Pollen surprises in UVIVF

[nfoto]

Recently I tried to get some order into older images, which of course is a daunting task. However once in a while one discovers hidden treasures.

 

One of these would be the flowers of Malva moschata Musk Mallow, Malvaceae. This is a species becoming increasingly naturalised on open grasslands and road verges in the lowlands.

 

Flowers are pink or almost white. The stamens are connate and form a column in the flower centre  through which the styles emerge.

 

(Fuji S3Pro, UV-Nikkor 105/4.5, UV/IR blocking filter + BG-38)

 

In UV the corolla is bright blue with black veins and the centre is dark as would be expected.

 

(Nikon D3200/built-in Baader U, UV-Nikkor 105/4.5)

 

The standard UVIVF capture shows the usual lint issue on the corolla and that something is going on in the centre.

 

(Nikon Df, Laowa 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, NEMO torch)

 

Time has come to increase magnification, to 5X. Still UVIVF.

 

(Nikon Z7, Laowa 25mm f/2.8 at 5X, NEMO torch)

 

Being ever so curious, I went all out to 20X magnification and got this,

 

 

(Nikon Z7, Mitutoyo 20X/0.42 objective on an infinity-focus system, NEMO torch)

 

The fact that some pollen grains fluoresce brightly, others don't, may indicate that the strong fluorescence is a result of pollen damage.

[Cadmium]

Wow Birna, incredible photos! 

[colinbm]

Excellent Birna, the 5X Still UVIVF is very special.

[Nate]

Whoa, that pollen detail is amazing

[Fandyus]

Amazing post.

[dabateman]

Absolutely stunning Birna.

I think that is what BlazerOne is looking for, from our microscope discussion. 

 

[Andy Perrin]

Very cool, usually the pollen is a problem for the UVIVF photos, but finally here it becomes the subject of the photos. 

[Doug A]

Inspiring images. The 5X leaps off the screen. 

Thanks for sharing,

Doug A

[Guest]

Mesmerizing! Hypnotizing! Dazzling! Merry Christmas and all!

[Stefano]

Very nice photos. The shallow depth of field really adds depth to the images. Also there are many colors there, I would have expected a more uniform shade.

[JMC]

Fab photos Birna, thanks for sharing them. 

[otoien]

Very  impressive, Birna. I wonder what the red glow inside the pollen that are in good shape and not bright could be?

[Guest]

The micro photos really look like a painting.
 

Are the uvivf micro photos made from a zerene stack?

 

What is your white balance setting or workflow here?

[nfoto]

Øivind: the red areas are probably just reflections from the nearest petal. Setting up the lights for such a complex flower structure is not easy and partly because of the latter, I had to restrict the zone of sharpness, thus some foreground sections are not sharp at all.

 

To answer another question: the 5X and 20X photos are both obtained using focus stacking (Zerene). W/b as set by the first photo of the entire flower if memory serves.

[photoni]

Spectacular photos!

(my nose itches - I'm allergic to pollen)

[Guest]

I was going to say it is not real to get both that level of sharpness and depth of field at the same time in one shot. It almost sends the wrong message what a lens can do with a single frame wide open. I have been fiddling with Zerene but the DMap files look better though they have blue halos with UV. I will post something in a new thread. That application really ups the game on presentation. I really want add it to my workflow for future botanicals. I would call those the money shots.

[nfoto]

Halos in focus stacking is frequently a tell-tale sign of too coarse stepping. The issue is not particular to UV as such. For really "deep" stacks it is often beneficial to use in addition the technique of "slabbing", i.e. running small chunks of the stack sequence through their own individual stacking, then run the slabs in an over-all stacking at the end. Zerene can automate much if not all of this in its latest versions. The DMap method often is best with opaque surfaces whilst the PMax resolves detail and overlapping sections better, but tends to add more graininess or grittiness to the outcome. Sometimes one has to do a bit of retouching to combine the outputs from these methods. The retouching tools in Zerene are basic yet quite powerful and versatile. However retouching takes time and adds more overhead to an already lengthy process.

