Makes me think you must be an eye surgeon? because I don't think I can get that close with macro lens : )

It's not made with a macro lens but with the most bad quality lens available out there @ Canon. Namely the base kit plastic lens, 18-55mm F4-5.6 ;) Reversed naturally. At 18mm reversed, it presents a more high magnification ratio than any macro lens available. That's surely why the quality is not so sharp. I would have been a lot better with a real macro lens, that's for sure :)

Is the the full size or a crop? If a crop, I would love to see the full! Glad you made the front with this!

WOW! what a stunning image! this gets 10 under imapact for me. blown away. great capture!

This is Fantastic!

I want to see/know what color my eye really is!

I was going to say, "Do me! Do me!" But as my friends would say, "Girrrl! That's DIRTY!" :P

Nanate, that is a full size picture (8mpix) with just a small top and bottom crop, width is original. Resized to WS required max size.

WAUW

Very cool image. Try reversing a fixed focal length next time for even more critical sharpness. I actually think there is a lot of detail in this image and that with proper post process sharpening this could really jump off the screen.

Very cool image! It has a lot of impact.

...one of the most impressive pics i´ve seen - wow...

Wow - amazing. I've really never seen such a great marco of an eye. Truly spectacular capture.

This is no doubt a stupid question for the exerienced photogs out there - but can you explain what exactly you mean by "reverse mounted"? Thanks.

http://www.adorama.com/images/Product/NVEOSR.JPG

;)

"Description
This adapter opens the world of extreme close-up photography to users of Canon EOS cameras with wide angle or zoom lenses. The lens is mounted on the adapter in reverse position, ensuring outstanding quality of the resulting photographs. The adapter transmits all lens information to the camera body.
Using a Canon EOS zoom lens with a focal length of 28-105 in reverse position, allows the user to take photographs with magnification ratios of 1:7 at the 105mm end to 2.8:1 at the 28mm setting. No prime macro lens is capable of matching this range.
The adapter is supplied with 58mm treads, but adapter rings for lenses with other filter thread sizes are available.
This adapter works well with the Novoflex Balpro-1 Bellows as well.
~ $349.95 "

That is a complete and expensive set. You can achieve exactly the same with a small piece of metal which just allows to screw the lens reversed, without any connection. So you lose AF, AE, ability to change aperture (you select it before removing the lens and putting it backwards). The results are the same, it's just a little bit more hard to use.
But the price drops to $10 ;)

http://www.omugs.com/gadgetstown/rm1333.JPG

Thats actually what I used :)

A little tip you WILL need, is that unless you use the following technique you will only be able to use the lens' full aperture, which results in a extremely small DOF when you reverse it, making almost impossible to shoot even a small insect and getting it all in focus. So, set the aperture to F/10 for example when the lens is mounted normally. Set exposure to 2 secondsn and manual focus. Press the shutter, and remove the lens during the 2 seconds. You can now reverse mount the lens and it will keep the F/10 aperture until you mount it back the right way. It does no break electronics nor mechanics ! Another way is to set aperture to F/10, press the 'preview aperture' tiny button that allows you to set selected aperture when composing the shot (the button is near the lens remove button on the Canon bodies, a small round one with no label). And when keeping this button pressed, remove the lens. It has the same consequence of leaving the aperture you selected. Then, you screw your lens backwards and shoot. If using a F/10 aperture reversed, you have to use fill flash, and a strong light to compose your shot because you will barely see anything in the viewfinder...

Thank you! Your explanation is very helpful, and I will explore this!

I posted a more retouched and fixed version of the pic on my photo blog ...
http://blog.istrasoft.be/index.php?showimage=84

and a very nice explanation on reverse macro, though I would just recommend buying the reverse macro ring for $10 on ebay and not playing with socks and pringle boxes.

http://www.photocritic.org/2005/macro-photography-on-a-budget/

Thanks! I agree on the Pringles boxes and socks, lol.

WOW