Macro Photography ideas
(and inspiration for great macro photos)

This article is intended to give you some great macro photography ideas.

Any macro photo inspiration you pick up here can be carried over to all of your digital photography.

Nature photography is by far the most popular subject for photographers doing macro photography.

The number of subjects is both plentiful and amazingly diverse, so ideas are limitless.

I have included several nature photos as samples of macro photo subjects in this article.

You can find a whole lot more by reading some of the other macro articles on this web site.

Most of the photos on this web site have been taken by me. I have, on occasion, used photos from other photographers as inspiration and for ideas to write articles on photography.

There are many sources of royalty free and public domain photos that are available for you to use.

I enjoy the photos from one site in particular: publicdomainpictures.net

Petr Kratochvi has thousands of photos there and I have contributed money to Petr for the use of his photography on this digital photo tips web site.

The photo at the beginning of this article is quite unique. I must confess I had no idea that it is actually a mushroom.

The second photo is of the flower Carmelia.

This is a good example of a composition where the rule of thirds was not used.

The yellow and white stamen were centered in the middle of the red flower petals. Do you think you would have taken this macro photograph of the Carmelia the same way?

I have found that looking at photos from other photographers is a great way of getting ideas for creating your photos with your own personal method or interpretation of the subject matter of your image.

If you were photographing the pine cone or the rhododendron above, what would you do differently?

Perhaps you would use a different lighting technique or take a different perspective.

That can change the visual impact completely of any subject by altering your lighting, your perspective or your composition.

Another way to come up with creative macro photography ideas is to focus on one aspect or characteristic of a subject.

For instance, you could look for textures. These last two photos are all about texture.

Seek inspiration for a photo by looking for just subjects with interesting texture.

Another way to get inspiration for creative macro photography ideas would be to make a list of suitable subjects like insects, food, hardware or water droplets. Give yourself an assignment, explore and have a blast with macro photography.

You can also stay away from nature photography when searching for ideas on subject matter. Do you have any junk drawers or tool kits sitting around?

This macro idea came from a shoebox full of framing supplies, located underneath my work table.. This photo is a close-up of a "bumpon" which is one of those little plastic dome cushions that you place on the back of a picture frame to protect the wall.

The list of macro photography ideas is truly infinite. You just have to exercise your mental muscle and look around.

Happy Shooting
Photo TipMan

p.s. For some more ideas, go to :
More Macro Photo Ideas or
Abstract Macro Photo Ideas.

If you would like to share some macro photo ideas with the other readers, you can submit them below.

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