How to Photograph Butterflies

Photographing insects is an art in itself. Between all the bugs and insects butterflies are the most popular, beautiful and photogenic.

If you ever tried photographing butterflies in the nearby butterflies’ house or in your backyard, you already have experienced that those are one the most challenging subject to deal with. Butterflies are very active, they have this tendency to fly away when you are about to press the trigger.

Macro Photography Gears

Macro Lens With Better Focal Length

Before you will start these beautiful insects it is always advisable to buy a macro lens with a focal length 90 mm or up-word. There are many options available to buy macro lens.

For Canon dSLR owner Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens is a good value for money lens. Similarly Nikon dSLR owners can have Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro.

Extension Tubes

Extension tubes help to increase the magnification distance without affecting the image quality. They sit between the camera body and the lens.

The only problem with extension tubes is sometime they may incur a degree of light loss.

Try to buy extension tube supporting autofocus. The most popular extension tubes come in 12 mm, 25 mm or 36 mm.

Close-up Filters

Close-up filters screw up on the front of the lens and act like magnifying glass. These are some of the most inexpensive filters. They come in strength range of +1, +2, +3 or +4. The higher the numbers better the magnification.

There are some serious side effects of close-up filters, like soft edge sharpness, ghosting and chromatic aberration.

Get Some Ideas About Butterflies

Before you start shooting butterflies it is better to know their types and what type of butterflies are seen in your area. As butterflies numbers are in a decline it may happen you have to drive some distance to reach their habitat.

When to Photograph Butterflies?

The easiest time to find butterflies is during the day. But the day time is the most difficult to photograph them as butterflies tend to very active during the day time.

Instead it is good to photograph them in the early morning or during the evening when they are less active.

Tips for Photography

It may happen that you need to search a bit to find butterflies. Butterflies are less active on tall grass or on vegetations. After you located butterflies, move to your position slow. A slight bad move will make the butterfly fly away.

Most of the time use aider aperture to make the background out of focus so that you will get a sharp butterfly image. Sometime it is useful to use a flash to fill light. But natural light is best for most occasions.

Shooting butterflies is sometimes frustrating but will some practice and lot of patience you can take great butterfly images.