Studio Patent-leather Beetle

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Manual mode
1/250"
F16
ISO 200
Canon 430EX: On, Fired
HH
ACR and CS5


This is Odontotaenius disjunctus, AKA the Patent-leather Beetle. I found it under the bark of a dead Hickory Tree.

Shot in the foam board lightbox. Cropped, curves, softened some of the flash highlights by lightly painting over them, contrast, SH, high-pass and smart sharpening. Blurred the shadow under the beetle.

[Jerry van Dijk]

That's it, I've got to build me a lightbox! These images of you and Steve are marvellous! DOF and details on this one are outstanding! I would take some of the bottom, there's a lot of empty white space now. I think a pano crop would work well.

[Julie Kenward]

Gorgeous detail but he's still totally creeping me out! Excellent work as always, Ken.

P.S. Are you going to offer up any of these to some of the websites/books, etc. that identifies insects because they have such great detail...I can't imagine anyone not wanting to use them for ID purposes.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ken. This is outstanding! You did an excellent job of controlling the lighting on this shiny-bodied beetle and your DOF got everything sharp. I also like the low shooting angle. Is this guy missing an antenna or am I missing something? You have a winner! :cheers:

[Ken Childs]

Jules, yes I submit my images to many bug ID sites. I have around 600 images just of moths to submit so it takes a lot of time but eventually I'll get around to it.

Steve, both antennae are there but for some reason one looks really fuzzy and the other one doesn't. I'm not sure if it's the angle or the lighting or if one really has more fuzz than the other. :S3:

[Steve Maxson]

Jules, yes I submit my images to many bug ID sites. I have around 600 images just of moths to submit so it takes a lot of time but eventually I'll get around to it.

Steve, both antennae are there but for some reason one looks really fuzzy and the other one doesn't. I'm not sure if it's the angle or the lighting or if one really has more fuzz than the other. :S3:

OK. That fuzzy one does look really odd and I thought it must be a mouthpart or something - I would expect both to look like the one on the right. I wonder if it has some kind of fungus or something growing on it?? :S3:

[Brendan Dozier]

Wow, so cool, Ken! Great job, and this light box thing does look like a lot of fun!

[Don Lacy]

wonderful detail Ken

[Ken Childs]

OK. That fuzzy one does look really odd and I thought it must be a mouthpart or something - I would expect both to look like the one on the right. I wonder if it has some kind of fungus or something growing on it?? :S3:
I just looked at some other shots of this beetle and both antennae are fuzzy. I guess the fuzz is overpowered by the white BG.

[Steve Maxson]

I just looked at some other shots of this beetle and both antennae are fuzzy. I guess the fuzz is overpowered by the white BG.

OK. Question answered. :S3: