First stack with new movement rig - Ant

[lauriek]

I mentioned some time ago I was putting together a new stacking rig with linear stages, well I managed to locate a nice base for this rig last week, a nice piece of some sort of laminate chipboard stuff over 1" thick and extremely stiff. I scrounged this from a skip outside the office as they've been clearing out the office next door! It's exactly the size I was after!

So I started to put this all together last night. It's not properly bolted together yet and my specimen stage is a bit flakey but the first result isn't too bad. The images were aligned in CZP before stacking in (also in CZP for now) but I'm just testing a stack on the original images without any alignment. Let you know how that goes later!

This is a stack of 110 images shot with Nikon 10x CF objective on OM bellows at minimum extension.



Apart from cropping off the borders, levels adjustment, resize for web and sharpening this is unprocessed...

According to Betty this is likely Formica (Serviformica) sp. (This is my bitey ant again!)

[g4lab]

I have been sending other people I talk to ,, to this list. I tell them,
"Imagine a scanning electron micrograph of a bug but in full natural color"
Surely that is what this and many other pix here are like.

[augusthouse]

Laurie,
This is brilliant! If you get any better we will have to start calling you Sir! (full-speed ahead and don't spare the engines Captain).

Craig

[lauriek]

Thanks guys! I was certainly pleased with the first output from the new rig... I'm very happy to say I tried a stack without any software alignment and it came out fine so alignment is obviously good!

I ran this no-align stack in Tufuse pro, although I was very impressed with the output from CZP above. This isn't really a fair comparison as I've done further levels tweaks on this one, plus a couple of small sub stacks have been merged in to improve the antennae (to stop the ant's head from showing through where it shouldn't).

[augusthouse]

awesome!

[Michigan Michael]

Excellent, Laurie.
U DA MAN!

[P_T]

Oh... my... God... Talk about extreme macro.

If you post that in a CG forum, they will ask you for a wireframe. It just looks so unreal. I don't know much about composition but that really looks great!!

Is there a tutorial for doing something like this? I wouldn't mind taking a crack at it.

[Walter Piorkowski]

Most impressive. Keep up the fine work Laurie.
Walt

[augusthouse]

P_T,
As a general introduction to focus-stacking I have provided a couple of links below.

Most tutorials deal with a small number of images and it is a good way to start.

Keep in mind that many of the members of the forum are using an extraordinary number of images and unique 'setups' to achieve amazing results.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJiEw4VCcYU

www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/163367/

Craig

[AstroBoy]

I posted this here because the article I read in this morning's paper reminded me of Laurie's image.

For those who are in the vicinity of the Macleay Museum at The University of Sydney it might be worth a visit between 01 August 2008 – 01 February 2009 for the Small Matters: Exploring The World Of Microscopy exhibition.

Some details from The Sydney Morning Herald article at the link below. (the image in this morning's newspaper did not 'crop' the ant's head as has been done for the online article below.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/the- ... 34794.html

http://www.emu.usyd.edu.au/golden_jubil ... ndex.shtml

A Calender of Events (occurring at noted times throughout the exhibition):
http://www.emu.usyd.edu.au/golden_jubil ... ndex.shtml

P.S. It's free!

[beetleman]

Yea, we can do that and in color Not to mention a lot cheaper too. I`m not sure about the "human uterus during ovulation" picture. Both are excellent laurie. I think the hairs show up a little better on the face in the second picture. The lighting brings out a lot of surface contrast IMO.