Honeybee eye

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:10 am

Haven't been able to post much lately, but I did find enough time to combine 87 shots with Helicon Focus to get the depth on this honeybee eye.

10X objective, 2.5X photo-eyepiece. Canon 350D. Two fiber optic light guides through small diffusion "dome".

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:54 am

Hello Charlie,

Wonderful shot that will likely be used to teach biologists! (If not, it should be.)

I'm a little taken aback by 87 shots - is that number needed?

All the best,

Mike

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:13 am

This is a dang good shot Charlie.

Do you think you could have gotten a little more detail in it though?

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:29 pm

Mike... 87 might be a little overkill

But I used a 10X with a pretty high na so DOF was really shallow. And any time the subject has fine hairs protruding toward the objective like this I like to err on the side of too many images. Otherwise you might "miss" a layer and the software can't make a continuous straight line out of the hair, and you get a jagged line.
In addition, it's hard to tell from the picture, but the antenna protruded closer to the lens than the eye, so a significant number of images were needed just to "pull" that into focus.

If I have some time, maybe I'll run it again with every other image in the stack and see how much difference there is.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 2:02 pm

Hey Charlie, what is that cup shaped object just above the eye and just to the right of it? Any ideas?

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 2:27 pm

Ken... That's an ocellus. It's a little tough to get oriented on this shot because the heads is at a strange angle... but it's one of the "simple" eyes on top of the head.

lacerta · Post by **lacerta** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:06 pm

Another incredible image! As always I am inspired. Your comments on technique have taught me much. I am obsessed with detail and focus and so far my images have been rather disappointing. 87 images!? Hmmm. Maybe that's where I can improve. Instead of taking quarter-turns on the fine focus knob, perhaps smaller "bites" will help. Thanks Charlie.
George

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:15 pm

Mike... I played around with the stack and you were right. This could probably have been made with about 25 images. I've been frustrated a few times when I made the interval too large and encountered problems, so I really overdo it sometimes!

So George.... nevermind the 87!... save yourself some hard disk space.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 3:21 am

Charlie said:

Ken... That's an ocellus. It's a little tough to get oriented on this shot because the heads is at a strange angle... but it's one of the "simple" eyes on top of the head.

I sort of thought so Charlie but I am used to seeing them farther back from the eye of most insects and that it appeared "cup" shaped to me. That is what prompted my question. Thanks Charlie.