Placement – Day 5 – Adam Kitchener

Day 5 – Tues 17^th March

This blog documents my fifth day on placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh.

When I arrived this morning, Vlad told me that today would be my last visit for the foreseeable future due to the uncertainty surrounding coronavirus. I had intended on starting to shoot for the museum today, however given that I am also doing my final project at the lab (which is worth 40 credits at university), I decided I should spend the day finishing that to the best of my abilities instead.

In my opinion, these three images are the best I made during the placement:

 

It is a shame my visits were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak, however I think that even during the five days I spent on placement in the department, I learned a number of invaluable skills. Knowing how to use the monorail and associated imaging and stacking software may serve me well in future. Also, learning about how the department operates was not only interesting as I knew very little about it beforehand, but also useful in seeing some of the real world scientific and educational applications of photography in the industry today.

Ashleigh suggested that I return when the the UK lockdown ends. I think I will take her up on that offer as there is so much I didn’t get a chance to do during my five visits.

Placement – Day 4 – Adam Kitchener

Day 4 – Fri 13^th March

This blog documents my fourth day on placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh. Today, Head of Department, Vladimir Blagodorev showed me how the department finds specific specimens in the museums vast collection. The specimens themselves are stored in drawers on shelves in alphabetical order much like a library. Information on specimens is kept on a private database which can be accessed by the department in order to find certain specimens, using key words such as the scientific name.

Given the enormous scale of the collection and the fact that the majority of it was acquired before the department began using computers, much of the information is not very detailed. For example, the database will have information on where a species is kept, however it may not have details on its exact location or how many of the species there is.

After learning how it works, I was able to use the database to find a European Rose Chafer; a species of beetle I had been researching online. The database was able to point me to a drawer which Ashleigh got out:

Drawer of European Rose Chafers

I then selected the best condition beetle I could find and began photographing it. I ended up photographing it in about 12 separate sections. It took many hours to composite them all, however I think it was well-worth it for the final result:

European Rose Chafer composite

 

As I had time left, I decided to photograph a butterfly specimen. Fortunately, there was a drawer to hand and I was able to pick out an orange-tip butterfly specimen. It turned out to be a surprisingly simple shot. Unlike the bee and beetle images which had comprised  multiple lighting set-ups, I was able to photograph this specimen in one image:

 Orange-tip butterfly specimen

The result, although not as striking as the bee or beetle specimens, still looks great. Overall, I am very pleased with my progress today. I think the beetle is the best work I have produced so far. Next week, I will ask Ashleigh if there are any particular specimens she would like to me to photograph as I feel I am ready to give the marketing shots a proper attempt.

 

 

Placement – Day 3 – Adam Kitchener

Day 3 – Mon 9th March

 

This blog documents my third day on placement at the NMS entomology department in Granton, Edinburgh.

As I wanted to improve on the Red-tailed bee specimen photograph I made last week, I spent the week researching how other photographers approach insect/specimen photography.

Levon Biss’ technique involves taking multiple images with differing lighting set-ups and compositing them in order to create an image where every part of the specimen is well-lit:

Levon Biss compositing multiple images

As the wings on the specimen from the previous week were in very poor condition, I decided to instead find a specimen with good wings and composite them over the top. I found a specimen and began experimenting with the lighting.

Left wing

 

 Right wing

Once I had images of the two wings, I went into photoshop, which the museum had installed on the computer. I was able to cut out the wings from the second bee and place them onto the wings of the red-tailed bee.

Red-tailed bumblebee composite

 

The result is far more striking than my effort from the previous week. I look forward to applying this new technique to images next week.

Placement – Day 2 – Adam Kitchener

Day 2 – Fri 6^th March

This blog documents my second week on placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh. Today, Assistant Curator, Ashleigh Whiffin taught me how specimens are prepared and stored in the collection.

 

The majority of the collection is displayed on pins inserted through the backs of the specimens. This keeps them raised, preventing damage to dangling appendages, as well as keeping them in place and allowing them to be viewed from all angles. The pin is usually inserted slightly to the right of the specimens bodies. This ensures the left side remains entirely intact for reference on how both sides looked while it was alive. If it were placed in the centre, this would make it impossible to know what that area looked like as it would be damaged on both sides.

