What is macro photography? Learn everything you need to know in 2025: from essential gear and AI software to a professional step-by-step workflow for capturing incredible close-up images.
What is Macro Photography?
As the name suggests, it is about capturing close-up pictures of a subject and is one of the most captivating genres in photography. It reveals exquisite details of the subject in frame and opens up a new world of texture and tiny information that the naked eye often doesn’t notice.
Having said that, this niche is not just taking close-up shots; it also makes the small objects appear life-size or larger on your camera sensor and requires patience and precision, along with good camera gear.
We just mentioned the camera sensor here, and it was intentional. In technical terms, macro photography is defined by a reproduction ratio, which represents how much bigger the macro is projected on the camera sensor as compared to the original size of the subject.
For example, if your reproduction ratio is 2:1, it means the macro shot of the subject is projected at twice its size on the sensor. If it’s 10 mm in real life, your macro shot will show it as 20 mm in size. This ratio becomes higher when the photographer is aiming to uncover more details.
What is Macro Photography gear in 2025?
Capable camera gear becomes your bridge to the miniature world and requires you to have a skill set. To get the most out of your setup, pick a focal length & working distance with your subject, as every kind of subject demands different settings. For example, if you are capturing macro shots of food items, it’s usually taken between 50 mm and 100 mm focal length range inside a controlled set. Similarly, for insects, it is usually 90 mm to 150 mm.
If you are just starting with macro shots, you need to invest in this gear to get professional results.
1. Camera Bodies for Macro
For macro shots, your camera should be a capable one with at least a 30+ megapixel sensor, which can handle cropping of shots. IBIS is necessary here and should have built-in focus peaking and focus bracketing technologies. This allows you to see the in-focus areas of your subject in real-time on your electronic viewfinder and also take a sequence of photos so you can decide better when to take a final shot.
2. Lenses for Macro & Close-up
A camera lens is the soul of your macro setup, and its type will directly influence working distance, max magnification, and final image sharpness in the focus areas. Camera lenses with 1:1 magnification are called dedicated macro lenses, which are designed in 60 mm, 90 to 105 mm, and 150 to 200 mm focal lengths.
The 90 to 105 mm camera lens range is the sweet spot in most cases and is commonly used for taking macro shots of insects, flowers, and other natural objects, as it allows a comfortable working distance and a detailed view of these subjects. Nowadays, anamorphic lenses are also used for macro shots over spherical lenses, which can squeeze a wide field of view horizontally onto the sensor and capture more details of the subject in macro view.
One such lens is the SIRUI Saturn 35/50/75mm Full-frame Carbon Fiber Anamorphic Lens, a modern piece of camera gear that uses its anamorphic squeezing and de-squeezing to create a wider perspective in the image, which can make a tiny subject feel epic and immersive. This is because of its cinematic 1.6x anamorphic squeeze that enables you to bring in storytelling and mood to your macro work.
The lens is built with a T2.9 aperture, which also lets you work with more light, which is often scarce in detailed macro shots. And finally, with three focal lengths, you get more creative flexibility to work with. Using the SIRUI camera lens kit over a traditional macro lens requires advanced understanding of macro shots and creativity, but the results are guaranteed to be unlike anything else in the photography world.
3. Accessories for Macro
You have to invest in a stable professional tripod and a focus rail, which is necessary for smooth manual focus stacking. Also, buy a professional and small, portable 5-in-1 reflector for getting rid of harsh light.
What is Macro Photography lighting?
Professionals commonly use ring LED lights that mount on the front of your lens, which are a cheap solution and are easy to use, but can sometimes create donut-shaped catchlights in the eyes when capturing insects and other beings. To avoid this, twin flash systems are used to retain texture and depth, overcoming the flat look of a ring light.
What is Macro Photography's AI Revolution?
AI is revolutionizing photography, and macro photography is getting the most benefit from it. Newer camera systems now come with AI-powered autofocus systems like Sony's Real-Time Tracking and Canon's EOS iTR AF X.
Such systems allow macro photographers to lock onto certain sections of subjects, like eyes, to maintain focus. AI is now also used to recognize specific subjects after being trained for certain types of subjects, which allows them to better track these objects in focusing systems.
Camera Settings and Required Skillset
This section is itself a huge topic to cover here and requires you to learn and experiment over time to build a solid skillset for macro shots. For starters, learn to shoot in manual or aperture priority mode. Next, start between f/8 and f/11 while having ISO as low as possible, somewhere between 100 and 400.
Shutter speed is usually matched with the flash (if you are using it) and is set at 1/200s or 1/250s. You will need to use focus peaking to get the most accurate details. Once done, apply basic post-production corrections to these images on your computer, which include lens profile, white balance, and exposure. To get even better results, use the “Denoise in Lightroom” command in Adobe Lightroom to get the best results.
Wrapping Up:
In this article, explaining what is macro photography and related concepts, it is quite evident that this niche requires a significant amount of camera investment and time to develop a skillset. For sharper & unique macro shots, the SIRUI Saturn 35/50/75mm full-frame carbon fiber anamorphic lens is an easy recommendation this year.
