Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022

Eyes like you’ve never seen them before! (Iris Ultra Macro Version)

They say they eyes are the door to your soul – iris photography
eye surface – iris photography

As you all know, I am very passionate about portrait photography. And when I shoot portraits, my main focus is always on the eyes. Eyes just attract and fascinate me. Back then when I still was shooting pool billiard tournaments, I started already a series about eyes on the pool table. Its called “the eye of pool”:

Thats the article from back then (11 years ago) https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2011/08/eye-of-pool-update/

But now I wanted to go closer and create a more abstract artwork. I started with buying the Laowa 25mm Ultra Macro lens. As explained in the video, I build a whole rig with macro focusing rails and a a linear transition stage.

That was the first version of my setup. You can see the display in the background that I used for focusing
This is my Frankenstein focusing rail setup. Its about 2kg by its own.

Eye movement, ripod movment and head movement was a big issue. For that I build a special kind of headrest.

the headrest 🙂

I tried different camera/lens setups during my shootings. That is one of them

thats one version of my lens camera setup – I used many different ones during the shootings.

At the end I am very happy with the outcome. It was a lot of work, but for me it was totally worth it. I love how these abstract eye photographs turned out on fine art prints. If you want to get a signed fine art print, contact me here: http://contact.mhaustria.com for prints from my shop visit http://prints.mhaustria.com. If you are an ophthalmologist and want to work with me on some of the images, please let me know and contact me.

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  • Posted by Markus on November 23rd, 2022 | Filed in eye, micro, photography, preparation | 2 Comments »


    2 Responses to “Eyes like you’ve never seen them before! (Iris Ultra Macro Version)”

    1. December 2nd, 2022 at 00:31

      Fazal Majid said:

      That headrest looks specially uncomfortable. You might want to try a curved headrest, or possible even the donut-shaped ones massage tables provide that you press your face against.

    2. December 2nd, 2022 at 01:47

      Markus said:

      I need a uncomfortable headrest for this kind of micro photography. Let me explain: the depth of field is super shallow. Every tiny movement would result into a blurry image.
      For example, I once filmed with the same lens and the same magnification chemicals and how the react during development.
      You could see tiny movements in the video. T caused these movements, because I distributed the weight of my body from the left to the right foot on a concrete floor.

      Now imagine any kind of soft surface where my sitter leans against. It would cause extreme movement at that kind of magnification



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