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Microsculpture

Levon Biss and Microsculpture

May 17, 2019 by A. Cemal Ekin
Microsculpture

A while back, I wrote a post What Is A Project, and followed that with What Is A Commissioned Project. I will visit the idea once more with a couple of examples and introduce two new photographers whose work you will enjoy very much. The second post will bring a very different kind of project, stay tuned for that.

The opening photograph is a dead giveaway (no pun intended) to the subject, but that is not all. Yes, it is about insect photography but I bet unlike any you have seen before. I was introduced to the work of Levon Biss and his very special project, Microsculpture by my friend Laura Landen. Levon Biss is an accomplished British photographer and has photographed President Macrone and Usain Bolt among many other celebrities. He has also completed another project looking at the soccer community that took him to 28 countries and took one year to complete. I am sure that is fascinating too, but I want to go back to the insects, the small, tiny, medium size, elusive, beautiful, and hardly seen in detail insects.

I have seen many insect photographs, I am sure you have too. But, Biss takes this kind of photography to a new level using a modified microscope stage. Each completed insect photograph may consist of about 8,000 separate photographs. Talk about focus stacking! To manage the process, each insect is photographed in sections, about 30, and each section is photographed using an electronically controlled focusing rail. After each shot, the focus is advanced about 10 microns, about 1/7 of the diameter of a human hair (if you have any!)

Microsculpture

Each section is lit using flash strobes to bring out the color and the detail of the body form and other details like hair, eyes, wings, etc. All these separate images then combined to produce the final result of the insect portraits. But, wait, there’s more! Not only is each portrait a gorgeous photograph, but you can view them on Levon’s site in a way that allows zooming in to reveal incredible detail. The photographs here are published with permission from Levon Biss but they do not tell the whole story. To experience the immersive presentation of each insect, and to study different parts of them, you should visit the Microsculptures website. Make sure to view the video on the home page; it is about five minutes long and explains a lot about the process. You will also see how a huge print of one of his insects is made. When zooming in and out while viewing the insect photographs, pay attention to the scale on the top right of the screen.

Amazing project. Thanks to Levon Biss for providing the two photographs as appetizers for my viewers. The real action is on the Microsculptures site.

Enjoy!

PS Levon Biss has another site where you can see his insects and other photographs, portraits, journalism, and so on.

Category: Nature, Photographers, Photography

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Haluk Atamal

    May 17, 2019 at 12:39 pm

    Fantastic work. I had seen them before and enjoyed it again. Thanks for the video link, Cemal.
    The problem is not the 5 minutes but more minutes “lost” to watch more from Levon Biss :)
    Best regards from a now hot Antalya!
    Haluk

    • A. Cemal Ekin

      May 17, 2019 at 1:56 pm

      These are really major projects! I am glad you discovered Biss and that I reminded you to take another look, Haluk.
      We still don’t have spring here, I’m sure Antalya is plenty hot by now. Take care, and greetings to all. BTW, have you talked to Cem recently? He lost a lot of weight.
      Cemal

      • Haluk Atamal

        May 18, 2019 at 2:01 am

        Thanks for your comment Cemal. Cem is OK – I was together with him a couple of weeks ago. He is recovering fantastically.
        Best regards,
        Haluk

        • A. Cemal Ekin

          May 18, 2019 at 8:35 am

          Good to hear, Haluk. I talked with him on Skype, he looked OK but I sensed a step-down in his health in general. I am glad to hear he is recovering well.

          Cemal

  2. Sal Capirchio

    May 18, 2019 at 4:38 pm

    Cemal-great stuff!! I hope I have the opportunity to meet him some day. I have the ultimate question for him. Where did he find the money to purchase the Cray super-computer to post process 8,000 images!!! All kidding aside I remember the issue you had trying to stitch all the images from the Rockport motif…I remember you telling me about all the crashes! Fascinating stuff though, will definitely look at some of his other stuff.
    -Sal

    • A. Cemal Ekin

      May 18, 2019 at 9:20 pm

      Good memory, Sal! Yes, I tried to stitch 7 photographs after HDR tone mapping them. It took overnight, and the computer said in the morning that there was not enough memory! I had a whopping 2GB of RAM! I had to crop the images and try the next evening again! But today, it is a piece of cake. Very interesting and detailed work and I like the photographs to boot!
      Cemal

  3. Ramazan KAMARI

    May 24, 2019 at 5:00 pm

    Hi Cemal,
    Really extreme works that I see first time the artist. I think human’s visual adventure will never end.
    Best wishes.

    • A. Cemal Ekin

      May 25, 2019 at 8:42 am

      Good to hear from you Ramazan. Yes, human’s visual adventure will never end! That is a good thing.

      Take care,

      Cemal

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