My Toughest Shoot - Addendum 3

[AlP]

Whew! My toughest focus stack shoot to date. First, this Atlas beetle is huge at 120mm nose to butt. Secondly, black and shiny. After 5ive hours I think I have got something pretty decent (in my mind). 6ix sheets of diffusion staggered left side, fill light near right side bounced onto white card with one sheet of diffusion between card and specimen, three sheets of diffusion right side and one layer of diffusion for light above. Lots of black poster board and card stock with a whack of cine foil/black wrap thrown in. I am still getting some white reflection from the white walls in my room. The sun will be down in another couple of hours and I'll do another shoot.

Atlas beetle, 106 steps at 1mm.

Last stack for the night with the sun down. I noticed the dimples are lass pronounced. A little more pleasing image.

[Adalbert]

very nice

[Scarodactyl]

Wow! So shiny-slick and yet so sharp! All the work paid off big time.

[Marcepstein]

The setup and image are really nice, so sharp

[lothman]

well done

First, this Atlas beetle is huge at 120mm nose to butt.

120mm sometimes I am glad to live in Germany and use higher magnification for our insects

[Sym P. le]

In the second image, the specular highlights aren't as distracting but the image is also a bit softer overall. A great example of the subtleties of lighting.

[Pau]

Impressive beast and images, the low viewpoint is very adequate for highlighting the power of the beast.

6ix sheets of diffusion staggered left side, fill light near right side bounced onto white card with one sheet of diffusion between card and specimen, three sheets of diffusion right side and one layer of diffusion for light above...

Would be great to see your setup.

120mm sometimes I am glad to live in Germany and use higher magnification for our insects

Being a Southeast Asian species, is not likely to be found it in Canada either

[Olympusman]

That is one handsome shot!

Mike

[AlP]

Thanx all for the responses. A couple of snaps from last night after the earth rotated out of the sun's visibility.

Atlas beetle front, 106 steps at 1mm.

Atlas beetle head three quarter view, 26 steps at 1mm.

[AlP]

Face view from last night at 1x, 51 steps at 600µm. Eyes like marbles.

[MarkSturtevant]

Wow!! I can't even get my head around how tricky it is to wrap lighting around a complicated black shiny thing like this.

[AlP]

Some more snaps of Mr. Ginormous, a lesson in lighting (at least for me). His eyes are starting to deteriorate and his joints have become stiff again. So...

Underside view of the face/mouth at 1x, 21 steps at 600µm. Canon 5D MK IV with Canon 100mm macro.

Front left tarsi at 3x, 51 steps at 140µm. Canon 5D MK IV with Canon MPE 65mm.

Left front antenna at 4x, 51 steps at 100µm. Canon 5D MK IV with Canon MPE 65mm.

[rjlittlefield]

Lovely images!

The eyes are still impressively smooth and shiny on their surface.

Smooth eyes seem to be common among scarabs, but these Atlas beetles carry it to an extreme.

--Rik

[Bob-O-Rama]

Aside from the whole thing in general, the antennas are just super interesting. I assume those flat surfaces are covered in some chemo-receptive sensilla of some sort.