While photographing some macro images of a friend’s eye I came to realize the body does some amazing things without us having any awareness of it.  For starters, our eyes are made up of tiny fibers that pull and stretch as the pupil resizes itself based on how much light the eye is trying to take in.  Actually seeing this through the viewfinder put me in aw.  Check out the two images below.  See how the gap in the fibers contract and expand as the pupil shrinks and swells?

Another thing that I captured were a few images that didn’t focus on the texture or color of the eye and were “duds” until I looked at them on the computer.  What I saw amazed me.  This eye belongs to a female friend of mine, like many others, wears makeup.  The liquid that covered her eye was covered with small specs of what I assume to be particles of the makeup she was wearing.  To me this helps to shine some light on what our body can withstand before it even lets us know something is happening, because she had no idea all those makeup particles were in her eye until I showed her the image.

Wanting to try some eye macro photographs for yourself?  Here are some tips:

1. Use a tripod!  You’re going to be very close to your subject and they are going to be swaying back and forth.  The last thing you need to capture a successful image in focus is for the camera to be swaying too.
2. Get as close to the ground as possible.  We were both sitting for these images, but that’s not to say laying down might not have it’s advantages as well.
3. Support your subject.  Have the person lean against something stable so they don’t move.  Reducing the motion of your subject and camera is essential!
4. Lighting the eye is going to be tricky.  The first few images were almost all white from the flash reflecting off of the fluid in the eye and into the lens.  Try different angles of pointing the flash into the eye.  I found having the flash right above the lens worked best for these images.
5. Rinse out the eye before starting.  As you can see above, there’s a lot more in your eye that you’re aware of at times.
6. Last but not least, CLEAN YOUR SENSOR!  Keeping your camera clean, especially your sensor, is extremely important when shooting macro.  Dust WILL find a way into your images no matter how clean your shooting and storage habits are, but creating good habits will keep your image quality at a premium.  Ask yourself one question.  When is the last time you vacuumed your camera bag?

Here is the final image after I went through many images and found three images to focus stack a fairly complete eye landscape.