Critique Sucking Eggs

TimmyG

TimmyG

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Tim
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In the garden I found an old favourite of mine, the Lacewing larvae. In the US they are known as Trash Bugs for their habit of camouflaging themselves with bits of debris. This one has only a small collection of "trash" and I have seen other individuals with quite a pile stacked up on their backs. This one has come across what I assume to be barkfly eggs (due to the protective covering of silk) and is no doubt making a meal of them.

This stack took a fair bit of work to put together. I was trying out my new, lightweight 90ex flash that I got with the EOS-M. It's recycle time isn't as quick as my 430ex II and the batteries were running low anyway. It took a few seconds between each shot and the lacewing was twisting and flexing as it sucked out the egg contents. In order to get better alignment I divided the stack into sections; stacking 4 close crops of the head in Zerene and a separate group of 9 images for the body. I then combined the images as layers in Photoshop and merged them seamlessly (I hope!) using the transform tool and layer masks. John Hallmén has a very good YouTube video that describes this technique a bit better.

Sucking Eggs by Tim.Garlick, on Flickr
 
Nice stuff Tim.
 
Thanks all
Tintin124 said:
:agree: but my what a load of effort lol....
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You know I don't like to do things the easy way ;)

ChrisA said:
Why have you gone to an EOS-M ?
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There's a few reasons I suppose. The first is the low price. I always fancied a backup camera and always assumed I would eventually "upgrade" to a FF camera at some point, keeping my 550D as backup. However when the price of the EOS-M dropped it became a very tempting proposition. So I would say "It's cheap" is the first reason.

Another reason is my original kit was quite heavy. The 550D isn't particularly heavy, but combined with the MP-E and Flash+Bracket, I was feeling it after a day out and about. I was intially going to swap out my flash for a smaller one (270ex or similar) but again, when I saw the price of the EOS-M i snapped it up. The kit comes with an even smaller flash (90ex) so I'm trying to adapt to using that. I haven't yet decided if it will do the job. I'm awaiting the arrival of some AAA eneloops (the 90ex takes 2 AAA batteries) to see if I can speed up the recycle time - I'm finding it a bit slow at the moment so I may need to still consider going for the 270ex.

The final reason is size. I travel a few times a year, and I always want to take my camera gear with me (plus laptop). Last year was a bit of a farce at the airport, unpacking all the crap I had collected and decided to take with me. The security lady was new and in training so wanted to do a really thorough job. It was a bit funny explaining why I needed so many different lenses, tubes, tripods, battery packs etc. but it also made me realise I should try and reduce the amount of stuff I was carting around. The EOS-M greatly reduces the size of my kit, as even the lenses are smaller. There are now a couple more EOS-M lenses I would like to get to complete my focal range requirements, but even so, the capacity required to travel with it will be greatly reduced (along with the weight).

One thing that didn't really come into my reasoning, but is an added bonus is that the sensor is slightly updated from my current one, and has a bit better noise control, so I will be happier upping the ISO a bit more. Sensor size is the same as my original camera.

With all this comes some compromises. The main issues I am finding at the moment are recycle times when stacking. It does seem slower and therefore makes stacking more difficult. Also, there is no viewfinder, just the LCD screen, which makes shooting on bright, sunny days a nightmare. I'm going to look into getting a loupe for the screen to see if this will help, and other than that it's just a case of adjusting to the camera and working around the difficulties.
 
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Have you thought of using the ex90 just as a fill light for either main flash or ambient light could come in real handy for that. :D
 
Thanks for the explanation and info. Weight is an issue for me. So interesting to see about this camera. Though moving from the 50D to my 650D was a big weight loss.

I wonder if you up the ISO ( results permitting ) the flash may recycle faster - would think it would need less power ??

Not sure if I could cope without a viewfinder mind. What I'd really like Canon to do is come out with something like the OM-D which my brother has. It's small and lightweight, handles ISO well, AND has a EV Viewfinder. Great for exposure in viewfinder when not using flash. Saves that hit and miss with + - EV and then look at LCD to double check - it's right in view, you just dial and see.
 
Tintin124 said:
Have you thought of using the ex90 just as a fill light for either main flash or ambient light could come in real handy for that. :D
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It might be OK for a bit of fill flash with ambient at 1:1 and maybe a couple of X more, but at 5X+ the flash really needs to be the only light source.

The 90ex is great as it also acts as a wireless master trigger (I can use it to fire my 430EX II for example, with the 430 acting as a slave); the only problem is I can't use the light from the 90EX at the same time, so I would still only have a single source. Although it will flash as an optical trigger, the timings of the trigger and shutter aren't in synch, so you only get the slave light hitting the sensor. I was hoping to be able to do something fancy like gel a background light, but I'm not sure if this will be possible. I was going to see if one of those Yongnuo flashes will work like that, or it still triggers in the same way as the Canon. Also I suspect it might be a bit of a nightmare getting everything set up and managing to get the light to hit the relevant areas (considering the usually small distances, measured in millimetres, between subjects and background). It might be something more suited to a studio setup, where I could just use desk lamps anyway.

The 90EX is certainly powerful enough for macro work, that's not the issue. It's just not designed to have a quick recycle time, where portability is the primary objective, and it will do the job for "most" people. Even if using it to trigger a larger flash, the recycle time will be dependant on the 90EX. Anyway, as mentioned I'm hoping the eneloops will help here, but if not I'll just get hold of a cheap 270EX or similar.

ChrisA said:
Thanks for the explanation and info. Weight is an issue for me. So interesting to see about this camera. Though moving from the 50D to my 650D was a big weight loss.

I wonder if you up the ISO ( results permitting ) the flash may recycle faster - would think it would need less power ??

Not sure if I could cope without a viewfinder mind. What I'd really like Canon to do is come out with something like the OM-D which my brother has. It's small and lightweight, handles ISO well, AND has a EV Viewfinder. Great for exposure in viewfinder when not using flash. Saves that hit and miss with + - EV and then look at LCD to double check - it's right in view, you just dial and see.
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Absolutely. I've still not really put the whole setup through it's paces and am still getting used to it, but there may be a balance between ISO/recycle times that will give me similar quality/shooting speeds to what I was getting with my old setup.

I will say I was shooting one handed much easier with the M, and I was able to twist into what would have been very uncomfortable positions without much fuss, so the reduced weight really is a bonus. I've just ordered a cheap LCD Loupe off eBay, so I'll let you know how I get on with that.

Also, keep an eye out for what gets announced at Photokina in a couple of weeks. Canon may just have the type of thing you are looking for although no doubt at a fair cost; initially at least ;)
 
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What I didn't mention was that I made a small light weight version on my ice-cream box diffuser using half an egg box, some tin foil, kitchen roll and a rubber band to fit on the 90EX in this shot. knocked it up in about three minutes, didn't even use scissors, I just tore it up :) Seemed to do the job until I got a bit ambitious with a spider in the holly bush. The whole thing fell off taking the web and spider with it!
 
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