foxgrrl: (Default)
foxgrrl ([personal profile] foxgrrl) wrote2006-03-05 07:43 am
Entry tags:

Improvised Camera Lenses

[Poll #685136]

I think we all know what I did...

Photos are Safe-For-Work, unless you are sexually aroused by giant insects. (Not to name any names here...)

Some of the pictures came out a little bit blurred, because the gaffer's tape holding my lenses together was slipping, and some of the focal planes no longer lined up. Maybe I should start selling photos so that I can afford to buy some professional camera gear.

If you're doing this at home (stalking mosquitoes), it helps to have a red flashlight. White LED flashlights pour out oodles of UV light, which tells a sleeping mosquito that it's morning, and it's time to start flying around again aimlessly. (Yellow light should also be unseen by mosquitos.)

Mosquito
Lens: 50mm f1.8 Nikkor (Or was it 28mm?), duct-taped backwards onto 105mm Micro Nikkor @f32
Filters: On Flash: Quarter-Wave Plate, Polarizer. Between lenses: Linear Polarizer.
Location: Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Post-Editing: (36-bit) WB: 4200K Green: 1.32, Black Point: 0.137, Gamma: 0.45 Linear: 0.10. (demoted to 24-bit) UnsharpMasked, Cropped, Shrunk.
Mosquito Wing
Lens: 50mm f1.8 Nikkor, duct-taped backwards onto 70-210mm f4-5.6 Nikkor at 190mm @f32
Filters: On Flash: Quarter-Wave Plate, Polarizer. Between lenses: Linear Polarizer.
Location: Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Post-Editing: (36-bit) WB: 4270K Green: 1.30, S-shaped-curve, Black Point: 0.133, Gamma: 0.45 Linear: 0.10. (demoted to 24-bit) UnsharpMasked, Cropped.
Mosquito Wing My what big eyes you have!

Color Saturation Comparison:

Normal Color Saturation High Color Saturation

Notice the hue in the shadow cast by the wings.

©2006 Julia Vixen <juliavixen→gmail.com>
CreativeCommons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Thumbnail 1 from behind lj-cut.

Remember: The wings of a fully grown male mosquito can in fact fetch anything up to point eight of a penny on the open market.

ext_3407: squiggly symbol floating over water (one)

[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2006-03-05 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, I would never find a mosquito in my bathroom. The mosquito would find me in my bedroom, attack me repeatedly, and then, as it was feasting on me once again, I would finally get the chance to smush it on my arm.

Those are terrific pictures, though. :-)

[identity profile] tastyeagle.livejournal.com 2006-03-05 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Damn...

[identity profile] akashayi.livejournal.com 2006-03-06 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
Woah, those are some awesome pictures. Almost makes me want to make a blood sacrifice to their awesome power... almost.