New 4X and a new fly. (Wild lookin' one too!)

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:01 am

Helloooo.... anyone out there? What happened to all our photomicrographers? A whole weekwith no posts.

Well here's a new one. Picked up a good 4X and found a very interesting fly on my little trip into the Olympic Mtns. This fly is a little smaller than a "housefly" and has very nice color pattern. The eye appeared green and the body a golden yellow. Its greyish back is covered with many white spiky hairs. (In this profile it sort of looks like a grouchy old man). I found these regularly on the flower buds of thistles.

Olympus 4X S Plan Apo, Olympus NFK 1.67X. Canon Rebel XT. Ping-pong ball diffuser. Green rhododendrun leaf over base light port provided dark green background. 76 shot stack, Helicon Focus.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:22 am

Hello Charlie,

I think there are still people out here but this must be a slow period. Personally I've been in Asia for the last few weeks and just got back so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Your shot is (as usual) another beauty - you make these little critters almost attractive! Have to admit I've never seen one of these flies or perhaps just never noticed it.

The performance you're getting out of HF is amazing, especially with a 76 shot stack. Do you do anything special to limit the artifacts I sometimes get with HF?

Great shot,

All the best,
Mike

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:05 am

Thanks Mike. With the arrival of HFv4 I did another brief test comparison with AutoMontage, Helicon, and CombineZ. There will always be "artifacts" and errors that require clean-up with all of the programs, especially with subjects as 3-dimensional as these flies. So if you make use of this type of program regularly, it is probably best to accept that fact, and develop some skills at the type of photo editing needed to correct them. (My sense is that with this type of subject HF makes the fewest errors, and/or they are the type that can be more readily "repaired").

Personally I was without my primary stand for a while as the power supply in the base was being repaired. But I have spent so much time peering down the eyepieces since I started this a couple years ago, that I have essentially "missed" two springs of photography in the Olympics and Cascades. I'm trying to spend more time up there this year, and hopefully, trying to collect some nice microscope subjects (like this fly) at the same time.

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:27 pm

Another wonderful image Charlie - wow!

piotr · Post by **piotr** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:14 pm

Beautiful picture. Smooth and very detailed. It looks like a color SEM image.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 2:36 pm

A beautiful image of an interesting fly -- who could ask for more?

Mike, I see a couple of stacking errors in this image -- mostly bristles appearing to overlap in ways that would make M.C.Escher proud.

Are you talking about those kinds of artifacts, or something else?

--Rik