Studio pics using C02

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 6:39 pm

==================================
Give the credits to MARK STURTEVANT....
here is the original post where I got the idea / method
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=34817
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In my last field session I captured a couple of specimens .. a Cicindela and an Empusa.

IMG_20190225_181338 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Using a chamber , Bicarbonate of Soda and Vinegar to produce C02

IMG_20190225_222220 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

There's the Cicindela in the left corner, already calm...
Used a table spoon of soda and a couple of squeeze in the bottle..

IMG_20190225_223029 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

2 minutes 30 seconds later...
No need to expose to the C02 for a longtime .. otherwise they take ages to wake up again...

IMG_20190225_223154 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Ready .. calm and sweet (those little guys run quite fast and fly)

IMG_20190225_223243 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

I could work with the Cicindela for more than 20 minutes...

IMG_20190225_223441 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Stack of 68 ... handheld.

68 Photos - 2019-02-26 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Stack of 59 ... handheld

In fact I did bracketing of 80 pictures ( differential 1) - but did not stack the entire sequences

I had to do the bracketing with narrow apertures .. As I had to shoot at 1/50 to sincronize the eletronic shutter with the eletricity cicle speed 50Hz and minimize flickering.. with other speeds I get flickering (dark bands) because of the led lamps scintillation.

59 Photos - 2019-02-25 - C ed by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

The Emupusa are calm and sweet by nature.. very easy to handle.. no need of Co2 or refrigeration at all

Single shots .. no Bracketing
This juvenile specimen is the size of a camera battery... the magnification is so low there no need to use stacking, to get a decent picture...

P2250455 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

P2250436 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 3:01 am

Nice working, thanks for the exposition.

Perhaps you can attend to your LED power supply?

iconoclastica · Post by **iconoclastica** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:55 am

Beautiful pictures Antinio, especially the Empusa. Had I known this procedure a couple of years ago it would have saved me a lot of time and stress. Thanks for showing it.

About the Cincindela: the species I am familiar with (C. campestris) is always running and fly-jumping over bare sand. It is strange to see one in a Nephrolepis-leaf.

Mind the tarsus-claws: they betray the narcosis when they stick out into the void instead of keeping holdfast.

Sumguy01 · Post by **Sumguy01** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 7:32 am

Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:58 am

ChrisR wrote:Nice working, thanks for the exposition.

Perhaps you can attend to your LED power supply?

thank you ... you're right.. the light is hard...
I need to make a softbox for this kind of work...

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:07 am

iconoclastica wrote:Beautiful pictures Antinio, especially the Empusa. Had I known this procedure a couple of years ago it would have saved me a lot of time and stress. Thanks for showing it.

About the Cincindela: the species I am familiar with (C. campestris) is always running and fly-jumping over bare sand. It is strange to see one in a Nephrolepis-leaf.

Mind the tarsus-claws: they betray the narcosis when they stick out into the void instead of keeping holdfast.

yes.. save a lot of swearing ...

I got the idea from another post in this forum.

yes the Cicindela live on sand soils.. altghough this species ( Cicindela maroccana pseudomaroccana) can fly very well too,,
this is the same specimen on location..

FLK_000127 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

I was having the animals captive for 2 days and I was feeling some remorse.. so one night I just grabbed something from my neighbour's flower pots

to release the beasts free.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:11 am

Give the credits to MARK STURTEVANT....
here is the original post where I got the idea / method
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=34817

I did not try this very much yet... bout it looks to work very well with bugs, spiders, grasshoppers... only tried once with a fly and it did not go so well.

all encouraged to stay still with Co2

Spilostethus pandurus 0004 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

FLK_000196 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

FLK_000192 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

FLK_000185 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

BugEZ · Post by **BugEZ** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 3:55 pm

Yawns,

What I like about this is that there is no way to accidentally gas yourself with the minute amount of CO2 made in your chamber. I look forward to trying this technique later this year.
.
Keith

