20 Spectacular Macro Photography Examples
Macro photography is a popular technique amongst digital photographers. With modern day equipment, it is easier than ever to explore. However, it still takes a high level of skill, talent and practice to create stunning photographs. Check out these 20 to get some inspiration for your own shots.
Macro Photography is the technique of photographing a subject up close. Typically the subject fills most, if not the entire, image plane. Stunning macro photography is generally best achieved with special equipment, including a specially designed lens. However, most modern cameras (point and shoot especially) have macro setting options built into the camera; making it a very common, but no less stunning, technique.
calla la la la by Julie Scholz
Macro photography is a beautiful way to take what is often normal subject matter, and make it extraordinary, simply by offering a new perspective. Its often these types of photos that turn out the best. When we are provided a glimpse of something we might not otherwise pay much attention to is all of a sudden (in effect) shoved in our face, we cannot help but stop and take notice.
Check out these 20 spectacular macro photographs for inspiration in your own photographs.
For additional tips and techniques on macro and other photography techniques, check out the Imagekind blog, and please make sure to subscribe to the feed here!
Macro Bug by Murlon123
A Moment To Rembember by Eric Lam
Sunflower by Ben Anderman
Tools of the trade, stainless steel blades by Jessi and James Bruntz
173 ~ the big bad rubber ball by Robin Elizabeth Grausam
Macro Dy rop by F. Hatcher
Spudnik Sea Urchin... by Machel Spence
Slowness by Martino Sabia
Blue Smoke by David Lindes
Light Straws by Fergus Bailey
Soft Pastels by Annie Esentepe
Jocy's frog by Kaitlin Moreno
ladybird extreme closeup by Gianni Cerrato
Old marbles by Rick Takagi
Thai Elephant by JenFu Cheng
Grasshopper Green by Samarth Bhasin
Macro plant by Ken Simm
Left-twist by VIC Dessau
Flower: Dahlia "Inner Glow" by Soulful Photos
74 Responses to “20 Spectacular Macro Photography Examples” - Add Yours
July 24th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Thanks for displaying those marvelous macro shots. I am saving my money for a Sigma 150mm f2.8 and can hardly wait to order it. The flowers and insects really peaked my interest.
Al
July 24th, 2009 at 1:43 am
There are some wonderful macro shots on display in this topic!! I particularly liked the “Macro Plant” by Ken Simm.
I’ve been intrigued by macro photography recently, and wanted to give it a try so I bought an extension tube to go with my current lens’. It certainly has wet my appetite and plan on purchasing a dedicated macro lens very soon (once I can afford it that is!).
Here’s a few of my macro attempts so far: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drummp2/sets/72157604955412669/
Please feel free to critic as I find all comments helpful.
Thanks for the selection of shots Nate
July 24th, 2009 at 1:46 am
ecilent works. thank u very much…tapanC
July 24th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Some of these aren’t technically Macro pics. But most are very good.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Indeed, not all macros. A closeup is not always a macro.
But good photos indeed.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:12 am
MACRO HAS BECOME MY FAVORITE FORM OF PHOTOGRAPHY. ALL THE TIPS I HAVE RECIEVED FROM DPS ARE VERY USEFUL, THANKS SO MUCH. I USE A SIMPLE POINT AND SHOOT CAMERA BUT WITH THE TIPS AND TRICKS I HAVE LEARNED I COME UP WITH SOME VERY NICE SHOTS.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:14 am
Nice pictures, love it, thanks for sharing! I have a few macro lenses (105mm f/2.8VR and MP-E 65mm) but my favorite macro is still the cheapo point-and-shoot Canon SD750. You can’t beat the convenience and the lightweightness of it, and it’s something I use on an almost daily basis. Below is an example:
http://picasaweb.google.com/PamAndKevin2009/200903PrincessRuby#5316855368605134530
July 24th, 2009 at 2:21 am
I think calling all of those spectacular is pushing it a bit! There are maybe 3 or 4 that pretty much anyone couldn’t do with the opportunity. In fact half of them aren’t really macro at all!
