Again a new monthly MBC–feature: HUMAN EYE. It is such an amazing and fascinating subject, yet so personal to everyone. It makes us unique.
You all massively voted again this month and we want to thank everyone who voted for our poll and who contributed to this feature. We hope you enjoy this and vote again in our new poll for the topic of next month!

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BaselMahmoud


- How did you start with this kind of pictures? What was your inspiration?

By the chance, usually I took a lot of shots everyday with every kind of positions, macro and others, but later I developed interest in macro photography, specially human eyes.

- What makes it so special for you, taking eye-pictures? Which kind of eyes (colour, shape, ...) makes it worth taking pictures of?

Photography is my number one hobby, and I noticed that I'm good with taken macro eye pictures, so I tried to update my skills.
All my macro eye shots are my eyes, coz it's the easier way to shot your own eye coz you can control your eye movement, the camera and the light position, however, all kind of eyes worth taking pictures of, but usually the brown eyes the best to shot.

- How does your setup looks like? camera, lenses, ...?

I use no extra lens I shot directly by my camera SONY DSC-T100 with 1cm macro and this Camera so useful coz the lens at the corner of it, so that let me put the lens directly in front of my iris.

- Do you work with flashes? How do you work with the light? How do you eliminate/enhance the reflectance effect?

The flash is not in the dictionary of my macro eye pictures, coz at first it will damage and hurt the eye, second it's not useful at all coz of the strong reflection that will appear on the eye cornea, usually I use small flashlight, as the shape of the doctors light.
you should not aim the lighting directly on your eye, that's not good for your eye and not good for the picture, coz you have to put the lighting at the left or at the right of your eye with almost 90 degree, that will reduce alot the reflectance effect that appear on the eye cornea, and it will help to show alot of your eye's shape and you should look almost at the top of the camera lens so that will reduce alot of the reflectance of the camera shape that will appear on the eye cornea, then take the shot.

- Do you like to photoshop your eye-pictures? If yes, what kind of tools/software do you use? Can you give some tips&tricks for this kind of editing?

Sure, PhotoShop is my second hobby, usually I edit my shots by PhotoShop CS3 and the PhotoShop filters, and the most useful tool is the (patch tool) for hiding some reflectance.
and the most useful filters:
(Nik Dfine 2.0, Nik Viveza, Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0, Nik Silver Efex Pro, Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0)

- Any extra tips?

When you want to shot a macro eye, turn off all the lights in the room, and use just the lighting of the flashlight, that will succeed the shot, and after a lot of tests, the most useful light is the sunset light, try it as a lighten to show natural macro eye shot.
Good luck for all ...


Some deviations from BaselMahmoud:

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xXSidewinderXx


- How did you start with this kind of pictures? What was your inspiration?

It started pretty soon after I discovered photoshop where I manipulated pictures of myself and other people. For instance I changed the eyecolor and I soon got the idea of taking a close-up picture on my eye. To begin with I did simple things, like just changing the color of the iris and for each eye I got a new idea. Now i often put flowers in the iris and make things whit the skin around the eye. I'm still learnin how to do it better.

- What makes it so special for you, taking eye-pictures? Which kind of eyes (colour, shape, ...) makes it worth taking pictures of?

Each eye-picture is unique in its own special way and I feel like I'm learning something each time I manipulate one. As I said all eyes are beautiful in their own way and all eyes are worth taking pictures of.

- How does your setup looks like? camera, lenses, ...?

I use a canon EOS 400D camera and an ordinary 18-55 mm lens. It's necessary to have some sort of macrolens. I use a little zoomlens with 3+ zoom. You can buy such a lens for just about 50$, it's a very good deal if you can't afford a real macrolens. You can take eyepictures if you have a compact camera as well, just turn on the macroeffect. My earlier eyepictures are taken with a compact camera.

- Do you work with flashes? How do you work with the light? How do you eliminate/enhance the reflectance effect?

