Some photos again, unusual Gongy:)

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drizzt

drizzt

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Gongylus gongylodes green, adult female

gongy012.jpg

gongy011.jpg
gongy010.jpg

Idolomantis diabolica, subimago female

diabolica010.jpg


diabolica011.jpg


 
Nice Greenie! I have a few that L4-L5 that are not yet quite as green, but it does seem to be the ones that I spray more. Thanks for sharing. :)

PhilinYuma said:
:D It looks as though you pose yr mantids on a glass surface, this time a sweet (candy) jar lid. Like Yeatze, though I'd like to know more about yr photo set up. Your main light is diffused, right?
Click to expand...
The studio is something like a wine glass base and I think the main light is *below and behind* the mantis and parhaps also serving as the 'wall washer' for the background if a separate strobe is not used for that. There's also a frontal fill and looks like two diffuse sources from the sides.

So I'm guessing four or 5 sources.

Here are some examples I shot waaaay back in 2005 regarding use of slave lighting:

Wall wash sample:

00E35e-26312284.jpg


Rim light from below (with diffuse/bounce front fill):

00E35l-26312484.jpg


Backlight only:

00E35k-26312384.jpg


 
I noticed that chinese mantis nymphs when kept in the dry indoors, will become brown. The wetter a mantis is the greener.

 
Useful discussion, Grant. I don't think that he used a rim light, though, because of the absence of a "halo".

What kind of mantis did you use for yr example pix? Looks like a bit of a mismolt to me! :D

 
PhilinYuma said:
Useful discussion, Grant. I don't think that he used a rim light, though, because of the absence of a "halo".What kind of mantis did you use for yr example pix? Looks like a bit of a mismolt to me! :D
Click to expand...
:lol: He won't appreciate that comment!

Look closer at the source of the shadows (esp. the raptorial spines) and see how evenly and well lit the underside is. You won't see the 'halo' because there is nothing like hair visible (at this magnification of the picture).

 
Well, I might have to eat my words a bit....

Looking a little closer, it seems some of the background gradient might have been done in post! So I think I might be wrong about the background/wall wash/rim light.

Could just be two sources on the lower sides and a faint pop from the on-board flash for the command signal.

 
kamakiri said:
:lol: He won't appreciate that comment! Look closer at the source of the shadows (esp. the raptorial spines) and see how evenly and well lit the underside is. You won't see the 'halo' because there is nothing like hair visible (at this magnification of the picture).
Click to expand...
That makes sense. Good. I always reckon that rim lighting helps to make a figure stand out from the background as happens here, but thought that I was mistaken in this case.

I have wondered the same thing about the famous (to killifish fanciers!) killifish pix by the late Col. Jorgen Scheel. I had wondered about some kind of rim lighting too, though God knows how he would have set it up. Let me see if I can find a URL. This one doesn't bear his name, but it's his. What do you think?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=300388790605

(The fish, BTW, is the gorgeous Notobranchius eggersi, blue morph).

 
Makes sense that misting would bring out green.

Humidity may translate into lusher folliage, so green is better camo, while drier conditions trigger brown to camo with the dead folliage.

 

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