Scientists were invited to submit their images to the 2019 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition, and hundreds of images were entered in the categories of Astronomy, Behaviour, Earth Science and Climatology, Ecology and Environmental Science and Micro-imaging. These were judged by Jon Blundy FRS, Subject Editor for Royal Society Open Science; Ineke De Moortel, Editorial Board Member for Philosophical Transactions A and Ulrike Muller, Associate Editor for Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Each image was scrutinised for its aesthetics and the scientific phenomenon it conveyed.

We are now delighted to present the finalists below. From a picture of the moon to an image of surgical thread 0.25mm in diameter, and birds in a fight to the gentle meeting between a fish and a jellyfish, we hope you enjoy what our entrants captured.