View allAll Photos Tagged iridescence!
Remember that time (yesterday) when I said I needed to take less macro shots? Well,that’s never going to happen. :) Day 151 of 365
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
She just had been visiting the blueberry buds and posed nicely for me. if you view in L you can just see some green iridescence feathers on her neck.
I've been working to capture the hummingbirds at Brookside Gardens and finally managed to capture this portrait of either a female or a juvenile who graciously posed for me. Such a small, fast bird this is, and such beautiful iridescence as well! Definitely a wonderful photography subject! I thought I'd start with a "portrait" of one ;)
Taken 5 August 2016 at Brookside Gardens in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Love the iridescence on his head.
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Well, the drakes may be stunning, but the hens have perfected the art of elegance. Look at that plumage detail and iridescence! Reflecting against fall foliage colors at the Pool, Central Park, New York.
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The Brown Violetear (Colibri delphinae) photographed at La Minga Ecolodge in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, reveals the subtle beauty often overlooked in hummingbirds. While its brown plumage may seem muted at first glance, the faint flashes of violet on its throat and the hint of green iridescence around the face become striking when framed against a background of soft greens and warm bokeh. I composed the image to emphasize the bird’s stillness, perched diagonally across the branch, creating both balance and tension in the frame.
From a technical perspective, I worked carefully with the natural light to bring out the iridescence without overexposing the delicate feather detail. The choice of focal length allowed me to isolate the subject while keeping the background smooth and free of distractions, maintaining sharp detail in the bird’s feathers and eye. For me, this image speaks to the discipline of waiting for small gestures in nature, translating them into compositions that highlight subtlety as much as brilliance.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
Thank you, Don Delaney, for confirming the ID. This is a dorsal view of the wings. How dark it looks depends on the light, a lot of the time it looked black to me rather than brown, with some pretty iridescence. It is generally found in the western half of North America.
Discovered two turkeys preening in the morning sun. One was always on guard, allowing the other to really get into his grooming routine. The iridescence if their plumage always amazes me.
Hanging with the lifer duck in the graveyard pond, showing off the iridescent colors in his beautiful head feathers.
Colma, Ca. Dec. 31, 2021.
Colors in the eyes of Culex pipiens are of physical nature (in contrast to pigment colors). Interference-colors depend on incident angle. When lit from back-right in this case, we get a orange and a blue eye :-) (diffused, but directional white LED light).
Interestingly, these iridescemt eyes are already there in the pre- adult stadium as pupa, as can be seen here:
Mosquito Portrait
Objective: Mitutoyo 50x, NA 0.55, tube lens: 125mm (Raynox)
Illumination: Oblique (directional from right back)
Very tiny (almost) all-black male midge with wild antennae
Mitutoyo 20x NA 0.42, tube lens: Raynox (125mm)
Illumination: diffuse oblique
My goal this morning, after letting the hummers get accustomed to me over the last few days, was to move in closer to catch them on fountain visits. Mission accomplished. This guy visited a few minutes after the sun came up behind me.
We enjoyed watching a pair of magpies collecting nest building material from a 'hairy' palm tree trunk in the park this morning!
... the copper-throated sunbird, showing us a third color of iridescence - in addition to purple/blue and turquoise, iridescent copper makes this bird overall appear like a miniature cyborg. Was very happy to find it.
P.S. I know there is a bit of noise in the picture - this is after Lightroom Denoise (picture taken at ISO 8000).
P.P.S. I have not been commenting and posting as much as I wish I could the last couple of weeks. This will likely continue for a bit as my days are full of work, leaving some time for taking pictures but very little for editing and posting them.
The female Crowned Woodnymph does not have the purple and lime green colours of the male, but is a striking bird nevertheless with its bold white bib. This individual was seen at the famous El Dorado Lodge in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, South America.
A vibrant close-up of Morpho peleides, the Blue Morpho butterfly, showcasing its iridescent wings and graceful form as it rests on a jungle leaf.
I've noticed this about male Annas before this, the iridescent feathers on their heads can appear to be different colors from different angles, and in different lights. I've seen the head feathers flash iridescent orange-gold, but this time, the feathers on the gorget which normally appear red, pink, or black... appear to be iridescing a sort of olive green-gold.
Woodland, Ca. Feb. 2021.
Well what a treat we got that afternoon! Chilling out on Jared's couch under a marquee the clouds started a pretty wicked show of iridescence. I was sitting with the charming Ronnie and she said she'd never seen it before and queried whether my camera could capture the colours we were seeing. Well here you go Ronnie this is what the camera saw, I haven't used photoshop other than to crop the image a little as I needed more zoom.
It was pretty perfect as the marquee masked the sun and the cloud moved sideways so for a good 30 minutes we were treated to the best iridescence light show I've had the pleasure of viewing ... and I didn't even have to move!
From many previous failures I've found that with a tiny aperture and fast shutter speed these clouds can easily show their beauty. Here I used f11 at 1/2000 sec.