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 Shadowless & Pinless Photos
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| Tony T |
Posted on 25-08-2008 21:34
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 Member Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 662 Joined: 08.02.07 |
It is relatively simple to photograph a pinned fly. If the fly has been mounted (pinned) for more than about 1-day this is the only option. There are several photos of pinned and recently-killed flies on this site. My personal bias is that I find the pin distractive. For lateral views of fresh flies I actually place the pin horizontally into the thorax. This, of course, slightly damages one side of the thorax. I do not push the pin all the way through the thorax, so that one side of the thorax is not damaged. An alternative way to get a lateral view without damaging the specimen is to lay the fly on a piece of glass and support this glass about 5 cm from the background. This should result in a shadowless background. After photographing the fly it can be pinned. This 8mm fly was photographed using a diffused flash; the fly on glass supported 5cm above a grey background. Tony T attached the following image:  [118.66Kb] Edited by Tony T on 26-08-2008 18:01 |
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| Jan Willem |
Posted on 26-08-2008 08:44
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 Member Location: Waalwijk, The Netherlands Posts: 2136 Joined: 24.07.04 |
Your photos are superb!
Jan Willem van Zuijlen |
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| mcerny |
Posted on 26-08-2008 09:02
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Member Location: Czech Republic Posts: 671 Joined: 15.07.08 |
Hi Tony, what using camera and accessories for so brilliant photograph flys? Milos |
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| Susan R Walter |
Posted on 26-08-2008 14:39
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 Member Location: Touraine du Sud, central France Posts: 1802 Joined: 14.01.06 |
The unpinned specimen on a glass platform is the technique I use too (not that I achieve anywhere near the results Tony does!)
Susan |
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| Tony T |
Posted on 26-08-2008 18:03
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Member Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 662 Joined: 08.02.07 |
It is nice to get some feedback, especially so when it is complimentary; so thanks to you all. This photo was taken with a Nikon DSLR camera, a Nikon AF105mm micro lens + Nikon's 4T close-up filter. Lighting was a single Nikon SB800 flash, off the camera; connected to the camera with a Nikon SC-17 cord. Just one exposure. The fly was on a piece of glass and surrounded by a light-diffuser tent. The flash was aimed at the tent so that the entire area was evenly illuminated. The AF105 lens was at full extension and set at the smallest aperture (f32) which gave an actual f-stop of f48. I have read that this lens is sharpest at about f11-f16, but what one gains in sharpness one loses in depth-of-focus. The smaller the aperture (i.e., greater the f-number) the greater the depth-of-focus. Today's 6-10 megapixel point-and-shoot cameras are quite capable of giving excellent images if they have the ability of close-focussing. The main difficulty with them is that to get a fly to fill the image area you have to get very close to the fly (maybe 1-2 cm). This creates enormous problems in terms of lighting the subject. The longer macro/micro lenses (such as Nikon's 105mm and 200mm) allow for a much greater distance between the lens and the subject. Anyone have an idea of the genus? It looks like a muscid. |
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| cosmln |
Posted on 26-08-2008 18:18
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 Member Location: Romania Posts: 956 Joined: 18.03.07 |
Hi Tony, like always this looks astonishing. just wanted to ask you if is a Helicon "product" or just one image. now i have the answer. i will try too this way to do a photo. about ID, maybe Graphomya or near? cosmln |
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| Tony Irwin |
Posted on 26-08-2008 18:23
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 Member Location: Norwich, England Posts: 7234 Joined: 19.11.04 |
Hi Tony I think it's got to be Graphomya - 9 Nearctic species. Tony ---------- Tony Irwin |
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| Tony T |
Posted on 26-08-2008 19:14
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Member Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 662 Joined: 08.02.07 |
cosmln wrote: just wanted to ask you if is a Helicon "product" or just one image. now i have the answer. i will try too this way to do a photo. about ID, maybe Graphomya or near? cosmln Attaching a selection of the head left side, 1 exposure at a nominal f32 right side, about 20 exposures at nominal f8 stacked with HF. Very little difference for viewing the whole fly on a monitor, big difference if one wants to make a print. Thanks to you, and Tony for the ID. Dorsal thorax looks very similar to Black's image HERE Tony T attached the following image:  [109.92Kb] |
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| mcerny |
Posted on 26-08-2008 20:26
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Member Location: Czech Republic Posts: 671 Joined: 15.07.08 |
Hi Tony, thank for extensive information. Milos  |
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