12 Bit Photo
Bugs in Love
Posted by Twelvebit (Victoria, United States) on 5 February 2009 in Animal & Insect.
I don't know what the proper name is for these critters but around here they're known as "love bugs."
More interesting analysis on the concept of "truth" in photography.
Linerberry from Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand
Incredible!! Now I'm taking it that they are breeding and that they don't infact go around like this all the time?!! I know it sounds silly but with the name 'Lovebug' one never knows!!
Anyhoo, a fantastic shot my friend! Its funny how bugs are more barable if they have nice colours!
5 Feb 2009 5:36am
@Linerberry: They're breeding, yes. While I saw plenty that weren't, they all appeared to be trying. I don't know how much of the time they aren't breeding.
bluechameleon from Vancouver, Canada
Beautiful macro and I just love the detail on the wings.
5 Feb 2009 5:47am
@bluechameleon: Thanks. I'm slowly coming around to the fact that I'm going to need to use flash to do these macro shots properly.
Lomantik from Sydney, Australia
good choice of aperture but the noise (ISO1600!) is pretty evident in the wings... have u tried using NeatImage?
i think they are a species of aphid... :D
love your insect pictures! keep it up!
5 Feb 2009 6:06am
@Lomantik: I suspect oversharpening here is a bigger culprit than noise (for one thing I probably didn't turn off sharpening by Aminus when I posed). I did some noise reduction of the raw image in Photoshop. I haven't tried NeatImage but I have tried Noise Ninja and I wasn't particularly impressed --I couldn't see any obvious improvement over the Adobe noise filter (though I didn't spend a lot of time with it and it's possible I wasn't getting the most from it).
This is sort of a lazy shot. I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to use flash for shots like these. In this case I could have hand held a flash and shot with one hand, but I didn't feel like going back and digging out a flash. I'm planning to either buy or construct a flash rig for macrophotograpy --or perhaps buy a ring flash.
dang from Atlanta, United States
Noise... Excellent detail, looks to me. Really nice shot, it does you proud.
Not sure of the species, but they're probably a type of plant bug. Great place for ID's:
http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=plant+bug
5 Feb 2009 10:27am
@dang: I suspect oversharpening here is a bigger culprit than noise (for one thing I probably didn't turn off sharpening by Aminus when I posed). I did some noise reduction of the raw image in Photoshop. I haven't tried NeatImage but I have tried Noise Ninja and I wasn't particularly impressed --I couldn't see any obvious improvement over the Adobe noise filter (though I didn't spend a lot of time with it and it's possible I wasn't getting the most from it).
This is sort of a lazy shot. I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to use flash for shots like these. In this case I could have hand held a flash and shot with one hand, but I didn't feel like going back and digging out a flash. I'm planning to either buy or construct a flash rig for macrophotograpy --or perhaps buy a ring flash.
Thanks for the link.
Philip from Joburg, South Africa
The name seems very suited to them great shot !!
5 Feb 2009 10:40am
Julian Kilsby from Birmingham, United Kingdom
It's a beautiful thing! Another great bug shot, lots of detail and great colour.
5 Feb 2009 11:09am
Rachel from Charleville-Mézières, France
Belle prise de vue et bonne maitrise de la profondeur de champ.
5 Feb 2009 1:41pm
@Rachel: Merci.
@MadScientist: Sure feels like it. 75 F today.
Observing from West Cheshire, United Kingdom
They are living up to their name.... excellent shot.
5 Feb 2009 5:02pm
JoeB from Brampton, Canada
Solid red and blue on these bugs the blue resembles a jean jacket, this is not the next thing, bug porn ?
5 Feb 2009 5:08pm
@JoeB: Really, are you seeing blue on these bugs wings --they look black to me, with perhaps a hint of blue? Because I'm having a devil of a time getting them to print black. My prints are coming out way too blue. I recalibrate my monitor and can't see any difference. My prime suspect for screwing up my color management is now Microsoft's POS operating system, Vista, which apparently represents an all out attack on consistency.
Stephen Phillips from San Francisco, United States
More bugs are on the way - I just know it! Great detail. Nicely captured.
5 Feb 2009 6:49pm
@Laura S: Thank you. No link to your blog shows up in your comment?
dang from Atlanta, United States
Sorry for the delay in getting back to your response, I forget we can view them.
I see a slight halo from sharpening, but nothing thats too bad, and probably due to your trying to pull out the focus of the upper insects head. Dof is always a problem with the type magnification I use, so I find I use f/16 quiet a lot. Of course, going beyond and lens diffraction becomes a problem. For web posting, f/11 is about as high as should be used, since it allows the best from your lens, and gives the greatest detail when cropping. There's a certain amount of "back focus" which (with Canon anyway) can help increase dof. But when shooting live subjects, it's difficult to do. I've generally find it best to shoot insects from the side in this situation, just seems easier to pin point focus. It may not be your "all time best shot", but there's a lot of people who'd like to get one this good. ;-)
10 Feb 2009 1:13am
@dang: A lot of times what I find myself doing is leaving the focal point fixed and pushing the camera slightly in and out to get the focus. I tried, many times, but couldn't manage much in the way of side shots for these little boogers. They were very camera shy.
What's really driving me nuts with this one is trying to print it. I'm seeing black wings on my monitor and getting decidedly blue prints. I recalibrated my monitor and it didn't make any difference. I've tried any number of changes to the color management permutations, and most frustrating of all, none seem to make any difference and I get the same print every time. I'm using an HP 8750 with the appropriate ICC profiles for the paper and ink combination I'm printing.
I had no such problems before I was forced by computer failure into using this POS Vista operating system and I suspect that is where my problem lies. Vista has it's own color management scheme to interfere with the application, and as I understand it, even comes with a flaw that replaces your calibrated monitor LUT values with its own garbage after certain actions, and you must reboot to get your calibration settings back. On top of that, it seems to have added at least 720 new permutations to the color management settings.
So, in addition to the hours I've wasted just trying to get my printer to work at all with the POS Vista, it looks like I'm going to have to spend several more hours researching Vista color management to determine where it is overriding my process between the application and the printer.
dang from Atlanta, United States
Interesting...
There's a somewhat blue tint to the wings viewing on my screen, running XP with a Dell LCD monitor. When I first replaced the monitor, I had a heck of time with colors. After a few weeks I finally checked Dell , and even though the monitor was new it required a driver update. I understand Vista had several problems starting out, but you might find information specific to your problem by searching. Search for your monitor, and printer too, and hopefully you'll figure it out soon. If I recall correctly, seems MicroStiff-U was pushing a photo program trying to compete with Adobe and others... maybe that has something to do with it. I'll check around again and see if I find something more specific to pass on. Good luck.
11 Feb 2009 6:15am
@dang: When you go to print, the printer window comes up with a tab for advanced printing where you can choose "handled by host," or none, or handled by printer. One thing I discovered is that when you choose "handled by host" the POS Vista may or may not retain this choice by the time you actually click "print." Apparently it changes depending on some other printer choice --like the type of paper-- made subsequently. What I probably need to do is what about 35% of those forced into Vista have done --erase the POS from my computer and install XP.
Nikon D80
1/250 second
F/11.0
ISO 1600
100 mm