Perpetual insect photo thread

[Sigbhu]

Mr. Phunk:

i know ALL abut focussing on beetles:

most of these awful chaps have this waxy caoting on thier cases, making it reflective, and immune to nearly every AF system i've thrown against it.

tip#1: don't go from straight up, 30 deg from the horizontal seems to be a good angle.

tip#2: crop, crop, and crop. if you have suffeicient MP, oyu can make up for a not so hot lens(which is?)

tip#3: use a flash!! i belong to the flash group; i use a flash i built myself (ok, cannibalized from another flash) and it gives me awesome results; even in total darkness.

tip#4: use an af assist beam. if you don't have the money to buy one, build it yourself. with a little bit of electronics, you can connect it to the cmaera battery, to keep things simple WARNING: EXTREME DANGER YOF SHORTING YOUR CAMERA'S ELECTRONICS. I KNOW, IT HAPPENIND TO ME ONCE.

tip#5: go slow. the slower you go, the more invisible you get. i once went so slow i got within 4 cm of a butterfly.

[Sigbhu]

i like the detal on the wings, too. has anyone tried a composite focus version of that shot?

[Sigbhu]

here's one of a frog, in coorg (you must know all about it by now)
i used my home made flash for this.

[Sigbhu]

i don't knwo if this is macro....

[Sigbhu]

this is a massive damselfly, very shy, so i had to shoot it from realy far away @380mm

[jeff31]

spider super super macro (real size 5mm)

My best fly (super macro)

Jeff

[Ali_baba]

ali baba--maybe you shoudl hhave focussed on;y on the insect on the right?!
the other ones don't add htat much to the scene. did you use a flash? if you were in just macro, you might used some extra light!

Hiya Sigbhu,

First of all, your snaps are very impressive Keep posting
I thought to use the flash but again...the subject was behind the glass and it was possible to have flash reflection from glass. I couldn't keep my lense directly on the glass as well as there was an obsticle between me and the glass.

This photo can tell you what I mean

[DiJ]

spider super super macro (real size 5mm)

My best fly (super macro)

Jeff

Wow! that fly photo. So close, so detailed and so so gross! Super super macro indeed.

[Sigbhu]

jeff: awesome awesome second shot!
somebody tell me that he used at least 3000 dollars worth of gear on that shot! and not with a Sony! that detail is really impresssive! not to mention the photographer getting that close!!

also, ali baba, did you keep the flash and the lens flush with the glass? becasue if you did, and if the glass wasn't that thick, you should be reflection free.

[jeff31]

Thank you Sigbhu for your nice compliments. Absolutly, this pic has been taken with a Sony DSC-V3 (not DSLR) + an old and low-price 130 mm lens handing in front of the camera. The pic has been croped to supress a small vigneting.