Monday, 27 Jun 2016 12:26 GMT

Jetrix gives stunning detail to jewels of nature

An exhibition of insects at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History is demonstrating both the beauty of nature and the wonders of wide-format printing.

The exhibition by the British photographer Levon Biss takes as its focus the intricate details of insects blown up into large format images using a Jetrix printer operated by Genesis Imaging. The printer was supplied by InkTec Europe of Witney in Oxfordshire.

The exhibition called Microsculpture, forms part of the Museum’s Visions of Nature Year in 2016 and reveals images of selected specimens from the museum’s collection in large-format detail up to 3m across surrounding visitors.
Each picture is created from about 8,000 individual photographs and are stacked to maintain sharp focus and are then combined into a single high-resolution file which is then printed using the Jetrix.

When I saw the fine level of detail in these images when visiting Genesis Imaging, I was blown away by the intricacies revealed of these insects”

Ben Woodruff of InkTec comments: “When I saw the fine level of detail in these images when visiting Genesis Imaging, I was blown away by the intricacies revealed of these insects. The lighting just adds to the definition and it is fantastic to see some of these being produced on a Jetrix printer for this exhibition.”

The involved process is outlined further by Biss; “I photograph the insect in approximately 30 different sections, depending on the size of the specimen. Each section is lit differently with strobe lights to bring out the micro-sculptural beauty of that particular section of the body. For example, I will light and shoot just one antenna, then I will move on to the eye and the lighting set up will change entirely.”

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