Stackshotting a Beetle
Had a go with my Stackshot tonight, having got a helping hand to help hold the subject and background in place during the stack. This is a long dead Pterostichus melanarius beetle (Carabid), that has been mounted on a pin and held via the helping hands.
I cleaned it up with water and then helped dry with some Isopropanol 99% solution and then once mounted gave it a quick hair dryer, to dry it out from it stored industrial meths solution. Many of the drying and mounting tips, I got from the excellent extreme-macro.co.uk website. Lots of information on high magnification macro there.
I lit the subject with my twin macro flash, behind my poppadom vellum paper diffuser.
Here’s the result… Oh and if you read this Sis. Thanks 😀
Pterostichus melanarius beetle at 2x Magnification. 29 Shot Stack (ISO 100 F6.3 with Flash and Poppadom Diffuser) Stacked using Depth Map in Helicon Focus. Taken on Canon 650D with MPE-65mm
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Fun, isn’t it =). I started out with some ground beetles too, they’re quite good to prac with because they’re actually remarkably difficult! If you can get these right you can definitely get easier stuff right!
-Johan
Yes 😀 – It is thanks for all the info on your http://www.extreme-macro.co.uk website. Makes a great read.
I have some of these beetles to practice with and some others to have a go with later, when I get more practiced at it.