jmab

B&W Eye Macro

NIKON D90

Aperture f/22.0 ISO 200 Shutter 10/1250

upload_date

Oct, 2013

Views

232

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Unique architecture of the Lloyd's of London building

Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken in my high school photography room.

Time

This photo was taken at the end of our school day, as the process for taking the photo required quite a bit of tampering, so we needed a quite room.

Lighting

The lighting was fairly straight forward as we had two studio lights on either side of the model. However, to make sure we were able to capture enough detail of the model's iris, we had to direct a lot of light at the model to shrink the pupil and illuminate the iris. This of course made it difficult to take many quality shots since the model's eyes would often water or get sore from the light.

Equipment

For the photo set-up we used a macro lens, attached to three diopters, and mounted on a Nikon d90. We had the model lie down on an extended table facing the ceiling. We placed two studio lights on either side of the model's head while the camera, mounted to a tripod, was directly above the model's head. The camera was only about an inch or two from the model's eye.

Inspiration

One day I woke up with a bloodshot eye and spent a fair amount of time looking at it in the mirror trying to figure out if I had something stuck in it or how it became this way. After awhile, I started to notice the detail in my iris and was quite intrigued. Coincidentally, my photography teacher just purchased three diopters for our class as we were beginning a macro project. So, with my macro lens and these diopters, my friend and I began experimenting photographing each other's eyes. The first photos turned out really well so we continued to experiment with other people's eyes.

Editing

The photo actually doesn't have too much post-processing besides the basic white balance and contrast adjustments. We decided to go with a black and white shot for this image as we wanted to detail the unique wavy pattern in this iris. The original colour image hide the iris pattern a bit more since the colours blended in.

In my camera bag

In my bag I usually have my camera (surprise), at least one other lens (usually my macro or wide angle), extra sd cards and batteries, and a few granola bars. I try to pack light, when and I can, and calculate what exactly I need for each trip.

Feedback

Lighting is key. One of the biggest hurdles I find when shooting with my macro lens is trying to get enough light into the shot. In this case, when we added three diopters onto the macro lens it made lighting an even bigger issue. Of course a patient photographer and model is always needed when taking photos an inch away from someone's eye while two studio lights are glaring beside them.

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jmab

jmab

B&W Eye Macro

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow jmab

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