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:41 pm

BugEZ wrote:Yawns,

What I like about this is that there is no way to accidentally gas yourself with the minute amount of CO2 made in your chamber. I look forward to trying this technique later this year.
.
Keith

found old pictures ...
I got everything form the "chinese shop" (our equivalent to dollar stores)

an 1 liter hermetic container for groceries
a manual pump.. maybe to clean aquariums or empty tanks
a net to cover fry pans (it's metal but it's thin.. a regular scissor can handle it)

alka-seltzer is quite expensive here.. 5 euro for 10 tablets...
cider vinegar + 450g of sodium bicarbonate... 3 euros and lasts for a longtime.

Alka-Seltzer basically is Sodium bicarbonate + citric acid .. tried to buy citric acid but in the supermarket is more expensive than alka-seltzer .. 1 euro for a very small satchel of maybe 10g (it was in the bakery section)

the vinegar does not have citric acid .. it has acetic acid, but the reaction of sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid forms the salt sodium acetate, plus carbon dioxide and water;-

the container can't be big , because the C02 is heavy and goes to the bottom...
can't be small or the insect gets a shower of vinegar during the bubbling.

mark's chamber looks more simple and probably as effective or even more effective as it looks smaller.

DSC_0042 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

iconoclastica · Post by **iconoclastica** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:40 am

BugEZ wrote:Yawns,

What I like about this is that there is no way to accidentally gas yourself with the minute amount of CO2 made in your chamber. I look forward to trying this technique later this year.
.
Keith

It is not easy at all to gas your self with CO2, although admittedly a remote possibility does exist. You will need a room with no exits down, such as a cellar box, and a LOT of CO2. Even in a small room that would be more than 10m3. The carbon dioxide has to sink to the floor and drive all normal air away to over head level. You will notice when this happens, for it induces an unstoppable breathing reflex, so your start gasping for air. To be gassed when this happens, you must be pretty determined to die, or locked in so badly that you can't leave the room in 10, 20 seconds. Be the latter the case, I would call that the security issue, not the CO2...

MarkSturtevant · Post by **MarkSturtevant** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 1:35 pm

I don't know how I missed this. I am very pleased that you have taken the CO2 trick and vastly improved on it. Beautiful pictures, too, but I had seen these before from perusing your wonderful Flickr page.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:00 pm

Yawns wrote:
ChrisR wrote:Nice working, thanks for the exposition.

Perhaps you can attend to your LED power supply?
thank you ... you're right.. the light is hard...
I need to make a softbox for this kind of work...

Sorry I missed this - I meant perhaps you can do something to stop the flicker in the led power supply. Is it a fixed light or one which is dimmed by pulsing on and off ?
If it's fixed then maybe just a capacitor would help.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:55 pm

ChrisR wrote:
Yawns wrote:
ChrisR wrote:Nice working, thanks for the exposition.

Perhaps you can attend to your LED power supply?
thank you ... you're right.. the light is hard...
I need to make a softbox for this kind of work...
Sorry I missed this - I meant perhaps you can do something to stop the flicker in the led power supply. Is it a fixed light or one which is dimmed by pulsing on and off ?
If it's fixed then maybe just a capacitor would help.

I know nothing about electricity and electronics

.. it's just regular led lamps of 4W-5W like the ones I have in the bathroom... wired straight to the plug in the wall. When I built the hexagon I i did it for the stacking with the DSLR with curtains, without eletronic shutter...

Now I am using a different thing for this tabletop shots .. led panels with batteries.
I don't have flickering anymore,
maybe because the batteries supply DC, instead of AC

56627486_124739475358325_423425677362987008_o by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

single shot no flickering

56608880_124739418691664_3391295323539243008_o by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

IMG_20190413_155908 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

MarkSturtevant · Post by **MarkSturtevant** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 5:18 pm

Your artful method of using painted backgrounds is really nice! I suppose too that one could get photographs of foliage (like your last picture), but then strongly blur them in Photoshop. They can then be printed on non-reflective paper.