Not a great article.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:24 am
I have immense interest in Macro photography. My camera has good lens for macro focus range and produced fine pictures, but not like the exceptional photos listed above. They are gorgeous specially *Grasshopper Green* and *Macro Plant*. Here are some of my attempts; would love to see reviews.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ignoto_someoneski/2926537803/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ignoto_someoneski/2788265671/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ignoto_someoneski/2941579803/
July 24th, 2009 at 2:35 am
I kind of like some of these;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asalmeron/
July 24th, 2009 at 2:42 am
Jared, not technically? Kind of an understatement with a photo of an elephant in there.
Tight crop does not equal macro!
I like the tiny frog though, he’s very cute.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:42 am
These are gorgeous shots, thank you for sharing!!
I just love macro photography
July 24th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Great, wonderful, fantastic, superb!! I’d like to be mine
July 24th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Some of them are plain crap, like the marbels and the snail and the elephant is not even a macro. Only a couple of shots are pretty cool.
I rate this as an under achieving post.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Some of them are plain bad, like the marbels and the snail and the elephant is not even a macro. Only a couple of shots are pretty cool.
I rate this as an under achieving post.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Some really cool shots. Need to dust of the extension tubes and have a go.
July 24th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Thanks for the wonderful shots.Check out some of my macro shots on http://www.flickr.com/photos/deepak10v/.
July 24th, 2009 at 3:15 am
These are wonderful. Technically speaking, the elephant photo is a close-up, rather than a macro. The fact that the original might have been cropped has no bearing. However, in the world of photography, the word “macro” is used loosely. Some lenses are termed macro, even though they only provide a 1:2 or 1:3 image. Canon makes a “50 mm compact macro” lens. It can produce only half life size.
July 24th, 2009 at 3:58 am
Ever since I got my 90mm Tamron macro I have been a macro addict. I now have a lensbaby with two macro filter attachments and if it is possible, have fallen deeper into my macro addiction. Thanks for sharing the photos and whether technically macro or not – and all but the elephant were I believe – they are wonderful. The world that macro presents to the eye is captivating and I will forever be a fan.
July 24th, 2009 at 4:08 am
Now if I could only afford to get the 100mm f2.8 macro lens for my camera! Then again, I wish i could afford any new lens lol
Pretty nice photos though!
July 24th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Very cool samples. I nailed the sunflower as soon as I saw it. Did anyone else notice the umbrella in the reflection of the camera lens shot? Also the ladybird (lady bug?) is a great example of the razor thin depth of field you can have in macro photography. I think I’ll have to break out the ole macro lens this evening.
July 24th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Thanks for the tips. Here’s an example of one of my macros, which won a first place award at my local fair last year!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catseyephotos/2532124897/in/set-72157606210450424/
July 24th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Very nice, inspirational examples of macro shots. However I agree with “cat” that not all of them were pure macro photographs. But… mine example of snail on the leaf is such a “pseudo macro” shot too. I hope it works fine in black and white:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piotr_golebiowski/3745321127/
Cat – your shot is great! Like a para shooter jump!
July 24th, 2009 at 5:53 am
Wow wow wow – thank you for this post, Nate! The pictures your features only further enforce why macro photography in my favorite style.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:04 am
I love the macro world… so much to see that you’ve never seen before…. I use and unusual technique to get these type macros with (do I dare say it…. a point and shoot)
July 24th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Macro Bug by Murlon123 is stunning. I’m very inspired by these photos, whether they are “technically” macro or not!
July 24th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I think what everyone is missing is that the elephant is only 1/2 inch tall. world’s smallest elephant. it truly is macro. nice shots.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Hey, I love that marbles photo… I used to play marbles all the time as a kid. You’ve given me some great ideas for some more pics. Thanks!
July 24th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for sharing the amazing photos. Love all of them!
July 24th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Here’s mine: http://poty2009.dcmag.co.uk/3913562629306955004/busy-bee.html
I tightly cropped it, so I am not sure if it is a close-up or a macro photography. Can someone differentiate the two? Thanks!
July 24th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Some of the commenter rightly pointed out that most of the pics are not even a macro but someone calling them crap or bad is not graceful and supportive at all. The photos here are best example of Close Up Photography, and not crap at all.
Just wanted to say that because we might not be professional photographers but we share same passion i.e. Photography. If we don’t like photos, we can either keep quite or give constructive criticism.
AKS
July 24th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Stunning pictures.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
How interesting it is that almost all beginners start shooting macros and stuff like this and it may seem that it is an easy genre. But still it needs a lot of skill to do great macros.