[Andrea B.]

Birna, the pollen photos are awesome !!

All those little sharp points on the pollen -- no wonder the stuff irritates our noses.

 

There was a member on your Nikongear, M. Erlewine, who made a lot of stacked photography and wrote up a nice little online booklet about how to do it. Do you happen to have a link to that? It might be useful to our members here.

[winginit]

Love these, thank you for posting them. Absolutely stunning.

[microbat52]

Oh WOW!

[Craigo79]

Sensational , I am about to order another automated rail but atm can only do 5X

[Marco Lagemaat]

On 10/10/2021 at 12:39 PM, nfoto said:

Recently I tried to get some order into older images, which of course is a daunting task. However once in a while one discovers hidden treasures.

 

One of these would be the flowers of Malva moschata Musk Mallow, Malvaceae. This is a species becoming increasingly naturalised on open grasslands and road verges in the lowlands.

 

Flowers are pink or almost white. The stamens are connate and form a column in the flower centre  through which the styles emerge.

 

(Fuji S3Pro, UV-Nikkor 105/4.5, UV/IR blocking filter + BG-38)

 

In UV the corolla is bright blue with black veins and the centre is dark as would be expected.

 

(Nikon D3200/built-in Baader U, UV-Nikkor 105/4.5)

 

The standard UVIVF capture shows the usual lint issue on the corolla and that something is going on in the centre.

 

(Nikon Df, Laowa 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, NEMO torch)

 

Time has come to increase magnification, to 5X. Still UVIVF.

 

(Nikon Z7, Laowa 25mm f/2.8 at 5X, NEMO torch)

 

Being ever so curious, I went all out to 20X magnification and got this,

 

 

(Nikon Z7, Mitutoyo 20X/0.42 objective on an infinity-focus system, NEMO torch)

 

The fact that some pollen grains fluoresce brightly, others don't, may indicate that the strong fluorescence is a result of pollen damage.

Magnificent. What an amazing world we live in. 

with the last photo:

My first split of second thought was; “looks like Covid-19’s”

[nfoto]

2 hours ago, Marco Lagemaat said:

--

My first split of second thought was; “looks like Covid-19’s”

My thoughts -- exactly. However "ornamentation" is everywhere with nearly all pollen grains. Thus is its only a matter of degree.

[nfoto]

9 hours ago, Craigk79 said:

Sensational , I am about to order another automated rail but atm can only do 5X

An automated rail is most useful for the range 2X to about 40X. From thereon, a microscope is usually the better approach. I rarely do > 40X by photomacrography as it quickly become impractical. Either working distances become too short or extension requirements become unwieldy or both at the same time. Using infinity-corrected optics leads to less extension, but sooner or later even these get too close to the subject. You thus need transillumination, which inevitably leads to photomicrography anyway.

 

However, most subjects I deal with typically are 1X-5X and I tend to split this range into 1X-2X and 2.5X-5X as these can be covered by dedicated lenses. I can do 5-10X continuously, but prefer to go stepwise 1-5X, 10X, 20X, 40X etc.

[Craigo79]

8 hours ago, nfoto said:

An automated rail is most useful for the range 2X to about 40X. From thereon, a microscope is usually the better approach. I rarely do > 40X by photomacrography as it quickly become impractical. Either working distances become too short or extension requirements become unwieldy or both at the same time. Using infinity-corrected optics leads to less extension, but sooner or later even these get too close to the subject. You thus need transillumination, which inevitably leads to photomicrography anyway.

 

However, most subjects I deal with typically are 1X-5X and I tend to split this range into 1X-2X and 2.5X-5X as these can be covered by dedicated lenses. I can do 5-10X continuously, but prefer to go stepwise 1-5X, 10X, 20X, 40X etc.

my automated rail can handle up to 100x using microscope obj of course