Below are some shots of a rather attractive longhorn beetle that I found on the ground near the dive shop. After brushing off the ants (it was already dead), I saved it so I could take some photos. As I have found lately, it is quite hard to take good photos of dark, highly-reflective creatures. Reflections from the flash are inevitable, regardless of attempts to diffuse the light, although they can sometimes be minimized by aiming at areas that will create smaller reflections. It is also necessary to coerce one’s camera into using the correct exposure. With a white background, it will underexpose the subject, so using exposure compensation is a must. Likewise, autocontrast or other similar Photoshop functions tend to be counterproductive for this type of shot, although manual adjustments can be beneficial.

With tens of thousands of species of longhorn beetle in the world, the id on this particular one may take a while.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Pour les Sciences, Specimens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.