Hoverfly wing iridescence
This is an example of how clear wings of insects can become very colorful when viewed from a certain angle in sunlight. The intensity of the colors varies in brilliance with changes in the viewing angle, and can disappear entirely. The effect is similar to viewing multiple layers of cellophane through crossed polarizers.
A camera club friend had called me one day mentioning that she had bugs... in her flower garden. I was wanting to test a "mystery" three element lens cell salvaged from a junk zoom lens that I tossed out years before, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so.
The image was taken with my Nikon D40, with my old 200mm f/4 Micro-Nikkor, fitted with a three element "mystery" lens. The 200mm has a closest focusing distance of 28". Adding the mystery lens gives a lens to subject working distance of four inches, with the 200mm focused at infinity, and a viewfinder field width of 1/2 inch. That was enough magnification for this particular subject. Despite having been taken at f/22, depth of field is very shallow. Shot hand-held at f/16 at a shutter speed of 1/2500 second, the sun still was bright enough to render a high degree of iridescence. Lighting was provided by flashing through a diffuser made from a plastic bowl that comes in a frozen dinner. The D40 can flash synch up to its top shutter speed (1/4000), when an external flash is used. The high speed had the distant background go dark... the effect I was hoping to get. The mystery lens was rigged with a 52mm macro reverse adapter on each side so I was able to test for the sharpest orientation. Reverse mounting on the 200mm was best.
DSC-5939L
Hoverfly wing iridescence
This is an example of how clear wings of insects can become very colorful when viewed from a certain angle in sunlight. The intensity of the colors varies in brilliance with changes in the viewing angle, and can disappear entirely. The effect is similar to viewing multiple layers of cellophane through crossed polarizers.
A camera club friend had called me one day mentioning that she had bugs... in her flower garden. I was wanting to test a "mystery" three element lens cell salvaged from a junk zoom lens that I tossed out years before, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so.
The image was taken with my Nikon D40, with my old 200mm f/4 Micro-Nikkor, fitted with a three element "mystery" lens. The 200mm has a closest focusing distance of 28". Adding the mystery lens gives a lens to subject working distance of four inches, with the 200mm focused at infinity, and a viewfinder field width of 1/2 inch. That was enough magnification for this particular subject. Despite having been taken at f/22, depth of field is very shallow. Shot hand-held at f/16 at a shutter speed of 1/2500 second, the sun still was bright enough to render a high degree of iridescence. Lighting was provided by flashing through a diffuser made from a plastic bowl that comes in a frozen dinner. The D40 can flash synch up to its top shutter speed (1/4000), when an external flash is used. The high speed had the distant background go dark... the effect I was hoping to get. The mystery lens was rigged with a 52mm macro reverse adapter on each side so I was able to test for the sharpest orientation. Reverse mounting on the 200mm was best.
DSC-5939L