How to Photograph Butterflies
Several years ago I contacted a number of great butterfly photographers on www.dpreview.com. I told them I had a D70 camera body, Nikon's 105 macro lens, and SB-800 flash. Following are their comments and suggestions:
- When I shoot without flash I allow the ISO to go as high as 400 or 800 to obtain shutter speeds of 1/100, shooting with aperture priority set to at least f4.5. With Nikon's 105 macro lens, shoot hand held.
- Use a monopod and try to align your D70 focal plane to their wings. Sometimes I use my sigma 70-200+2X teleconverter to get distant shots. With the 105mm, set the camera to f8 Aperture priority and set the SB800 to TTL-Bal.
- Shoot shutter-speed priority at 1/500 or use manual mode. I tend to stick to manual mode these days when I'm using the flash. For flash I cover up the back two terminals of the flash with tape to go fully manual. The D70 doesn't know the SB800 is there, but still fires the flash, so you can use almost any shutter speed and aperture combination. You need to experiment to see what works.
- Shoot as often as you can, expect no more than 10% will be worth keeping.
- Make no sudden moves and approach them very slowly. Don't be frustrated if it doesn't work at first, and stay put once in position. Butterflies often comes back to the same place.
- The best time to shoot them is in the morning, as the wings are still damp from the morning dew and they are less active.
- If there's a tray of fruit or cut flowers, some species get really hooked on the goodies and don't budge when you get close.
- Some species flit around and never remain on a flower for more than a few seconds. Often they don't even stop flapping their wings. This is when high shutter speeds are a must.
- Butterflies have short life spans. Later in the day you may find some that aren't moving around much. They may be dying, but not dead! Some will be a bit tattered and won't make good subjects, but others will be in good shape.
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