Macro Photography Gallery

Macro photography is more than just "close-up" photography. It's goal is to create an image on the camera sensor that is at least as large as the object itself. That is considered a 1:1 image. Sometimes higher degrees of magnification are achieved, such as 2:1 or greater. There is a more detailed discussion of this technique below.

Red Flower I

Red petals revealed in dramatic lighting. - Color Macro Photography

Ski Jump

A fallen brown leaf rests against the lively green blades of another plant. - Color Macro Photography

Leaf Study 24

Extreme close-up of the edge of a dying leaf. - Color Macro Photography

Red Flower I

Red petals revealed in dramatic lighting. - Color Macro Photography

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Macro Photography is a very specialized type of image capture. It requires special lenses that creature an image on the film (or digital chip) surface that is at least the same size as the object photographed. A same size image is considered a 1:1 magnification. An image that is 2:1 is twice as large as the object. Some of these images are at 2:1 magnification.

At this magnification, the area in focus is 1mm or less in depth, regardless of how the aperture, or f-stop is set. This means that several exposures have to be taken of an object at different focal points to get all of it in focus. Specialized software is then used to stitch all these exposures (anywhere from 20 to 200 or more) together into one image. An almost flat object might only require 12 or 15 exposures. Some of these images required 50 to 100 exposures. As a result, each of these images takes some time to photograph and more time to process. Each image here represents a lot more effort than pointing a camera and clicking the shutter.