My first week of stacking...

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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ChrisRaper
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My first week of stacking...

Post by ChrisRaper »

Well, I recently bit the bullet and bought a Canon 1000D and, with the help of some friends on this forum, managed to cobble together enough gear to start stacking. My pet project is to take photos of all the UK species of Tachinidae (the parasite flies) for the galleries on my recording scheme website (http://tachinidae.org.uk/) and stacking just seemed the best way to go.

Anyway, my first photo here isn't a tachinid but it came out quite nicely, for my purposes. Remembering that me emphasis is on scientific use, rather than producing competition-winning photos ;)

Image

It's a female Pantophthalmus planiventris from French Guiana and I just offer it up for comments - critical or otherwise :D

Here are a few tachinids to redress the balance:

Leskia aurea:
Image
Taken with: Canon 1000D (Rebel X/s), Tamron 90mm SP AF f2.8 at f5.6, Yongnuo YN560
flash, cheapo macro rail & plastic milk-bottle diffuser.

Linnaemya vulpina (a bit dusty and mucky but looks okish):
Image
Taken with: Canon 1000D (Rebel X/s), Tamron 90mm SP AF f2.8 at f5.6, Yongnuo YN560 flash, cheapo macro rail & plastic milk-bottle diffuser.

Microsoma exiguum (a 2-3mm long fly - bit hazy but I think I just need to get the lighting right and it should be better next time):
Image
Taken with: Canon 1000D (Rebel X/s), Nikkor EL 50mm (reversed) at f5.6, cheapo Chinese bellows, Yongnuo YN560 flash, cheapo macro rail & plastic milk-bottle diffuser.

All photos were post-processed in Zerene (Pmax) and Photoshop (levels, unsharp-mask & crop). Lighting and consistency of hand-cracking the rail are probably my weakest areas but practice makes perfect :)

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

Hi Chris - missed from pm, a black tape or black paper "lens hood" would probably help for the likes of that last image. A strip an inch wide, wrapped around the thread. Did you use anything?

ChrisRaper
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Post by ChrisRaper »

Hi Chris ... thanks for the comments. No, I forgot the lens hood - I will sort myself out one when I can find some mat black paper - good idea! :) The Tamron actually comes with its own hood so I will start by using that and see if it helps the <1:1 photos ... thinking back, the EL Nikkor does suffer from being quite close to the flash gun so it is probably getting incidental light in there somewhere.

NikonUser
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Post by NikonUser »

Nothing wrong with hand cranking but you might find that a better quality rail
is worth investing in. For this level of mag. the Proxxon should be all you need.
Styrofoam coffee cup (if available in UK) may give better diffsusion than plastic.

Perhaps flash more to the face than directly on the side, especially for image #1.

Remove the locality labels.

Clean-up the flies before photographing (and afterwards).

Perhaps stay with the 90mm lens, even for small flies - longer WD than the 50mm.
I use a 105mm, my 200mm gives me a very long WD. Long WD allows for greater amount
of shading for the lens and gives more room for diffusers. Bellows with the 90mm
should give plenty of magnification.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

Eric F
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Post by Eric F »

Chris: excellent start to your Tachinidae image project (though your first photo was of a giant Pantophthalmus with quite a nose)!

Cheers,

Eric

ChrisRaper
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Post by ChrisRaper »

@NU - thanks for the tips - I have been looking for foam cups here in quantities less than 100 ;) The specimen labels are a bit of a distraction and not very artistic but these are specimens so I decided not to move them because removing the labels is a lot of hassle and it means stabbing another pin hole through the card, which might be a pain. Cleaning specimens ... I'm definitely guilty of missing bits of dust but a lot of the specimens have pollen and other dust on them which would be very hard to remove ... I will try to remove more in future and I am sure that, as I get better and my standards go up, I will decide to re-do the dirty specimens :)

@Eric - thanks for the comments. I do love Pantophthalmus planiventris because of their 'nose' ... it's really beaky. I plan to photo all of the Pantophthalmus noses because they are a fairly useful indicator.

NikonUser
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Post by NikonUser »

ChrisRaper wrote:@NU - thanks for the tips - I have been looking for foam cups here in quantities less than 100 ;) The specimen labels are a bit of a distraction and not very artistic but these are specimens so I decided not to move them because removing the labels is a lot of hassle and it means stabbing another pin hole through the card, which might be a pain. Cleaning specimens ... I'm definitely guilty of missing bits of dust but a lot of the specimens have pollen and other dust on them which would be very hard to remove ... I will try to remove more in future and I am sure that, as I get better and my standards go up, I will decide to re-do the dirty specimens :)
How about buying 1 cup of coffee and either drink or toss the liquid?
Could re-use the same pin hole, or get a blank white label with a central pin hole, make a cut to the center hole and temporarily slide label over printed label.
Swirl the fly in clean acetone for, say, 10 seconds. Hold it upside down by the pointy end of the pin so as not to wet the locality label. This will wash off much of the junk; dries almost immediately with no detrimental effect. Re swirl if necessary.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

They don't seem to sell coffee in them any more , but if you find somewhere, just raid the bins ;) I bought about 50 in a "£1" shop.

Or eat more junk food. Supermarket pizzas come on a slab of white ( or sometimes black) expanded polystyrene. It's stiff, but you can build little sheds out of it with minutens as nails.
Or bend some Plastazote round?

For cleaning, does anyone use the very cheap non ultrasonic cleaners which are called "ultrasonic"?

ChrisRaper
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Post by ChrisRaper »

@NU: thanks for the tips. Putting the pin back through the same hole never works as well as a fresh, new pin hole - the labels always spin eventually. I like the idea of the piece of blank card though :) I'll solve the foam cup dilemma - I'll pounce on some when I find them in one of ChrisR's pound-shops ;)

@ChrisR: Nice idea of the pizza bases or the plastazote ... I think I have a spare sheet of 4mm in the garage so I will see if I can cut off a cleanish piece and bend it around the flash :D

NikonUser
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Post by NikonUser »

ChrisRaper wrote: I think I have a spare sheet of 4mm in the garage so I will see if I can cut off a cleanish piece and bend it around the flash :D
No, you don't want that. You want to bend it around the tach so that the foam 'lights up" when the flash hits it; a flash hitting the top shlould give lot of light coming from the sides and bottom.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

ChrisRaper
Posts: 291
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:40 am
Location: Reading, UK
Contact:

Post by ChrisRaper »

Ahhh, I see ... so with the foam cup you'd sit it over the specimen (with a slot cut in it for the camera to look through) and then fire the flash down onto the cup?

I did try a bit of foam-paper wrapped around the flash and you're right - rubbish diffusion. I went back to the plastic milk bottle for the time being, as it gives fairly good diffusion ... but I am definitely going to try a foam cup as soon as I lay my hands on one (or 25!) ;)

NikonUser
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Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

There is a hole in the cup already where the coffee goes in and out. No need for any extra slots.
Photos of set-up here of Diptera.info
http://www.diptera.info/forum/viewthrea ... &pid=69512

My technique has improved a bit since then
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

ChrisRaper
Posts: 291
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:40 am
Location: Reading, UK
Contact:

Post by ChrisRaper »

NikonUser wrote:There is a hole in the cup already where the coffee goes in and out. No need for any extra slots.
Photos of set-up here of Diptera.info
http://www.diptera.info/forum/viewthrea ... &pid=69512
My technique has improved a bit since then
Ahhhhhhh, I understand now ... that makes absolute sense because it bounces the light up from underneath too.

I see you mount the specimen on a stage that goes up/down - could you tell me what you use? I have been looking at Proxxon Micro Tables and they look excellent - just got to snag a cheap one on eBay :)

NikonUser
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Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

In that image the vertical stage is just a cheap focusing rail (no need to use them only horizontally). But I now use a microscope fine/coarse adjustment set-up. You can often get a cheap compound scope on ebay sold for parts (you need just the basic stand, no glass) the base will invariably unscrew and thus easily removed; saw off the overhanging neck of the upright and you have a very nice vertical rail capable of small increments.
If the stand comes with a stage you have great control over sideways movement -Proxxon will handle the forward increments.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

ChrisRaper
Posts: 291
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:40 am
Location: Reading, UK
Contact:

Post by ChrisRaper »

That all makes sense - thanks :D

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