This attractive chap is a Blood Vein moth (Timandra comae) - called this from his pattern for obvious reasons! It is a reasonably common species in the southern half of the UK and the larvae feed on various low-growing plants such as dock (Rumex sp.).
D70 180 macro ff tripod f32 1/60th ISO 200
Posted by Rene de Heer on June 15, 2006 at 3:40 PM
I must admit im not a macro man, guess i do not have the patience ! I really like this image and like the combination moth and leaf very much!
Rene de heer
Hi,
A nice shot of an interesting and photogenic looking species.
Suprised to see that you used f32,do you not find the quality quite reduced at such a small aperture?
Not that the image quality doesn't look fine here,because it does,I mean compared to f16 or f22.
Hi Clive,
I like the style, interesting moth and great info. Justin has a good point, lenses are normally at their sharpest in the lower to middle range of aperture you can check out your lens at http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html
They have one for the sigma 180mm which indicates optimum to be around f/8 to f/11.
Thanks, I was playing around with different f-stops and having reviewed the series this one actually looked the best although I agree that in theory it shouldn't! Thanks for the link Tim, I'll take a look at that.
The diffraction limit for the pixel pitch of the D70 should be around f11-16, it is a constant problem for us and one of the reasons I switched to a 5D for high macro.
Diffraction can be a huge problem and some say that USM can counter it, I'm afraid I am not in that camp, if an image is severely softened by the effects of diffraction no amount of USM will rescue it.
Interestingly the limit for the 20D is closer to f8-11 because of the higher pixel pitch.
The above is not meant to be a technical discussion just a generalisation.
All the best
Posted by Elliott Neep on June 16, 2006 at 5:18 AM
I think I must be the worlds most blinded photographer when it comes to moths. I simply can't find them anywhere. So its with great wonder that I look at the images posted here on uknp. I think this had been really well shot with sufficient depth of field (as you'd expect with an F32) to render both body and wings in sharp focus. Exposure is spot with nice soft light.
How did you manage an expose of 1/60th at F32? Did you you use multiple flashguns or lots of reflectors?
Phil has indicated that higher pixel pitch means lower f stops are required to avoid diffraction and so favours the full frame 5D, I wonder if this is counter balanced by the fact that smaller sensors have more depth of field at equivalent f stops, i.e f11 on a 5D has the same DOF as f7.1 on the D70 (approximately).
Food for thought.
Discussion
9 repliesD70 180 macro ff tripod f32 1/60th ISO 200
Rene de heer
Nice image of Moth I haven't seen, nice pose and choice of background
Danny
A nice shot of an interesting and photogenic looking species.
Suprised to see that you used f32,do you not find the quality quite reduced at such a small aperture?
Not that the image quality doesn't look fine here,because it does,I mean compared to f16 or f22.
I like the style, interesting moth and great info. Justin has a good point, lenses are normally at their sharpest in the lower to middle range of aperture you can check out your lens at
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html
They have one for the sigma 180mm which indicates optimum to be around f/8 to f/11.
Tim
The diffraction limit for the pixel pitch of the D70 should be around f11-16, it is a constant problem for us and one of the reasons I switched to a 5D for high macro.
Diffraction can be a huge problem and some say that USM can counter it, I'm afraid I am not in that camp, if an image is severely softened by the effects of diffraction no amount of USM will rescue it.
Interestingly the limit for the 20D is closer to f8-11 because of the higher pixel pitch.
The above is not meant to be a technical discussion just a generalisation.
All the best
How did you manage an expose of 1/60th at F32? Did you you use multiple flashguns or lots of reflectors?
It was bounced single flash - the 'ff' on the specs - now I come to think about it, maybe it was full ttl flash?!
Food for thought.
Tim