https://danybittel.ch/macro.html

  * Dany Bittel
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  * Dany Bittel

  * showcase
  * about

Macro Splats 2025

A Gaussian splat is essentially a bunch of blurry ellipsoids. Each
one has a view-dependent color, using a process similar to training
an AI model, you can optimize until it converges to the photos you
feed in. The result is a sort of 3D photograph that can be viewed
freely from any angle.

Captivated by this possibility, I wanted to create splats of macro
subjects. The hairy, fuzzy textures and complex structures of insects
make them a perfect fit for this technique.

In theory, creating a splat is as simple as filming the object from
all sides. Unfortunately, the extremely shallow depth of field in
macro photography completely throws this process off. If you feed
unsharp photos into it, the resulting model will contain unsharp
areas as well.

Thankfully, there's a common technique in macro photography called
focus stacking, where multiple images taken from the same angle but
with slightly different focal points are combined into one fully
sharp photo. A single stack usually contains anywhere from 50 to 500
images. Since I needed to photograph the subject from many angles, I
optimized the process to use as few photos per stack as possible and
settled on 16. I shot at a small aperture of f/18 to maximize depth
of field. The diffraction introduced by this setup can be minimized
later in post.

To capture the specimen from all angles, covering a bit more than
half a hemisphere, I mounted the insect on a rotary disk and tilted
the camera up and down on a boom arm. A script rotated the disk by
fixed increments, and each focus stack was captured using a WeMacro
automated focus rail. The vertical angle was adjusted manually (only
eight times), so it wasn't a big issue. In total, I captured 111
perspectives. A full session of 1776 photos took about four hours.
The main bottleneck is my Nikon D810, which isn't built for such
continuous shooting, it slows down to one frame every one or two
seconds once the buffer fills up. I used a Tamron 90mm lens with a
20mm extension and shot in DX (cropped sensor) mode. Shorter lenses
would change the perspective too much between focus areas, making
image alignment impossible.

After batch focus-stacking all the photos, I ended up with 111 fully
sharp images. The camera positions could then be reconstructed in
COLMAP. I performed some color correction and background masking
before feeding the data into training with Postshot. Out comes the
splat, requiring only minimal retouching to remove the mounting.


See it in 3D

You can view all the insects on my superspl.at page.

I'm also releasing the cluster fly model for free under a CC BY
license: Download here. You're free to use this model for both
commercial and non-commercial purposes, as long as you provide
credit.

[macro_01] [macro_02] [macro_03] [macro_04]

(c) 2025, Dany Bittel