Thanks Mark!

Thank you, and it is my pleasure!

Hi Stephen - thanks for the feedback - I'll start doing my homework. I have a disturbing compositing video in the works, too.

Thank you sir!

Cheers Tarek!

That was very insightful. Now I know why I'm gravitating towards macro photography, and it's because my wife doesn't have patience while I set up the flash etc.

Another great Video Thanks !!!

Hi Ernst - that is also a great way to shoot jewelry and watches.

I found it in a box that hasn't been opened in 10 years (that's how bored I am in social isolation). I got it the last time I was at Murrayfield.

Gosh I am so sorry for the slow reply - Well, as you won't have a lens on the camera, there will be nothing to set. When you adjust the aperture on a camera, the message is passed to the motor in the lens, which opens or closes it per your instruction. But with some extension tubes or bellows, there may or may be connections that would connect camera to lens, but it doesn't matter because the lens you are using, the objective, has a fixed aperture. If you shoot with Nikon, the aperture display should have three little dashes but no f/number. You question gets a more interesting answer when you start using infinity corrected objectives. Then you might have to adjust some settings. It took me so long to answer this, you have probably already written your first two books on macro photography! Sorry. Good luck!

Hi Lysander... I appreciate your confidence, but from my perspective 3K subs are about 2.99K subs more than I ever expected - so no complaints here! I'm not sure that I was ever sane to begin with.

Hi Roy - The correct eyepiece for use with a microscope would very much depend on the type of microscope and the objective you are using. With some objectives, ones that do not correct for chromatic aberration, the eyepiece is designed to make such corrections. Are you wishing to incorporate an eyepiece into a photomicrography setup, or do you have another purpose in mind? If you are looking for a way to adapt a microscope to use with your camera (i.e. having the camera capture images through an intact microscope), the best place to start looking for adapter solutions would be LM Scope (www.lmscope.com). Feel free to email me directly (contact@allanwallsphotography.com) if you would like to discuss this further. By the way, I also use flexible LEDs, and fiberoptics, for some of my work (video coming!), but the purpose of this video was to demonstrate how excellent lighting can be accomplished with the gear most photographers already have.

Thanks John, I don't have a list, but I'll make one now! The best tracing paper for diffusion at this scale is Master's Touch Premium Tracing paper. I get mine from Hobby Lobby, where you can also get it online (Amazon has it too). The reflectors that I use can be found at any craft store, in the card stock section. It is highly reflective (silver and other colors) on one side and white on the other. I have also used silver "envelope liners", pieces of aluminium foil, small mirrors, and small pieces of highly polished stainless steel. The thing is, nothing works in every case. There is no "best reflector", as it depends very much on the rest of the lighting setup and the subject you are shooting. Whenever I see something shiny (and cheap), I'll buy one and put it in my bag of tricks for later experimentation. Sorry for the vague answer, but it really is all about experimentation and luck!

@@AllanWallsPhotography Your KZfaq video sparked an interest in the reflective card stock of which I could find many uses. Keep up the great work, love your videos.

Hi Jack, I didn't bring up rear curtain sync - I should have mentioned it. I seldom use RCS for a number of reasons. It doesn't offer a noticeable advantage over my usual shooting sequence (Mup with long delay before shutter release). The slow shutter speeds used with RCS require a dark space, which is hard to achieve in my studio, and ambient light getting into my composition causes more problems than the ghosting that I would use RCS to avoid. But the main reason is that my flash triggers are very unreliable when using RCS. I am not entirely sure why this is, but I get a lot of missed shots with RCS, unless I use a sync cord (PC) from the camera. I would be interested to know if you use this technique, and if you have found ways to avoid the problems I run into. Thanks again for the great question!

Thanks Ronald! I'll be announcing the live stream later today, but it will be on Wednesday 4/8 at 1PM central time (GMT-6).

Only the objective provides the necessary correction of field and color aberrations - so always the objective lens.

The rails he's using is the cognisys stackshot which is motorized.

Greeting Rogelio! Thank you! Yes, I do use a motorized rail. I use the StackShot from Cognisys and it is absolutely superb. I recently did a short video comparing most of the common macro focusing rails (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eL-Ud5Sotbm-n2g.html) that you may find helpful. But everything I do with the StackShot can also be done manually - it just takes a lot of patience!

@@AllanWallsPhotography OMG, I looked at he price for the motorized rail, never though it would be that expensed. wish I can afforded now, but eventually i will find a way to achieve it. I absolutely love your work Allan.

Mario Mifsud with bellows work you are in complete manual focus so point focus and other settings don't work.

Hi Mario - good to hear from you! When using the bellows, all the focusing is done by physically moving camera/lens/bellows as a group (on a focusing rail). The aperture is either fixed (for a microscope objective) or set manually (with a camera lens or enlarger lens). You will still need to set the ISO and shutter speed yourself.

@@AllanWallsPhotography Thanks Allan I vave send you some info on your FB.

Is this some kind of joke? Your link goes to an ad for feminine hygiene products. It's not funny.

Great! There has been a pretty good response to the idea, so I'll start looking into it. Thanks Jim.

You can join Adobe creative cloud, and get access to Photoshop and Lightroom for $10 per month. It's a pretty good (cheap) deal for top drawer software.

