon and brought it to me. The cocoon was sewn inside a leaf that been folded in half, apparently as protection/camouflage. Neither of us knew what butterfly or moth had made it, and I was curious to find out. So I made a cage, put the cocoon into the cage, and put the cage on my windowsill. Weeks went by, and one day I came home from school to find that a big, beautiful Polyphemus female had hatched. Outside my window screen were a number of males, apparently attracted across the miles by her pheromones. Of course I released her to join her suitors.

Cheers,

--Chris S.
Thanks for the feedback, Chris.

I'm not sure what you mean by 100 percent crop. Here is the uncropped and unedited image that came from Helicon. Is that what you mean? I have an enlargement on the wall that is very sharp, so I wonder if I'm did something while exporting to make it not sharp.

This was taken before I started writing down a lot of details about lighting, etc. All I remember for sure is that I created a tiny snoot and pointed it at the eyespot from underneath so it would backlight the edges of the center scales -- if that made sense. Then at least one flash, possibly two, possibly a reflector for the top side.

Linda

Image

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23561
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

I'm not sure what you mean by 100 percent crop.
I have just now created a FAQ to try explaining this:
Here at photomacrography.net, the phrases "100% crop" and "actual pixels crop" mean duping your image, cropping without resizing to an area that is 1024 pixels square or smaller, saving that small cropped version to a JPEG with file length < 300KB, and posting the result.

We emphasize "without resizing" because it is possible (for example) to use the Photoshop crop tool with options set so that it does resize, silently and implicitly. The results of that process can lead to some pretty confused discussion.

Note that in other communities, the phrase "100% crop" might mean something completely different: the entire frame, 100% of it, resized as required for posting. You can think of the distinction as a matter of local dialect.
Does that help?

--Rik

Lindaavitt
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2017 7:49 am
Location: Austin, Texas

Post by Lindaavitt »

rjlittlefield wrote: I have just now created a FAQ to try explaining this:
Does that help?

--Rik
Yes, it does . Thank you, Rik. 8)

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic