Adi, The rainbow-like effect--is that speckle? Does it go away if your light sources are more diffuse? I'm guessing that it is/does. Also, that greater diffusion will increase resolution--though resolution is not bad here. I do realize that greater diffusion would decrease the amount of light hittin...

Thomas, Before you buy that Olympus lens, STOP for a moment, and read this. The Olympus 10x lens is an infinity lens. Your Amscope 4x achromat may be a finite lens. It is important that, before you buy a microscope objective, you know the difference. Finite and infinity objectives need to be set up ...

Insects are not something I study, and others with more knowledge will surely weigh in. But most online photographs don't portray how much red is on a BMSB. Also, remember that there will be a number of instars that may differ in appearance. Members of our forum have posted images of this bug that a...

For ID, look at Halyomorpha halys , the brown marmorated stinkbug. They are an invasive species common in much of the US. They like to overwinter inside houses. Their numbers have thankfully fallen off in my area, so I suspect that some natural enemy has caught up with them here. But I still kill se...

Robert, I agree that passing off AI-generated images as photographs is wrong--even more so if done by a news organization. I could not quite follow how you determined that these images are AI-generated. For the one source, at least, they seem to be labeled as photographs--albeit royalty-free, which ...

I guess you use the camera's long exposure noise reduction? No, actually. I don't like letting cameras do things without my control. I came up in the days of manual cameras and hand-held light meters, and rarely even use auto-exposure in general photography. I'm still waiting for this auto-focus fa...

Stacking with such long exposure time will cause the sensor to heat and increase noise. Agreed that it could increase noise, but in my case, I'm not seeing it, even in stacks with hundreds of images. The camera I use in the macro studio is a Nikon D7100, always at base ISO. The stacking algorithm I...

Cool 3D model, and images.

I don't see the problem with long shutter speeds. I turn my lights down so that I can expose for 8 seconds- (my method of eliminating the effect of shutter-induced blur). The stacks do take longer, but I'm off doing something else.

--Chris S.

Looks really good to my eye.

--Chris S.

Matthias, welcome to the forum! :D You are moving fast. This is a very nice "proof of concept." I particularly admire the way you use light. With the objective you're using, my standard step increment is 2 µm. Am pretty sure 4 µm would work with only a moderate reduction in fine detail contrast. Agr...

As an aside, I find it interesting that in a "Beginners" forum, everyone posting their edits is not what this forum is about It would seem to me that this is exactly what this forum should be about. How else do beginners improve without critical feedback? Perhaps a separate forum could be establish...

Gedaliah, Another good piece of work. I do have some ideas for your image, though--take or leave them as suits your vision for your work. I've taken the liberty of editing your image. Normally, forum etiquette is to ask before doing this, but since you asked for "any and all feedback," I'm assuming ...

Gedaliah, Welcome to the forum! :D I agree with the others--nice job for early in the macro journey. And since you're here asking for constructive feedback--bravo for this, sir--you're going to get even better. We've all experienced the frustration of fighting with equipment. Once you get a solid ma...

. . . unfortunately, it is too unwieldy, even without tubes. The tripod collar is near the mounting flange, and reversing it puts the collar at the far end away from the camera, throwing the whole thing way off balance. If I still had my specimen of this lens, I'd try fastening a longish Arca-Swiss...

Tim, have you tried using a reversing ring to mount the 200mm micro-Nikkor reversed on the extension tubes? This would be likely be unwieldy, given the size of that lens, but it might work. I sold my specimen of that lens--despite its excellent reputation, my copy was something of an optical dud. --...