Ants at 2.6x

Dalantech

I've been busy lately :wink

This time I didn't play with the magnification and spent more time working on the lighting. Still not completely happy with it, but still better than last time. 430EX ring flash set to a 4:1 ratio and -1 FEC controlling a bounced 430EX also set to -1. 100mm macro lens + 50mm of extension tubes + 500D diopter on an Xti set to manual mode (F11, 1/200, ISO 200). All hand held (just braced the camera by placing my elbows on my knees).

For Skippy: These ants range from one to three millimeters in thickness -so there is a lot of apparent depth of field

Skippy

Dalantech wrote:

I've been busy lately
This time I didn't play with the magnification and spent more time working on the lighting. Still not completely happy with it, but still better than last time. 430EX ring flash set to a 4:1 ratio and -1 FEC controlling a bounced 430EX also set to -1. 100mm macro lens + 50mm of extension tubes + 500D diopter on an Xti set to manual mode (F11, 1/200, ISO 200). All hand held (just braced the camera by placing my elbows on my knees).

For Skippy: These ants range from one to three millimeters in thickness -so there is a lot of apparent depth of field

May I ask how big these Ants are, they look way bigger than the tiny little things we have at my place, the ones around my house are about the size of the the number one on your keyboard and smaller.

Your's appear to have large jaws and are hairy.
This is yet another great series from you Dalantech
... Skippy

Dalantech

Skippy wrote:

May I ask how big these Ants are, they look way bigger than the tiny little things we have at my place, the ones around my house are about the size of the the number one on your keyboard and smaller.

Your's appear to have large jaws and are hairy.
This is yet another great series from you Dalantech
... Skippy

Thanks Skippy! As ants go these are quite large -I'd say they range from 6 to 12mm in length and 1 to 3mm in thickness (they're not all the same size). I wouldn't be surprised if all ants have hair -I think it's how they sense the world around them (in addition to those antenna). At 2.6x life size the scene is roughly 8.5mm wide (I never crop, so each frame is 8.5mm wide).

For those of you who are metric impaired a millimeter is about the thickness of a U.S. dime.

I'm also convinced that ants communicate the location of food with each other. It's very common for me to see a few ants and then they leave. About five minutes later I'm having a hard time getting a clean shot of a single ant because there are so many of them...

Lord Vetinari

Excellent shots John- love ant closeups
Brian V.

Dalantech

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Excellent shots John- love ant closeups
Brian V.

Thanks Brian! These guys are gonna force me to build a light box just so I can get the light more diffused...

Awais Yaqub

Wow i can just imagin what if i was smaller then them and stuck between them

Dalantech

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Wow i can just imagin what if i was smaller then them and stuck between them

If they were the size of a kitten we'd all be in some real trouble...