3D printed light reflectors for extreme macro photography

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

pulsar123
Posts: 146
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2015 12:36 pm

3D printed light reflectors for extreme macro photography

Post by pulsar123 »

Recently I designed and have been testing a few small 3D-printed accessories (reflectors and diffusers) for extreme macro photography (5:1 and up, tested with working distances as short as 7.5mm). I put the collection on Thingiverse as a bundle:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4966753

I provide the Autodesk Fusion 360 files, so one can easily modify the items for your equipment.

Here is my setup:

Image

It consists of a reflector customized for a specific microscope objective (I provide two versions - for "Nikon M Plan 10x 0.25 210 mm", and ""Olympus ULWD Neo Splan 20 0.40 8/- f=180"). The front is thin (0.8mm) to maximize the working distance. Only the aperture of the objective was left uncovered, to maximize the diffuse reflected light.

The second item is the attachment with two large "wings" which securely slides onto a height-adjustable laboratory lifting stand (available on ebay cheaply), with a square hole where you can attach your specimen holder to the table (e.g. using a magnet, or in my case - a metal staple wire was slid between the reflector and the table). With this setup, you can make your specimen "float in the air" (using a tiny drop of glue). One can also attach colored background cards in the back, e.g. using small magnets.

The only source of light in my setup is a single regular flash (Yongnuo YN560-III), RF controlled, with a softbox. A single flash light is an important advantage for extreme macro, as it freezes out the environmental vibrations. E.g. even if I shoot while driving my stacking rail at the maximum speed - 10 mm/s, using 1/32 power flash (~50 microseconds duration), the motion blur would be at most 0.5 microns - way below the resolution (for 10:1 or even 20:1 macro).

Image

(BTW you can also see a bit of my DIY automated focus stacking rail Fast Stacker; I recently released v2.0 of the Stacker, check this thread: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 25&t=43976 .)

My latest additions were a tiny "umbrella" which allows one to remove the hot spot (from the softbox) at the top of the specimen:

Image

Here are first results: a grain of rice at 10:1 (130 photos, 7.5 um steps). On the left: without the umbrella, on the right - with the umbrella. As you can see, with the umbrella the light is so diffused that the specimen looks flat - and this is despite the fact that the subject was only 7.5mm from the objective (6.7mm from the front of the diffuser attached to the objective). In this particular case, I like the non-umbrella (left image) look better, but I am sure there will be situations when the more diffused light (on the right) will be an advantage (e.g. for subjects with shiny surfaces).

Image

Finally, my Thingiverse bundle also includes a tiny (5x5mm) elevated (40mm above the lifting stand) "table", to be used with certain specimens which need to lay on a flat surface. (I haven't tried it yet.)

pulsar123
Posts: 146
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2015 12:36 pm

Re: 3D printed light reflectors for extreme macro photography

Post by pulsar123 »

I realized (when trying to do stitching focus stacking) that my lab stand is not heavy/steady enough - when trying to adjust the height, it easily moves, making precise stitching impossible. There is a reason I cannot simply clamp it to the table (because my softbox tripod cannot be then fitted on the table - one leg is off the table).

So I needed a heavy base for the stand. I first looked around for a piece of metal, couldn't find any, so ended up designing and printing yet another part for my macro rig - a base for the lab stand. It has an opening at the top through which I filled it up with sand, and the slits on the top through which the bottom of the stand slides over the top, sealing off the base opening. The base weight is 900 g, base + stand - 1.5 kg. I also glued thin rubber feet at the bottom of the base. The whole thing is very sturdy now, I can easily adjust the stand height without disturbing the stand.

Image

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic