Springtails and Spider Stacking

At this time of year in the UK, I find the best place to find wild things to take macro photos is under old wood and bark.  So I took a trip to Ramsdown Wood, near Hurn to go see what I could find.

I went with my Canon 5D MKIV and 1-5x macro lens ( Canon MPE-65mm ) to take the small things that I normally find there.  To shoot these things at high magnification I need to use flash – which my Yongnuo twin flash with home made diffusers provided on this occasion.

The most common thing that I find to photograph are springtails.  And normally the elongated ones are the most common.  However for a change it was the globular springtails that I took the most images of.  I like finding these as they have an almost human like face on their heads.

I got fortunate with a purple one as it stayed still allowing me to get a stack of it at 5x magnification ( 8 images are combined in this image – I used Helicon Focus 7 for this stack).

Dicyrtoma fusca (8 images at F8) Helicon Focus 7
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
Dicyrtoma fusca (8 images at F8) Helicon Focus 7

Here is it almost side on too.  Also stacked this time in Photoshop.

Mr Purple - 6 Images Stacked at F8 (photoshop)
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
Mr Purple – 6 Images Stacked at F8 (Photoshop)

The other globular that I managed to stack was this more yellow one.

Yellow Globular 2 images stacked at F9 (Photoshop)
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
Yellow Globular 2 images stacked at F9 (Photoshop)

The remaining globular photos below are all single shot images.

Dicyrtomina ornata
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
Dicyrtomina ornata
Mr Angry
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
Mr Angry
Aproaching the cliff edge
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
Aproaching the cliff edge
GlobFace
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
GlobFace
The meeting of springtails
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
The meeting of springtails

The image above has an out of focus Elongated-bodied springtail.  As I mentioned earlier – these are the ones I more commonly find.  And I did take some of this type too.  Including this one at 5x magnification.  The image is uncropped.

Elongated Springtail at 5x Magnification
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
Elongated Springtail at 5x Magnification

Whereas this image of the subject taken at around 2.5-3x magnification – is cropped a bit.  You can see from the comparison the difference increasing magnification makes on the subjects size in the frame.

Elongated Springtail at 3x Magnification
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO400)
Elongated Springtail at 2.5-3x Magnification

Here are a couple more different Elongated-bodied springtails.

Pogonognathellus flavescens
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO320)
Pogonognathellus flavescens
Pogonognathellus longicornis
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO400)
Pogonognathellus longicornis

Finally the other thing I found was this small spider with prey – I think another spider.  Both these images are stacked.  The first at F11.

Spider and Prey - 4 images @ F11 (Helicon Focus 7)
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO400)
Spider and Prey – 4 images @ F11 (Helicon Focus 7)

And this one at F9.  I prefer this one personally.

Spider and Prey - 8 images @ F9 (Helicon Focus 7)
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (65mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO400)
Spider and Prey – 8 images @ F9 (Helicon Focus 7)

 

 

 

 

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