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#1
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Butterflies
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. |
#2
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Butterflies
On 7/4/2010 9:15 AM, YDOD wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. A longer focal length macro lens helps. A 100 or 180mm lens means you don't need to get as close. Also finding out what species of plant each kind of butterfly likes to sip from also helps as they stay at them longer. Getting up early in the day when it's still cool and the butterflies are moving slower also helps. A dark secret is that many of the best butterfly photos were made in the studio. They catch the butterfly and take an appropriate piece of plant material into the studio and set it up. They slow down the butterfly by putting it into a cooler for a while so that it moves very slow giving them lots of time to make the shot. John Passaneau |
#3
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Butterflies
John Passaneau wrote:
On 7/4/2010 9:15 AM, YDOD wrote: Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. A longer focal length macro lens helps. A 100 or 180mm lens means you don't need to get as close. Also finding out what species of plant each kind of butterfly likes to sip from also helps as they stay at them longer. Yes, if this is back yard shooting, plant some good nectar plants like verbena and in general study up on gardening for butterflies & bees - lots of things like making a mud puddle for them, not using pesticides, leave some areas wild & weedy, don't clean up too much, etc. Getting up early in the day when it's still cool and the butterflies are moving slower also helps. A dark secret is that many of the best butterfly photos were made in the studio. They catch the butterfly and take an appropriate piece of plant material into the studio and set it up. They slow down the butterfly by putting it into a cooler for a while so that it moves very slow giving them lots of time to make the shot. John Passaneau |
#4
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Butterflies
On Sun, 4 Jul 2010 07:15:04 -0600, "YDOD" wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. For optics use a tele-macro configuration. Close-up filters on long zoom lenses. This gives you enough working room between lens and subject for the more skittish species. Practice your handheld skills, you'll need them at the long focal-lengths in use. Wear camo-patterned clothing and hat. You may not have a gun but you are hunting nonetheless. You have to get nearer to your photography subjects and use greater stealth tactics than any hunter would ever have to. (Wildlife photography is much more difficult than hunting.) Avoid bug-sprays or strong scents. Unscented DEET products can be used sparingly if needed. You can buy 99% DEET from the camping and sporting goods departments. A drop or two spread in the hands and lightly brushed on clothing, backs of hands, and face should suffice. Thoroughly clean it off the palms of your hands or you will end up melting and destroying most plastics and painted surfaces that you touch. Try to approach an insect from a direction where something just as dark colored as you are (relative to the sky), and of similar angular dimensions as you are, can be kept to your back. So you blend in with the forms and outlines that the insect is seeing and detecting. Blend in with the silhouettes behind you. In the late late afternoon, just before sunset, they will often find spots where sunlight is hitting a surface and will bask in that, always returning to the same spot many times. Watch for their basking spots and then remain there waiting. Be patient. You can be within a foot of their basking spot and as long as you remain motionless they'll return to it. An added benefit is the warm late sun enhances their warmer colors. If a settled butterfly refuses to open up its wings while you have it framed and focused you can momentarily, but slowly, cast a partial shadow on it to get it to open its wings and ready itself for flight. Sometimes just the approaching shadow is enough. Use this method with caution or they may just fly off altogether. If you become more dedicated to insect photography then also get some inexpensive knee and elbow protectors from a sporting-goods department (for bikers and skateboarders). These become invaluable when hunting insect species close to the ground. You can stalk a skittish insect as slowly and cautiously as you want in any kind of terrain. You won't reflexively flinch from putting a knee or elbow into a rock or twig, scaring the subject away. For low-flying butterflies like skippers and little blues and azures this might come in handy. This was the only way that I could obtain images of some rare carnivorous beetles one time. They only hunted in open sunny areas of gravel and would fly off at the slightest nearby motion. Due to their small size (5/8") I couldn't use tele-macro optics, I had to use a full macro lens only 3 inches from them. The knee and elbow pads finally did the trick for stalking them. I've since had to buy far fewer shirts and pants too. Knees and elbows aren't being torn up so much nor stained with mud and muck. |
#5
