The gigapixel portraits of Daniel Boschung (VIDEO)

Usually, when you think of gigapixel photography, you think of incredibly detailed landscapes, rendered down to insane detail. But Swiss artist Daniel Boschung has taken that same technology, and repurposed it for a series of portraits that he's called Face Cartography.

Rather than taking the 600 images that are stitched into a single facial panorama himself, Boschung uses a specially programmed robotic arm, which is able to precisely sweep and photograph the subjects as needed. As he explains on his website:

Boschung uses a Canon EOS Mark ll camera with a 180mm macro lens, which he transformed into a telecentrical lens. For his flash installation his uses the Scoro S 32000 RFS 2 from broncolor, one of only a few flash generators able to cope with these extraordinary demands. Boschung’s requirements were short flash frequencies, constant light temperatures and short loading cycles. Other flash lights tend to overheat, have to be cooled with ice packs and exhibit variable colour spectrum.

These 600 images are then combined into a 900-megapixel image, which can be viewed either on the link above, or through the Gigapan site.

So if you've ever wanted to see an entire face shot at macro level detail, here's your chance. Every bump, mole, hair, and pore is writ large in this dramatic series of photos.

(via ISO1200)