JimT wrote:Charles, so what are we looking at and with what obj. and lighting? ... Fill us in on the details.
The first two are of a jewel beetle carapace, Chrysochroa buqueti.
The third is a butterfly wing, Blue-rayed Metalmark (Lyropteryx apollonia).
The forth and fifth are wingscales of a Chrysiridia rhipheus (Madagascan sunset moth).
The first image was taken with a 5X objective, the others were taken with 2 different long working distance 20X. (Nikon 20/0.40 CF M Plan ELWD, and Olympus LMPLFLN 20/0.40)
The lighting was done with a "half-dome" white translucent hemisphere with opening cut into top for objective. (It was either a large ping=pong ball section, or the half hobby shop Christmas tree ornament I posted earlier:
75RR wrote:The impact of these very rich colours is almost a shock. Fantastic work.
The color intensity and purity of these is unlike any color you ever see due to pigment. (Think of holding a CD so that the sun or a bright light shines on it). Normally the light incident to the surface tends to be directional, but when you use a dome like this and illuminate the outer surface all around, the light hits the subject from all directions and it is like a color "explosion". (BTW, this type of lighting, while good for these wing-scales, would be far too "flat" for non-iridescent moth and butterfly wings).