LOL, Fred, at your later image. Glad I don't have an avatar. . . . Regarding the original question, my preference is for the first of the two images. The reflections of the diffuser in the second image give me the impression eye structures that the spider doesn't have, and in general, photographs th...

This condition, pristine exosketon, is seen in all the NA Aeshnids I have looked at (quite a few). In contrast, most Gomphids I have seen are covered in 'junk'. Perhaps ship builders could learn something about the anti-fouling properties from Aeshnid nymphs. Fascinating observation, NU. I wouldn't...

As a starting point, see http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10354 . There are much longer discussions, but I don't have the links handy. Thanks for this link, Rik--missed that thread. When possible, I much enjoy reading every post--but when traveling or violently beset with work,...

The innermost thin rings probably are reflections of the objective, but I believe the broad outer ring is a reflection of light coming straight from a diffuser that is wrapped around the subject. If this is correct, then masking to keep light away from the objective will eliminate only the inner th...

Nice image, Matthias. Great way to begin! Does anyone know how to prevent the lens-reflections on the eyes? Well, it may look funny but it's not reality at all ... While I have not photographed a salticid, here is what I'd do with general subjects. Those reflections occur when light from your flashl...

I do lot's of time lapse commercial work. It is always fun. but you do go thru cameras in a hurry Sonynut, I'd suspected that this time lapse/moving camera stuff would be old hat for you, and that you'd have a lot to teach the rest of us. You tend to be a poster of few words--I for one would like t...

So now I'm wondering if this was actually shot under moonlight, with long exposure to produce the more sunlit appearance. Do you folks have any other explanations? Rik, that segment jumped out at me, too. I like to shoot starry nights myself, and always considered the first requirement to be, um, n...

Craig, I’d missed your earlier post to Patryk Kizny’s work—which, like Randy Halverson’s, is mesmerizing (borrowing your word, but at a loss for a better one). Thanks for pointing it out. From the link you posted, I wandered to the link below, where Kizny documents two of his workflows (regular and ...

Due to work, I've lately decreased my attention to this community. But the link below impressed me and might be of interest to others here. It's not macro, but I'm probably not the only person here interested in other kinds of photographic work. Randy Halverson, the artist referenced below, has in m...

rjlittlefield wrote:The Nikon CF Plan 50X 0.55 inf/- EPI ELWD was tested by morfa HERE.

That does look like a very decent lens--whose vapor pressure appears to have increased suddenly upon morfa's review. (I should have done a search for "Nikon 50x," but dinner intervened.)

--Chris

GF, While I think that lens is almost useless for macro, it's a nice lens for someone with different needs (i.e., a microscope and wet subjects). I just looked at your item's bidding history. There were some bids not too far below yours--so there is indeed a market for this lens. If you resell it, y...

Puzzling... Yep--puzzling at first, but things will clear up as you continue to read and work with your 10x lens. I'm thinking that you might want to wait until things do seem clearer, before you buy more lenses. Some questions come to mind that you may want to consider before buying higher magnifi...

Great work, Tanner. Very cool when a wunderkind displays his skill. Yep, you are going to bury the rest of us.

Cheers,

--Chris

Zerene Stacker is a stacking tool. It is not designed as a viewing tool except as needed to support retouching, and it has no capabilities to adjust contrast, brightness, or color balance. As a result (it seems to me), the lack of color management during display has pretty small effect on its opera...

This thread reminds me - when picking out our season's flowers at our fav open-air garden stores, we have been putting a lot of weight on what plants seem to be attracting the most bugs, especially our fav bugs. Yet when we get the things home and settled into our deck and garden, we often seen tha...