The Daily Populous Monday December 30th, 2024 evening edition
Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by hairy_quadruped

hairy_quadruped on December 30th, 2024 at 11:09 UTC »

I do macro photography. I photographed this ant head on and side on. It was only after processing the images that I noticed a single pollen grain on its “cheek”.

Technical details: Sony A7RV camera Amscope 4x microscope objective attached via a bellows to get the proper focal plane 2X flashes with custom flash diffuser

At this magnification, the depth of field (the bit in focus) is extremely shallow, less that a human hair. To get the whole scene in focus we take multiple photos each at different focal planes and then use stacking software that selects out the best focussed bits of each photo and assembles them into a single picture.

This is a stack of 140 photos, using a Wemacro automated focussing rail. Stacked in Zerene stacker and edited in Affinity Photo.

Hodeen on December 30th, 2024 at 11:55 UTC »

Maybe a dumb question but am I looking at a real picture or is this some kind of representation of what it should look like? The pollen seems so unrealistic, but as you said it's 140 pictures put together, so pollen really looks like this?

NobHillBilly on December 30th, 2024 at 12:00 UTC »

That’s how you know this ant killed someone in prison