I think "Nice" is appropriate if we're talking technical, lighting, composition,etc. Most insects are vicious & scary looking! Saul, may I ask what exposure duration you used. I just purchased 2 Jansjo led lights to try out. They work pretty good for smaller magnification, up to about 2x. Was this a...

Looks like a dirty sensor to me. To verify, take a photo of a clear blue sky or white paper. Set aperture to f/16. Doesn't matter whether the shot is in focus or not. Sensor dirt will show up.

Excellent image. I really like your background. Well done.

Great shot. Sharp, clean photo. How do you keep your insects so clean? Do you do much clean-up of dust particles in post or is there a secret way to clean them up before the photo shoot? Your photos are spot on & spotless. Well done.

Beautiful work! Very interesting subject. I can only imagine the time you must have spent on this photo. Well done. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice series. Last one is my favorite. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the info & posting the photo of your set-up. I have a Sigma on the way & the rest of the pieces in my spare parts box so I'll be ready to go when it gets here.
Thanks again, Allen

Outstanding image. The Sigma seems to be working very well. Are you using it reversed?

Ya did good! Nice one.

The clay is OK, just try to flatten it out so it is below the height of the ant. Could you replace the switch plate platform for a wider platform? Then you could set the flash unit on the platform. The mis-firing flash you mentioned may be due to the cameras built in flash circuit getting hot & shut...

An observation from a novice. If I understand your set-up, you move the specimen toward the objective & your flash is stationary. I think the blob of clay is blocking a lot of light causing shadows to fall in different places as you advance through the stack since the flash doesn't move with it. Jus...

WOW! What a great post. Images are super and your explanation is well written. Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed it.

Outstanding series of a real beauty. Thanks for sharing.

Progress Report Image shown is a full frame Zerene stack of 54 images Unedited 10um steps (should this be lower?) Using the Zerene DOF chart for Microscope objectives, they show a DOF of 0.0088 mm for your objective. I use 70% of the DOF from their chart, so for your objective with a 0.25 NA, I wou...

Morning all - Butterfly Wing Report-Back Anyway - here is yesterday's best image. Nikon 10x Infinite objective in front of Canon 100-400 zoom @ 400. My home-made 10W LED lights x 2 - no diffuser. Stack of 121 images in Zerene. Am I venturing into empty magnification teritory, as the detail is no as...