Nice Collection !
July 24th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Akshay: everyone’s entitled to their opinion, if someone thinks a photo is rubbish they’re allowed to say so! Often we learn more from the “negative” feedback than we do from the “positive”…. although I’ll agree that saying it’s bad without saying why it’s bad isn’t terribly supportive.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
oliver: I’d call that photo of yours a close-up, it’s very similar to one I took: http://www.danielfreedman.co.uk/photoblog/index.php?showimage=87
I think that technically a macro photograph is one where the image on the sensor is at least the same size as the object being photographed (from film days this would be easy to tell, you just hold the negative against the object you’ve photographed and you can see if it’s life-size or not). But with digital photography it’s a lot harder to tell, because sensors are different sizes.
So let’s say the sensor in your camera is (and I’ll keep the numbers simple here) 3cm by 2cm, and produces an image 3000pixels by 2000pixels. If you photograph something that’s 1cm wide, and it ends up being 1000 pixels wide on your sensor, then that’s a macro photograph. If it’s not that wide, then it’s just an extreme close-up.
At least, that’s my understanding of it, I’m quite happy for anyone to set me straight if I’m wrong!
July 24th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Great post.
Here are some photographs we took of mosquitoes emerging at 5x magnification.
http://blog.burrard-lucas.com/2009/02/behind-the-shot-mosquitoes-emerging/
July 24th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Thanks Dan for the explanation. I see that your ‘bee’ is also ‘busy’.. =)
July 24th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Here are my closeup/macro shots. I’ve gotten considerably better with time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericsbinaryworld/sets/221713/
July 25th, 2009 at 1:17 am
A japanese mantis from my garden:
http://www.focx.de/2009/07/02/kamakiri-gottesanbeterin/
July 25th, 2009 at 2:08 am
The mosquitoes emerging article you posted up really highlights the amount of work that goes into creating such outstanding images. Macro photography is something which has caught my imagination but not a technique i’m completely comfortable with yet- still trying to find my style. Think the pic of the bunch so far is found at the link below- all comments welcome.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gungo/3666773103/
July 25th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Here are some my attempts at MACRO photography:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/char1iej/sets/72157621808630638/
July 25th, 2009 at 9:19 am
wonderful images! thanks for sharing.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Love the water drop was that an effect added after the fact or was that photographed that way?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Photographing an elephant with a macro lens – the incongruity is brilliant.
July 27th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Thanks for the very informative article. Just myself raynox250 to be paired with my LUMIX DMC LX3 ( no dslr
) . Right now im hoping to buy an external flash to complete it. Kind a hard to get the respective image quality without the external flash. Here are my attempts. Comments are appreciated.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metku/sets/72157621697567279/
July 28th, 2009 at 8:03 am
These are 2 of mine, I think they are technically macro too:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/draakje_barbara/3089470128/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/draakje_barbara/3175311618/
they were taken with my Finepix S5700 and a cheap screw on macro. It came with a fish eye lens which it could also be screwed on. It took patience to nail the focus but I think they were worth the money.
July 28th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Forgot this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/draakje_barbara/3184459763/
July 30th, 2009 at 5:08 am
Actually I wasn’t really impressed with any of the macros!
December 31st, 2009 at 10:06 am
Thanks for including me, I happened upon this while googling myself
Just wanted to give a shameless plug for my macros, which can be seen on my website at http://www.soulfulphotos.com.
March 6th, 2010 at 7:14 am
Ooooooooh, they are all wonderful and thank you for adding my urchin (it’s about half the size of a dime so I think it would be considered macro) I used a 50mm 1:2 macro lens as well. Mostly sweet comments on here, but as usual there are a few people who have to be pessimists…that’s human nature I suppose. Thanks again! m-
May 22nd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Thank you for this. I have recently gotten into macro shooting with my 50mm lens and reverse adapter ring. I also purchased a manfrotto macro slide tray and it has been lots of fun. I still enjoy hand shooting flowers around the hosue, in the park, and prtty much wherever I am. I’m glad to see these examples, they are wonderful and I think I will branch out from flowers and try bugs and other items. I have some of my macro images posted on my blog and would welcome feedback on how to improve them.