Greetings Steve - Indeed I am! Found it in an old box. I bought it the last time I was at Murrayfield. Fond memories! Good advice on the chat. Someone else suggested Twitch.TV, which I know nothing about. I'll check out all these suggestions today. Thanks!

I sure can... the stuff I use is called Master's Touch Premium Tracing pad. I get it from a local craft store (Hobby Lobby) - 50 sheets for $7.99. It is the best I have ever found, both as a diffusion material for macro and for drying and prepping insects.

You can buy the objective on Amazon.

Hi Scott - I picked up this little AmScope 4x objective on Amazon after reading an article about how sharp it was. It cost $20, so I wasn't expecting much from it, but I will be recommending it to anyone just getting started with high magnification. It must be the best deal ever, for macro optics. I have built a miniature LED ring light for use with objectives and will probably do a video on how to make one at some point. The problem is with diffusion, but I have some ideas I am currently experimenting with. Let me know if you have any success with your project - I'd love to see what you come up with!

Hi - you will never find the name of that adapter because I made it myself! It is a Nikon body cap and the lid to the objective case, epoxied together and with a hole drilled through both. But there are suitable adapters that can be purchased... This will give the same result... www.ebay.com/itm/322899008377?epid=1471203109&hash=item4b2e47db79:g:2McAAOSwQItUBIZM

Hi Art. The last batch that I bought was from Hobby Lobby. They sell single sheets of the card stock in the paper department (ripoff) but in the poster supply area, they have a packet of 10 sheets (2 red, green, blue, gold, and silver) for the same price (about $3). But any shiny card stock, envelope liners, even tinfoil, will work just as well.

They are made by a company called QuadHands. I found mine on Amazon.

Hi Tyler, DIN refers to an industry standard that sets the distance between objective and eyepiece (160mm) - important when using finite objectives. Plan, on the other had, refers to a type of flat-field correction that occurs within the objective itself. So they are are not really comparable terms. I am putting out a video this week that will include a detailed discussion of the different types of objectives used in photography - hopefully that will make this issue clear!

Hi Carl, that would depend very much on the specimen. But as a general rule you will be using high magnification and will want to be shooting the wing at an angle, so that the scales would reveal their ridges and will cast shadows at their edges. For this effect, I like to hold the wing in a very small clamp (hairpins work well) and angle the wing at about 45 degrees, facing to the right, and have a single light source just to the right of the objective. I may add a small reflector immediately below the wing to bounce a little fill back up into the shadows. It is easiest to shoot at the leading edge of the wing to avoid contact with the objective. The light intensity will vary, depending on the color and reflectivity of the scales. From there is all about tiny adjustments to get the look you want (use a good XYZR positioning device to make these adjustments). I have been experimenting with a DIY fiberoptic device for more subtle lighting effects and the results are promising.

Allan Walls Photography can’t wait to see the results of that.

If you're talking about the microscope objective, then no. Microscope objectives have a fixed aperture, so you can't adjust it with the camera.

Hi Lyle... There is no connection between the camera and the lens/objective when mounted on the bellows. Your aperture is fixed and is determined by the objective. It gets confusing because the microscope objective has a fixed numeric aperture (in this case, NM=0.1) which corresponds to an effective aperture f/20. But you can't change that. If you are using a camera lens on the bellows, and you can change the aperture of the lens, you need to bear in mind that your effective aperture drops with magnification. If your lens is set to f/8 and your are using bellows or extension tubes to increase the magnification ratio to, say, 4:1, the effective aperture will drop to f/32 (magnification multiplied by lens aperture). You need to know this number because as your f/ number increases, your chances of losing image quality due to diffraction also increases. This is not nearly as big a problem with microscope objectives (which is why I use them whenever I want more than 3:1 magnification). Hope that helps!

CORRECTION: I made a mistake giving you the formula for calculating the effective aperture when using extension tubes or bellows. It should have been effective aperture = lens aperture x (magnification ratio + 1). So in the example I gave (F/8 at 4:1) the effective aperture would be 40, not 32. Sorry for any confusion!

Good question - LED light is not as a pure full wavelength white light like flash, it flickers, and requires monger shutter speeds. Flash is a better choice for minimizing motion artifact from vibration. Flash increases the percentage of good images I make.

@@AllanWallsPhotography Thanks for the reply.I have always shot with flash and have been happy.I have created a led tunnel and use two led lights.I am not happy with the results.I get better results with flash.I use a godox tt350 and have added another one.I will go back to flash.Thanks for the great videos they are informative and inspiring

@@Noidvape I think you are making the right choice - you can some things with LEDs but you can do everything with the TT350!

@@AllanWallsPhotography Thank you.I did another test yesterday.The results with the flash are much nicer.I like the drawing better.Thanks for your time

Great - shoot me an email to contact@allanwallsphotography.com and give me your contact information and we will set it up. Thanks!

Thanks Robbie! I have heard of that but have not looked into it - I will now. I have a lot to learn on the subject!

@@AllanWallsPhotography There are a lot of folks looking to live stream at the moment. Seth also did a couple of videos on Live Stream set ups and required equipment. Search Last X Witness on youtube for those tutorials. Highly recommended.