New pics, Aphid, Earwig side, earwig front, Fly front , side

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hotrodder19
Posts: 62
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2013 6:36 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

New pics, Aphid, Earwig side, earwig front, Fly front , side

Post by hotrodder19 »

New and latest efforts for comment.Image
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rjlittlefield
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Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Responding to your email request for comment, I'm sorry to report that all of these look pretty soft.

I can't tell what's going wrong, given whole frames reduced to web size. But I'm suspecting your old nemesis, vibration blur.

Tell us again, please, what's your setup? What are you using for illumination?

Can you show us actual pixels crops from the fly, images #4 and 5?

--Rik

hotrodder19
Posts: 62
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2013 6:36 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by hotrodder19 »

Thanks Rik, well I deviated somewhat with respect to illumination. The top one was with flash and 5 sec delay. The next 3 were done with Jansjo lighting 1 each side and 2 1/2 sec delay . Did this because I ran out of batteries for the flash and decided to check the results again with the Jansjo lights. Why does the effect of not using flash matter or what is the negative effect of the Jansjo lights even though I used a delay on the remote of that two and half seconds? It would appear that maybe the use of the Jansjo lights has made the pics "soft" ? Why is this. How does it differ from flash pics and why. I look forward to some more education !

Kind Regards hotrodder19

rjlittlefield
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Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
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Post by rjlittlefield »

hotrodder19 wrote:I look forward to some more education !
Well, then, a good way to start is by answering questions that are asked by the person who is trying to help you. I asked for actual pixels crops, and I haven't seen them yet.
It would appear that maybe the use of the Jansjo lights has made the pics "soft" ? Why is this. How does it differ from flash pics and why.
When you want a sharp picture of a soccer game, would you shoot at 1/10 second or at 1/1000 second?

Of course you'd shoot at 1/1000 second, because of the subject motion. If you use 1/10 second, you get blurs because the players move during each exposure.

It's fundamentally the same problem with macro, but instead of individual players moving around, the whole subject is moving around because of vibration coming from the environment or being generated inside the camera system.

To get a feel for the problem, I suggest that you do two things:

1. Set your camera on live view, focus on some section of sharp detail of your subject, then zoom the live view to 100%. Probably you'll see the image moving around a little bit. If you don't see that immediately, then just touch the camera, or the lens, or tap your finger on the table, all the while watching the live view display. Chances are, you'll see an impressive amount of motion in the live view, and maybe that will convince you that vibration really is a problem.

2. Set up a stack and shoot it two ways: once with continuous illumination and no flash, and a second time with flash and no continuous illumination. Compare the results to see which is sharper.

The reason that the flash image will be sharper is that flash provides a lot shorter effective exposure time. Even though the shutter is open for say 1/200 second for flash exposure, the effective exposure time is much shorter, only however long the flash lasts. At low power, say 1/16 or less, the flash pulse will typically be around 1/5000 second. Such a very short exposure time is a very powerful way of freezing motion.

--Rik

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