The Insect Portraits of Levon Biss

So the final image is composed of other images pieced together? This makes me feel like the final product is closer to an illusion than what the insect would look like at higher zoom levels. Regardless the outcome was stunning

That is unavoidable when doing extreme macrophotography work; only a tiny portion of a 3D object in the image will be in focus, so you need to 'focus stack' multiple images to get a single good image.

In a way, his work is giving the illusion of enlarging insects until you can see the details with just the naked eye. Just magnifying the insects, like you would to see it through a microscope, will mean that you have to constantly adjust the focus of the microscope to see the different parts of the insect.

Satellite imagery is also an illusion then.

He makes 30 microscopic pictures of a beetle, pastes them together, prints it on huge panels (for a museum exhibition). But you can also view them on the website, including at high zoom levels.

To see all the images, you must click the "Explore" title with a hamburger icon at the top. [It's a strange design, and I needed a long time to figure it out.]

I wonder how much of the process could be automated.