Each specimen has two hand-written labels. The first describes the scientific name and sex. The second includes the date and location the specimen was collected as well as the name of the collector in many cases. These labels are kept beneath the specimen on the same pin so they do not become separated. Between the specimen and labels is a small foam block which prevents the specimen from slipping down the pin, as well as the ink from the labels from staining it.

Example of labels on pin. Amazingly, this pin belongs to a specimen collected nearly 70 years ago

Specimens are kept in glass-topped trays. This allows staff to quickly view the contents without exposing the specimens to dust. All of the materials and processes, with the exception of the pin, are archival, meaning they are fully reversible and do not damage specimens. As these archival measures were only introduced relatively recently, it is common to find old specimens which have been permanently affixed to pieces of wood or card with acidic glues. Other specimens have faded due to long term exposure to light:

Death’s Head Hawk Moth Specimens (On the top, a well-preserved specimen, on the bottom, one that was exposed to light)

As a result, the museum stores the shelves in light-tight cupboards. The temperature and humidity are also closely monitored and controlled to prevent further damage to specimens.

In the afternoon, Ashleigh brought out a tray so I could photograph some more bee specimens. On this occasion I chose to photograph a red-tailed bumblebee.

Red-tailed bumblebee specimen. Image 1

I was quite pleased with the results, however I felt the lighting on the wings could be improved. I decided to research how other photographers approach insect/specimen photography in order to improve my results the following week.

 

 

 

 

Placement – Day 1 – Adam Kitchener

Day 1 – Mon 2nd March 

My name is Adam Kitchener and I am a fourth year photography student at Edinburgh Napier University. This is the first of five blog posts, documenting my placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh. Unfortunately, it was cut short due to the UK lockdown, however in the five visits I made, I learned a number of new photographic disciplines, as well as the many roles of photography in science.

The lab houses National Museums Scotland’s insect specimen collection. Its purpose is to study the specimens for scientific research. Macro photography plays a major role in this as well as communicating the labs findings with the wider scientific community.

The purpose of the placement was to learn how to use the departments photographic equipment, as well as the labs day-to-day running and operation. This would allow me to create images for their social media/marketing. It was also a great opportunity to get real world experience taking photographs in a working environment.

 

Day 1 – Mon 2^nd March

Today, I was introduced to the department by Ashleigh Whiffin (Assistant curator). The lab comprises an office space where the majority of the research is carried out, as well as a storage area for the research collection.

Specimen storage

Office space where staff carry out research

After the tour, Vlad (the department head), showed me how to use the camera set-up. It consists of a Canon DSLR and 100mm macro lens on a monorail. Incredibly, the monorail can be adjusted to within one micron.

Camera set-up

Closer view of monorail (Camera moves up and down it in order to photograph subject from varying distances)

 The camera/monorail is adjusted using a software called Helicon Remote. The camera needs to be adjusted to such fine degrees due to the incredibly shallow depths of field caused by photographing subjects at such short distances. It simply wouldn’t be possible to photograph the entire specimen in focus in one image. By taking multiple images at differing distances and stacking them however, it is possible to get a single image of the entire specimen in focus. The stacking is done using a sibling software called Helicon 6.

This box allows the stacking and remote software to communicate with the camera and monorail

I spent the rest of the day practicing with the software to ensure I was proficient. It was surprisingly intuitive, so I was able to pick it up fast. The main difficulties I found were not the technical aspects but instead with the specimens themselves. Many were in very poor condition, asymmetrical and/or covered in dust etc. After selecting and photographing the best possible ones, I was able to use a clone stamp on photoshop to remove/correct the pin and any dust/imperfections.

Helicon remote software (Allows user to adjust monorail, camera settings, as well as see live view and histogram)

The software has a live view feed which allows the user to determine the nearest and farthest points (A and B) at which the subject is in focus. Once these are entered, the camera will determine the number of images and intervals required to capture the distance between the two points. I found results were better when I entered the number of images manually however, as the software often overcompensated, causing the images to look over-sharp or unnatural, like an HDR. The optimum seemed to be between 12 and 18 depending on the size of the specimen. After I shot the images, I was able to drag and drop them into the stacking software (Helicon 6). I shot raw and jpeg to speed up rendering times (with the intention of stacking the raw files and saving them as tiffs later).

 

Stacking software

 

First image

For the first image, Ashleigh fetched a bee specimen. I was just getting the hang of the process so photographed the specimen with ambient light.

Today was very educational. I look forward to learning more next week.