I just use the flash that is on the camera. I like to work with the light because the picture can be very catchy if you use it. I think that the sun is the best to play with, you should try it! Try to get part of the eye in shade and a part in the sun. I don't actually do very much about the reflectance effect, it doesn't bother me.

- Do you like to photoshop your eye-pictures? If yes, what kind of tools/software do you use? Can you give some tips&tricks for this kind of editing?

I always photoshop my pictures and i use photoshop cs 3, I think it's great and cs 2 works just as good as cs 3.
I'll teach you how to change the eyecolor, it's good to start with:
1. Take a picture of an eye.
2. Open it in photoshop (preferably photoshop cs 2 or 3).
3. Create a new layer.
4. Choose a color that you like and make a dot that covers the iris with the brush. Use 100% hardness. It doesn't matter if the color is outside the iris.
5. Add a layer mask by clicking on the little symbol of a square with a circle inside under the layers.
6. Choose "overlay" in the scroll list that is situated over the layers. Before you change it it says "normal". Now you can erase the color that is around the iris with the brush. Choose black color to erase and white to put color back. Use around 50% hardness when you do this.
7. Now you can choose to tone down the color a bit by lowering the opacity.

I hope you've understood everything in my instructions. If the english is a little odd here and there it's probably because I'm from Sweden, hehe.

- Any extra tips?

Try and put in pictures of flowers and other things in the eye, you basically do the same thing as when you color the iris. Never hesitate to do things, even the strangest ideas can end up really good!


Some deviations from xXSidewinderXx:

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Aurelia24


- How did you start with this kind of pictures? What was your inspiration?

I started out with these photos when I realized that photos of eyes could be taken one step further from just a "cliche eye photo" to something of more value and meaning. I was inspired by different artists here on DA who specialize in eye photography, and so I set out to buy a camera with a powerful macro lens. I ended up purchasing a Nikon D70s a few years ago, which I am content with.

- What makes it so special for you, taking eye-pictures? Which kind of eyes (colour, shape, ...) makes it worth taking pictures of?

What I feel is special about eye macro photography is that you can convey so much emotion through an eye shot. If you take eye macro photography one step further, you could create a wonderful abstract landscape of colors and shapes, and that's what I find very interesting.
Regarding eyes, I find dark colored eyes are best if I would like to reflect/project something on them, such as a reflection of a person or an object. Because the iris is dark, things are reflected clearly.
Lighter colored eyes tend to have more flares, and these tend to look lovely when photographed with a powerful macro lens and flash. However, I do not always go for shooting the obvious as it is the feeling that I want to create, and not the "flares" or the "lashes" that I want to emphasize, so really, all eyes are beautiful.

- How does your setup looks like? camera, lenses, ...?

My set-up is very simple. I use a Nikon D70s with an external micro 60mm lens, and shoot in well-lit places near windows, or if the time is right (before 10am, after 4pm) outside.

- Do you work with flashes? How do you work with the light? How do you eliminate/enhance the reflectance effect?

I NEVER work with flashes, mainly because I do not own any fancy external flashes hehe. I find that using flashes takes aways from the beauty of the eye and makes it appear very flat, except in instances where the flares are in focus and is an abstract shot.

- Do you like to photoshop your eye-pictures? If yes, what kind of tools/software do you use? Can you give some tips&tricks for this kind of editing?

Yes, I do. I use Adobe Photoshop, and I tweak the images, sometimes adding more contrast, more of a certain color, or want to remove dust specks or other unwanted things. For me, photoshopping is in itself a form of art, and I never edit a photo the same thing twice.. It all depends on what the photo needs to I don't really have many tricks, except that for changing colors, "image -> adjustments -> selective color" is the best.
Other advice that I'd give is to NEVER overdo photoshopping on the images as it would look overdone and would not be photography anymore!

- Any extra tips?

Nope!


Some deviations from Aurelia24:

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Some deviations from other artists:

prismes

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ketutita

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MelckyXY

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6eternity9

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Doodoox

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Queen-Jae

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april182

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01-11-89

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More Macro and Close-up photography on