25 Insanely Detailed Macro Images Of Insects

25 Insanely Detailed Macro Images Of Insects

When was the last time you saw a spider, and decided to stop what you're doing and stare right at it? Or maybe take your camera and do a 1-on-1 photoshoot from few millimeters away? What most of us really do is somewhere between screaming, and jumping on the nearest sofa. But there is a small group of photographers that instead of screaming like a 2 year old, actually go and look for these insects. They find them and photograph them up close, and it's amazing to see how these tiny insects really look. If the insects you meet daily scare you, wait until you see this set of images.

Have you ever shot insects with a macro lens before? share your results in the comments below or on our Facebook Group.

Studio stack: Camponotus herculaneus
Photo: John Hallmén.

18.06.2013-1
Photo: Arslan UÇAR.

harvester ant close up
Photo: Mundo Poco.

The Offering
Photo: Nadav Bagim.

Colorful Jumping Spider
Photo: Karthi Keyan.

ant on a leaf
Photo: Robert Trevis-Smith.

Empis
Photo: Siegfried Tremel.

The April fool's Gang
Photo: Cath Schneider.

green longlegged fly (Dolichopodid Flies)
Photo: alpo430.

insect
Photo: Ion Moe.

Mosquito Gigante
Photo: Maxwel Rocha.

Tickle me!
Photo: Nadav Bagim.

Studio stack: Pholcus female
Photo: John Hallmén.

Robber Fly Portrait
Photo: Gustavo Mazzarollo.

Studio stack: Dorytomus II
Photo: John Hallmén.

stalk
Photo: twomeows.

Master & Servant
Photo: Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel.

Size Matters
Photo: Nadav Bagim.

Look into my eyes [Explore]
Photo: Thomas.

Flower dewdrop refraction #4 with spider
Photo: Brian Valentine.

Sawfly
Photo: Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel.

Social Miner Bee
Photo: Craig Taylor.

Mosquito 10X
Photo: Ruben Maestro.

Cuckoo Wasp on Sedum
Photo: John Hallmén.

Guess who I am!
Photo: Nikola Rahmé

If you want to learn all the tips and tricks of getting incredible macro shots, Fstoppers teamed up with Andres Moline to produce Mastering Macro Photography. If you purchase it now, or any of our other tutorials, you can save a 15% by using "ARTICLE" at checkout. 

Noam Galai's picture

Noam Galai is a Senior Fstoppers Staff Writer and NYC Celebrity / Entertainment photographer. Noam's work appears on publications such as Time Magazine, New York Times, People Magazine, Vogue and Us Weekly on a daily basis.

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15 Comments

coole em down with coldspray.....

Every single photo here is amazing! More stuff like this fstoppers, please!

was wondering about gallery posts like this and what it means to the photographers. especially with this lawsuit coming to play... http://petapixel.com/2013/06/18/photographer-sues-buzzfeed-for-3-6m-for-...

was interesting what fstoppers and the community think about it.

OuREO, Fstoppers mailed us for permission, which doesn't always actually happen when my shots are used in Buzzfeed posts.

man that's really nice to hear. that's the right way to do things fstoppers!

this thread is to scary!

Congrats to Johan, John, Craig, Nikola, Brian, and other members of pm dot net.
Very nice selection of your work.

Really amazing shots!!!

Wow, amazing macros!!!

Beautiful!

Any geek can take a photo of a dead or frozen bug... and so they have.

Most of them are actually very much alive. A jumping spider's eyes cloud up within seconds of death and the flies antennae are usually hanging if they're not alive. The cover shot is doubtful though, as it looks a bit flat.

I've taken a ton of 2:1 macro shots with a detail level similar to that and have never ever had to resort to manipulating them by freezing or finding dead ones. If you know how to approach insects (with patience in right time of day), pretty much all of the above shots can be made in the wild.

Take a look at LordV's work. He goes well beyond 1:1 a lot and even manages focus stacking and 3D stereograms in his backyard, without any trickery. Just skill and experience.

ew. I think if I looked through my lens and saw that I'd scream. Insane images. But so gross. Its cool how the last one, the top guy is standing on the other guys eye ball. So strange.

How incredibly beautiful. God is so interesting, to say the least.

The photos are commendable, this is a great job. I love taking pictures, but with the insects I did not work out. Just think, they are much smaller than humans, but how much harm they can bring. I got spiders at home, I couldn’t sleep normally. I had to apply to the https://www.antpestcontrolnewlenox.com/ in order to solve this situation. Thank God that there are such organizations, they saved me!