Earwig in close-up

[Thomas Herou]

K10D,D-FA 50/2,8,Soligor 2x TC CD7,AF 160 FC Ringflash
f/22, 1/60s, Iso100

[Randy Stout]

Thomas:

Great eyes. Well exposed.

My only thought would be that I think it would have been a bit more effective if the plane of focus was such that both eyes were equally sharp. Not an easy task on such a small critter!

Randy

[Thomas Herou]

Thanks for the c&c Randy.
The scale is almost 3:1, and handheld,so forget about looking for the DOF.
I use my gut feeling when stopping down and pray to the gods!:)

[Randy Stout]

Thomas:

Well, your strategy has produced some very nice pictures, so I would say it works pretty well!

Cheers

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Thomas, very interesting close up!!!
Have you tried Helicon focus? It's a programs where you switch the focal point around the bug and the software mixes them, getting 100% DOF. I have not tried it, but I suspect they have to be dead or very quiet insects :)

http://www.heliconsoft.com/

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

This is an amazing close up!

Love the eyes and antennas.

[Julie Kenward]

This actually gave me the heebie jeebies when I opened it up so good job!

I think you could get away with selectively sharpening that back eye a bit and bring it up to being closer to the other one. I am having a little trouble with the antenna on the left side of the frame...I find I'm wanting it to be the more "in focus" antenna of the two because it is closer to the front. Still, for what you got out of this - excellent work!

[Thomas Herou]

Thanks again!
Fabs,this helicon focus sounds really intresting.
Julie,I know what you meen about the antennas.It moved the antennas all the time like a radar,
and the closest antenna pointed to me,so it got blurred sadly.

[Alfred Forns]

Really nice Thomas I know how hard it is working at that magnification ... might be negative dof :)

btw I know Helicon is used for these images ... give it a try !!!!

[Richard Lovison]

Now this one is creepy and the front of that bug isn't any more appealing than the back side. :)

Like Alfred I think it is well done considering the degree of magnification. The out of focus antenna doesn't bother me and I agree with Jules that the use of selective focusing will help the eye on the right side.

[Mike Moats]

Great in your face shot, nice details on the head.

[Thomas Herou]

Thanks Alfred,Richard and Mike!

[Bob Allen]

Nice portrait! Good exposure, sharp on the head. A bit of light curve on the head, but not enough to indicate that this was taken with a ring flash. I certainly understand about the antennae problem, we arthropod photographers just have to live with it.

I too would like to see the far (left) eye cluster in better focus. ƒ/25 or f/32 would have done it but at high mag, makes things even harder to do.

[Thomas Herou]

Thanks Bob!
You are correct about the apertureproblem.