A few days ago I posted a photo of a Prenolepis ant queen. It's a decent photo, in focus and properly exposed. But probably not anything I'd print out and hang on the wall.
Check out the monochrome version above, though (click on it to enlarge). I don't often put my images through such severe levels adjustments, but this one works rather well. I prefer it to the original.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
In an earlier discussion on the merits of megapixels, commentator and snail guru Aydin notes:
Megapixel counts matter if you need to crop out large sections of an image & still need to retain enough pixels for a large enough print.
To illustrate Aydin's point, I've taken a full photo of an…
Atta texana queen and worker
Ant queens are those individuals in a nest that lay the eggs. They're pretty important, of course, as without reproduction the colony dwindles and disappears.
Understandably, ant-keepers have an interest in making sure their pet colonies have queens. Conversely,…
Yes, that's another TED@NYC picture as the "featured image," but don't run away! It's a post about science, I swear!
The photo up above is from the Flickr set (which, by the way, has been edited significantly since yesterday...), and I like it a good deal. Mostly because, as the joking caption…
In Argentina, an ant-decapitating fly (Pseudacteon sp.) attempts to separate a fire ant (Solenopsis sp.) from her nestmates:
More photos- and the story behind them- below.
An ant burdened with prey is the easiest target of all:
The ants aren't defenseless. The classic "run-and-hide" works well…
It seems to show the hairs better, but why?
Opera tells me that you took the pic with a Canon EOS 50D. What lens?
Indeed, the hairs do show better in the monochrome. That's because I applied stronger contrast and sharpening settings to that version of the file. For some reason B&W images fare better with more contrast than color images.
The lens is Canon's amazing MP-E 1-5x macro.
It's not strictly a fair comparison for readers because we can't see the original colour version at the same size as the B&W.
Is there an improved colour version or did you enhance after converting to monochrome?
I wouldn't hang a picture of it on my wall either. This is my first trip to this blog.
I'll be back :)