A few UK insects

davholla

Been spending a lot of time on here!
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Hoverfly Syritta pipiens
Hoverfly EF7A6118 by davholla2002, on Flickr
Picture wing fly
Fly EF7A5570 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Picture wing fly EF7A5559 by davholla2002, on Flickr
Bug, there were lots of these on my whitecurrant bush but they were very difficult to photograph, Pilophorus, family Miridae, sadly this was the best I could get, probably the hardest subject I have had this year.
Bug EF7A5191 by davholla2002, on Flickr
Bee a very tricky subject
Bee EF7A5545 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Caterpillar
Caterpillar EF7A6047 by davholla2002, on Flickr
 
There's a curious amount of haze in these photos; a quick auto run of levels and a bit of contrast boosting would give them a huge lift and really help bring out those details. You might find that on some (eg the last) you need to reduce saturation a little when you increase contrast so as to avoid colours getting to extreme.
 
There's a curious amount of haze in these photos; a quick auto run of levels and a bit of contrast boosting would give them a huge lift and really help bring out those details. You might find that on some (eg the last) you need to reduce saturation a little when you increase contrast so as to avoid colours getting to extreme.
Thanks for that I am not quite sure what happened with these. They looked better on my PC I think.
You don't think there could be something on the lens do you? Compare it to this - much better.
EF7A8841hoverflyspider by davholla2002, on Flickr
 
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If they look contrasty and bright on your machine it could be that your screen needs calibrating. Most PC screens are typically bright and contrasty straight from the box, so calibration is important. A manual calibrator such as a Colourmonkey or Spyder is an ideal choice and lets you repeat the calibration when you need too (typically good to do it every few weeks as screens do drift over time)

This is a quick edit I did showing original and adjusted. All I did was run a levels layer on automatic; a slight boost to contrast and then a small drop to saturation.

sR5hrht.jpg


Out of interest what lens did you use and what lighting setup; it could be the haze comes from lighting or could be settings or even the lens. It's less likely the lens unless you've used some strong modifiers .
 
I used Canon MPE 65mm and Yonghzou ring flash. Annoying I did check the contrast a few months ago I didn't know that it needed doing so often.
Any tips on how to do it in linux?
 
Ringflashes can give a fairly flat light but shouldn't sap all contrast from the scene. For linux I don't know how to adjust monitor profiles; that said you'd ideally want something like the hardware options I'd suggested earlier; which come with software which will update the monitor profile itself when run.
 
Ringflashes can give a fairly flat light but shouldn't sap all contrast from the scene. For linux I don't know how to adjust monitor profiles; that said you'd ideally want something like the hardware options I'd suggested earlier; which come with software which will update the monitor profile itself when run.
Can I just manually change the profile and compare to a smart phone/tablet screen?
That would be
1) Cheaper
2) I could do it quicker
3) I have a crowded house and less stuff the better.
 
Is the ring flash LED? Instead of using a ring flash I would use a regular speedlight/flash with a soft box for diffusing. You can make your own diffuser if you want. I get very good results from this simple setup:

No ants in my pants!
 
Calibration has to be done by machine mostly because our visual system (ergo our eyes and brain) is highly adaptive and subjective. So its not really a good base for calibration. A calibrator is tiny - mine is a Spyder and its about as big as a computer mouse so it shouldn't take up much room at all.
 

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