40 Remarkable Examples of Macro Photography

Today’s roundup focuses upon a collection of bizarre, shocking and mind-blowing macro photos. It provides great inspiration for amateurs and professionals who are interested in the world of macro photography, and will have you reaching for your macro lens and heading off to shoot…

What is Macro Photography?

Put simply, macro is close-up photography. Although technically speaking the term should only be applied to photos which have a 1:1 or closer magnification. In other words, it is the photography of subjects that are captured life-size or larger.

How to Shoot Macro Photography

You can shot macro with almost any camera – most devices tend to have a pre-set macro mode. You can find this on most cameras by searching for the small flower icon. That said, you may often find that the pre-set macro mode is restricting and will not give you professional looking results. This is often seen as "close up" photography rather than macro, as you are not capturing "true macro".

The next best thing is for you to buy extension tubes for your kit lens and take pictures which will fill the frame and achieve very similar results to purchasing a macro lens. The price of extension tubes ranges dramatically from around $10 to $300.

For the best results, you need a specialist macro lens for your SLR and often a proper lighting kit (macro flashgun) to go with it. Macro lenses are purposely designed for sharp images at a short range. They also do double up for portraits quite well.

For more details about shooting macro photography, these tutorials may be useful:

• Learn about macro photography.
• The difference between macro, micro and close-up photography.
• A guide to lenses, extension tubes and more.

Almost all of the images below have been captured using a macro lens – click on the photo to find out more!

Thanks For Reading!

If you would like to share an example of your macro photography, please leave a link in the comments – I’d love to take a look! As ever, if you have any suggestions or ideas for future roundups, please feel free to post them below.