30+ Insect Macro Photography and Tips

With the advent of digital photography taking huge amount of photos is easy and we don’t have to worry about film cost & chemical processing. You can take any no. of shots of the subject until you get a perfect still. Macro photography deals with the part of photography where we take a large print or shot of a insect or any micro subject. Since insects and tiny bugs are almost naked to the human eye even at a foot distance, taking closeup photos of those will produce a beautiful microscopic level detail of the subject.

A basic DSLR camera will help you get a macro detail of a tiny subject, since most cameras come with atleast 18-55mm or 18-105mm lens which are capable to shoot macro. Even though its the case, getting a micro detail of subject is only possible within a certain range away from the subject. As we move closer to the insect or subject, the depth of field decreases gradually. As said there is a limit on how close you can get to the subject without losing the depth of field with the normal lens with macro capability.

Extension tubes or ring may be the most cost efficient way to get into macro photography. This tube has no optical elements and what it does is move the lens away from the image sensor, to get a closer view of the subject. But extension tubes will disable many electronic features which includes auto-focus.

Macro lens can cost much higher than extension tubes, but they are the best bet to capture micro closeup shots. Here are the basic things you may need or know, to get started with macro photography. It will be good if you already have macro lens.

• A tripod – Chances of shots getting shaken are very high at low shutter speed.
• A diffused flash – Ambient lighting will do no good at apertures like f/45, so add a diffused flash unit or just pop up flash.
• Timer - Set camera timer and place camera on tripod so as to avoid shake, usually happens when you click.
• Aperture – Small aperture means large depth of field. f/45 is small aperture and in practical it means small portion of the lens is exposed to capture light. So thats why you need a flash and set shutter speed very low to get maximum light to the sensor and at the same light produce high depth of field in the image.

More on Aperture and Depth of Field in upcoming articles. Here take a look at these 30+ beautiful Insect Macro Photography we have collected for your photography inspiration.

Lady le Borage 2!

Snuggle Bees

Bee Portrait!

White Gold

The bee

Ciao ciao – hello

Bzz Bzz

Bee portrait – are you looking at me

Alien

Cicada

Grasshopper – Locusta

Grasshopper

India. Do you like my makeup??

Yellowjacket Wasp

Wasp portrait IX

Coenagrion puella

Sleepy Jewel

Paper Wasp

First stack with the Nikon

Wasp portrait XIII

I’m just a softy…Really

I see you through many eyes

Pray, Do Tell

Face to face

Suer à grosses gouttes

Moth Macro

Studio stack: Chrysops sp

Fleye drops

Polierfliege / Lauxaniid fly

Ulat

Eristalinus: Night shots

Red Damselfly

Diptera side view

kiss….me!

Jumping Spider

Here’s looking at you

Shivers down my hairy spine