sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

This is a focus-stacked image of what is commonly referred to as a woodlouse, pillbug, rollie-pollie, etc.

"There are several life forms which are: Runners, which have large eyes, long legs, and sometimes mimetic colors; Rollers, capable of rolling into a tight ball when disturbed; Clingers, less mobile than the preceding forms and with depressed margins of the body which they press down on flat surfaces, and Creepers, which have developed tergal ribs and live in narrow interstices, caves, etc. There are also Spiny and Non-conformist types."

This preserved specimen is one of the "Runners" which can be identified by its long legs and coloration.

(Download)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Longshadow, thanks for viewing.

Jay Drew Loc: Boise, Id.

Very interesting to view.
Would you mind sharing how you made this.
I.E. How did you get it stacked?
How did you post process?
What lens & camera? & lighting & background?
Thank you very much, Jay

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

A resemblance to a dinosaur, Gary.

gmontjr2350 Loc: Southern NJ

George

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Jay, thanks for asking as I enjoy sharing what I do and how I do it.

The camera that I use is a small Fujifilm X-T20 mirrorless. I mount it on a bellows so that I can vary the amount of magnification by extending or retracting the length of the bellows.

The optics that I use for a session are based on the size of the subject to fill the frame of the camera. I chose the 50mm f/2.8 enlarger lens for this session because it was the best fit for the size of the woodlouse. The measured to be about 3X magnification and I set the aperture at f/5.6. Enlarger lenses are inexpensive and they are designed to be sharp from corner to corner. Because they are engineered to enlarge a flat piece of film, they have a flat field of view which makes them a good choice for focus stacking.

I mount the specimen on an insect mounting pin which is stuck into a dab of plasticine modeling clay that is stuck on a ball bearing so that the specimen can be rotated with pitch and yaw to get it into the position that I want for the session.

Knowing the measured amount of magnification allows me to determine what the resulting depth of field will be for depth of field varies with the amount of magnification and the f/stop used. When I know the magnification and the f/stop used, I know that the depth of field, in this case, will be calculated to be 0.12mm.

I use a motorized digital focus rail and I move the camera to a point where the closest point of the subject is in sharp focus. This is usually the tip of a hair. That determines the "start point". I then advance the camera forward until I reach the farthest point of the subject in focus where I want the camera to stop and that becomes the "stop point". The total distance that the camera traveled from start to stop measured in millimeters is then divided by the depth of field that was calculated and that number becomes the number of times that the camera will move and take a shot. For this session, the number of shots taken was 131.

I use constant illumination provided by two LED desk lamps diffused with layers of vellum tracing paper. I keep the ISO at the camera's lowest amount (ISO 200 in my case) and I adjust the shutter speed based on the histogram. In this case, the shutter speed was 1/5 second. It is important to keep the ISO at the camera's native number for not only does magnification increase the apparent size of the subject, digital noise is also magnified so lower is better by far.

When finished, I process the stack of images in Zerene Stacker or Helicon Focus depending on the number of images in the stack.

Attached are a few photos of my tabletop setup.

(Download)

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, UTMike. Isopods roamed the seas hundreds of millions of years ago. About 100 million years ago some of them thought the heck with all this swimming and they came ashore and they are still with us today.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, George. I appreciate the reply.

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Beautiful Gary. You have truly mastered this!

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks ever so much, Muddyvalley.

randave2001 Loc: Richmond

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

FiddleMaker Loc: Merrimac, MA

Excellent image as usual, Sippy.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, Randave2001.