small hister beetle - Platysoma leconti

Moved

Moved from Platysoma leconti marseul.

… Chuck Entz, 2 June, 2007 - 6:22pm

Moved

Moved from Clown Beetles.

… Jim McClarin, 13 April, 2007 - 7:38pm

Platysoma leconti

Hi Jim,

This beetle is Platysoma leconti Marseul.

Jeff Gruber

… Jeff Gruber, 13 April, 2007 - 12:05pm

Thank you so much, Jeff.

I'll move it to subspecies page and re-lable in my personal image files. I wish I could reshoot this beetle using my present system. I'm sure I could capture a lot more detail.

… Jim McClarin, 13 April, 2007 - 7:36pm

Lighting?

Please forgive me if you have posted elsewhere what you are doing to make these things look so metallic. It is both beautiful and distracting at the same time:-) Details (like the striations on this specimen) are really pronounced, which is good for identification. However, the overall look of the insect is nothing like what you would see in the field. Anyway you can take combo pictures, one in natural light, and one "enhanced" like these?

… Eric R. Eaton, 31 May, 2005 - 4:41pm

Circline flourescent bulbs

My first camera, a Fuji FinePix, allowed me to get closer than an inch to my subjects in the super-macro setting. Getting that close blocked out a lot of light, so I tried to maximize the light from the sides by illuminating 360 degrees with circline bulbs. It doesn't look very natural, admittedly. I much prefer natural light, but I seem to have more photography time at the end of my day when artificial illumination is necessary.

I'm still experimenting with lighting techniques and welcome your ideas.

… Jim McClarin, 31 May, 2005 - 8:15pm

Lighting.

I wonder if non-flourescent bulbs would be better? I do not know anything about photography, only about the insects themselves, and I know what to expect them to look like:-) Might be a good topic for the photography forum, though. Lighting, I mean.

… Eric R. Eaton, 8 June, 2005 - 7:19pm