Macro photography with an otoscope

I sometimes try out outlandish and unusual techniques with my photography: mostly they fail but I learn from the experience. Here I describe using a cheap otoscope (a device for looking in the ear) as a macro / close-up camera looking at flowers. This is one that failed!

The technique that I used is fixing the otoscope to a focussing stage on a tripod and taking a number of photos at slightly different distances. The otoscope has its own lighting around the camera lens to illuminate the subject. These photos are then combined in Photoshop using a technique call focus stacking. This is to get a final image that has sharpness from the front to back of the subject.

First, here is the set-up:

The tip of the otoscope focussing on the stigma
A side view of the the tip of the otoscope focussing on the stigma
A general view showing the otoscope, focussing stage and flowers

Now for some results with a Christmas Cactus flower as the subject:

A final, sharpened image made from 47 images
A comparison between a single image and the stacked version.
Made from 15 photos, this shows the stigma
This is the flower of a Viola. 35 photos made this photo!

The base images produced by the otoscope were photographically very poor but it works fine for its intended purpose. As I said, this was an outlandish experiment but I have learnt from the exercise.

Author: Paul L.G. Morris

I am an amateur photographer whose photography is mostly of gardens, nature and the rural environment. My specialities are close-ups, panoramic views, or a combination of both that I call 'Nearscapes'. I work mostly for my own interest having closed my business PM Studios Ltd.