IR - Beasties 5

I've been working on a small project to take infrared photographs of insects. The technicalities are a Canon 20D camera, converted to take 720 nm IR, fitted via a reversing ring with a Pentax Super Takumar 1:3.5, 28 mm wide angle lens. The effective magnification was measured at times 2.4. Thus, images are about 2.4 times life size. The camera and lens were mounted on a sliding rail (Velbron Super Mag Slider) atop a tripod, thus allowing close focus control. The lens was focused at maximum aperture and stopped down to f22 prior to exposure. The effective depth of field was about 1 mm. Exposure times varied, but 15 seconds was normally required for indoor shots with artificial lighting. Post-processing used Canon's DPP to sharpen and alter colour balance. White balance was set to my normal manual mode of mid-grey, except where otherwise stated.

The work was partly inspired by Phostructor's (Steven) work in a similar vein, [link] helpful comments on technique were received from Brad [link]

In this fifth image, I have changed the post-processing to B/W, enhanced the contrast and set a red filter. Now internal detail is much more visible. I expect entomologists use IR imaging to study insects as this looks to be a smart way to see inside them.