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Butterflies
On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:56:43 -0400, John Passaneau wrote:
A dark secret is that many of the best butterfly photos were made in the studio. They catch the butterfly and take an appropriate piece of plant material into the studio and set it up. They slow down the butterfly by putting it into a cooler for a while so that it moves very slow giving them lots of time to make the shot. An undark secret is that I can spot those contrived photos using artificial lighting every time. I don't consider them "the best", I consider them the very worst images I've ever seen. There are better ways to photograph them in their natural environment with natural lighting now. Learn them. |
#6
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Butterflies
On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:56:46 -0700, John Navas
wrote: On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:48:05 -0500, in , Ken Walls wrote: On Sun, 4 Jul 2010 07:15:04 -0600, "YDOD" wrote: Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. For optics use a tele-macro configuration. Close-up filters on long zoom lenses. This gives you enough working room between lens and subject for the more skittish species. Practice your handheld skills, you'll need them at the long focal-lengths in use. [HUGE SNIP] Superzoom (e.g., Panasonic DMC-FZ35) with tele macro and optical image stabilization works quite well for this, and is a lot less hassle. http://i48.tinypic.com/2z53igz.jpg I would have mentioned super-zoom P&S for the extended DOF that is required for these subjects (my preferred gear for this) but the same principles can apply to all cameras, just not as well. IS becomes highly valuable when shooting handheld at the long focal-lengths used for tele-macro work. A tripod is all but useless and a huge drawback when trying to photograph butterflies in the field. Even a monopod can become a major hassle under those shooting conditions. You have to get in stealthily with as little extra gear as possible. Gear that would create extraneous motion, light-reflections, and sound disturbances in the brush and grasses. Get the shots and get ready to move fast if they dart off into another far area.. I typically use a +1, +2, or even +4 (at times) diopter closeup filter stacked with a 1.7x telextender on a super-zoom P&S camera. This affords a very comfortable working distance for all manner of larger macro subjects. A wide array of composition possibilities (a superior zoom in/out range, as needed). As well as providing for enough DOF for subjects as broad and deep as butterflies, while still getting a nice bokeh in the foreground and background, even in fairly dense-growth conditions. Though at times some larger butterflies still get one or two wingtips blurred from a too shallow DOF. It can sometimes work in your favor, composition and pose dependent. In bright sunlit conditions then stopping down can help. But under overcast and cloudy skies or in densely wooded areas and deeply shaded brush then you'll be glad you can shoot with that much DOF at f2.0, f/2.4, or f/3.5, at handheld shutter-speeds capable of freezing those moving wings. |
#7
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Butterflies
YDOD wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. Butterfly net and superglue? -- Ray Fischer |
#8
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Butterflies
On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 22:00:33 -0700 (PDT), otter
wrote: On Jul 4, 8:15*am, "YDOD" wrote: Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. Speaking of butterflies, here is one I took over the weekend. http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkes...09662/sizes/l/ My first attempt at butterflies. Would have been a nice shot and composition .... but Focus being off, and too slow of shutter speed adding to the blur from the moving wings, would have to sadly put this into the scrap-pile. |
#9
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Butterflies
I respectfully disagree with Ken. I think that perfection is something to
aim for and not a minimum requirement. This is a very good photograph which I would expect that the photographer would find most encouraging of his efforts. "Ken Walls" wrote in message ... On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 22:00:33 -0700 (PDT), otter wrote: On Jul 4, 8:15 am, "YDOD" wrote: Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything. Speaking of butterflies, here is one I took over the weekend. http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkes...09662/sizes/l/ My first attempt at butterflies. Would have been a nice shot and composition .... but Focus being off, and too slow of shutter speed adding to the blur from the moving wings, would have to sadly put this into the scrap-pile. |
#10
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Butterflies
otter wrote in
: Speaking of butterflies, here is one I took over the weekend. http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkes...09662/sizes/l/ My first attempt at butterflies. Those things are so tricky to get focused. -- SneakyP To email me, you know what to do. |
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