Jonathon
http://jljfoto.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/san-francisco-botanical-garden-part-3-macro/
http://jljfoto.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/ill-miss-my-dad/
July 16th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I have some underwater macro in my flickr account. Your humble critic is requested.
http://www.flickr.com/escapeinc
October 11th, 2010 at 7:11 am
While setting the focus it is often more convenient to slightly move the entire camera toward or from the photographed subject than to use autofocus or focus adjustment ring on the lens, that could slightly change the mapping scale of your subject and affect the composition.
December 1st, 2010 at 11:46 am
this is some of my macro work
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22921844@N07/sets/72157624973479496/
feel free to comment !
October 19th, 2011 at 1:11 am
Hi
I am loving this series – Macro is so much fun! I shot this close up of a butterfly with a 100mm prime – I think it is cool!
http://kerstenbeckphotoart.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/touch-down/
October 19th, 2011 at 1:55 am
Is this post paid for by Imagekind?! EVERY image is hosted on their website. Are you trying to sell prints or promote their services as a storefront for photographers? A little transparency by DPS would be nice.
October 19th, 2011 at 6:16 am
Very beautiful photographs. Since the subject is mentioned could you explain the difference between macro and close up shot?
October 19th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I really like the match & smoke shot….I think it is something I will have to try soon!
Some macro work of the flora and fauna of Florida:
http://jasoncollinphotography.com/blog/tag/macro
I use the Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro lens for macro work.
October 19th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Not my shots, but my favorite macro-guy … Submitted for your approval:
http://500px.com/teguhsn
October 19th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
FINALLY…something other than FLOWERS!! LOL.
October 20th, 2011 at 1:53 am
Ummm the Elephant shot is not a Macro Photo!
Here is a set on flickr of my Macro work – ENJOY!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eternalphotography/sets/72157615686156962/
October 21st, 2011 at 4:14 am
Hmmmm… mine probably aren’t macros but close-ups, now that I see what the others have said, but I thought I’d put them on here anyway. I love close-ups.
<a href="http://pixeltrashamania.blogspot.com/2011/10/cool-photo.html"
October 21st, 2011 at 5:56 am
Hi Digital Photography School,
The “20spectacular-macros” are indeed very beautiful, but not the most spectacular I have ever seen. For those you must take a look at http://www.bb-fotografie.nl/
Take a look at their macros and you will fall of your chair!
Regards.
October 21st, 2011 at 9:21 am
A very nice set of photos.
I also have macro shots taken with the MPE 65, a dedicated macro lens from Canon that does from 1:1 to 5:1 that is up to 5 times magnification, although at 5 times it is getting just a bit soft on focus.
Have a look if you want
http://johnholding.wordpress.com/
October 21st, 2011 at 9:44 am
Wow… those at fotografie are AMAZING. I have never even seen some of those insects in the wild. Now I want to post the rest of the insect pictures I’ve taken & go find some more so I can take more macros.
October 22nd, 2011 at 6:50 am
Some lovely images have been posted above. Creative and artistic which is often lacking in some macro shots.
Here is my effort- hope you like it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ziggyspot/6223887524/
October 22nd, 2011 at 6:59 am
Lovely macro shots above. Lots of creative composition which is often forgotten about in macro shots.
Here is one of mine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ziggyspot/6223887524/
October 22nd, 2011 at 9:48 am
FIrst time trying this. I think I messed up the links in previous reply.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26279761@N03/6217064747/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26279761@N03/6217587066/
October 26th, 2011 at 8:21 am
These are wonderful photos, I’m postive no one I know could have ever made!~ These are truly spectacular.
October 26th, 2011 at 8:23 am
i am so delighted that you have these i work at a photography school and these are very good examples for my students!!
October 26th, 2011 at 8:29 am
This photos are truly amazing!I think they are lovely! <3 Also I love how the cricket one is black-and-white I think it shows more effect! I love it
November 21st, 2011 at 12:31 am
my heart is melting ?_?
November 23rd, 2011 at 2:00 am
the macro of the match head
i feel like i can see the smoke moving if i looks closely enough
April 6th, 2012 at 3:26 am
Amazing pictures. I love doing macro photography of insect. You can check out some of my collection at http://www.squidoo.com/collection-of-insect-videos-and-photographs
Leave a Reply