Macro Insect Photography Techniques for Stunning Detail

Wouldn’t it be nice if your micro-hobby could turn into a macro-experience for others—and potentially the world? Commercial and sports photographer Levon Biss had just that very thing happen to him. One day he was exploring a new personal hobby of insect macrophotography, the next his work inspired the Oxford University Museum of Natural History to give him a go. Check out how in the video below:

When Biss engages in a personal project, he’s not joking around. To achieve the amazing detail his photos he uses a 36-megapixel camera with a 10x microscope objective attached to it via a 200mm prime lens. From there, the portrait of each entire insect has to be composited from around 8000 to 10,000 individual photographs, with each section of each bug individually lit.

The result? Breathtaking images of a world that is usually too small for us to appreciate: intricate shapes, iridescent colors, amazing scales and minute hairs adapted to hundreds of different purposes, and little before seen “microsculptures” after which the exhibit is named.

Insect Macrophotography

If you want to see the exhibit in person, Microsculpture will be exhibited in at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History until October 2016.

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