Lately there have been a number of butterfly and dragonfly
photos on the various photography pages I follow. And these insects are
certainly abundant in the spring and summer. After spending a couple of days
recently chasing “dragons,” I thought you might like a few useful tips based on
my own experiences.
1. Practice patience! This is the first key to successfully
photographing flying, flitting insects. They eventually land on branches or
rails, and wait for you to catch them. But it takes time and persistence.
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| Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed |
2. Use camera settings to isolate your subject, bringing it
into focus, and to blur the background. For the images here I used an aperture
of f/5.6, which creates a shallow depth of field and the soft background.
3. In order to keep disturbance to a minimum and remain
outside of the “circle of fear,” I have been shooting with a telephoto lens zoomed
to around 150-200mm. This keeps me at a distance, but brings in the details of
wings and bodies.
4. These are fast
little creatures. In order to avoid blur from their constant motion, use a fast
shutter speed. I’ve been using manual mode for the insect photography, setting
my shutter speed to about 1/320 seconds for correct exposure and stopping the
motion.
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| Blue Dragons |
5. Auto-focus can be challenging when shooting butterflies
and dragonflies. Depending upon where you’re positioned, there may be
insufficient contrast between the background and the subject, making auto-focus
less effective. I get some of my best shots using manual focus.
