Learning Macro Photography with Butterflies as Subjects

Tree Nymph (Idea leuconoe); Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60); Aperture: f/8; Focal Length: 60 mm; ISO Speed: 1600; Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Butterflies are wonderful creatures to photograph. They are nice to look at. They are here to remind us that all of us can change for the better.

And they are difficult to photograph - especially up-close, and in this article we are going to learn how to photograph them from real close, so that your friends may not even recognize that these are pictures of butterflies you are showing them. They are difficult to photograph this way - unless you know the secret (and to learn the secret, please read the section below which is titled A Place Where You Can Find Butterflies).

So let's get started and learn how to take great closeup pictures of colorful butterflies - the creatures also known as "the flying flowers".

You will have more fun if you can identify them. So invest a little time on the web searching for butterfly directories. If you cannot identify a species, ask for help.

Although you can do macro photography with point and shoot cameras and bridge cameras, most of us cannot produce good results with them (yes, I know, some people can do fantastic things even with a point and shoot camera, I am amazed with these people, and it's even a humbling experience for me, but I admit I can't produce good results with point and shoots). For me, I need to plug in the best-of-the-breed macro lens and that doesn't happen without a DSLR. Since pro DSLRs are expensive I use semi-pro (prosumer) models like the Canon 20D. Here I will assume that you are like me, an amateur photographer, and that you have a prosumer DSLR or are planning to buy one.

Update: Well, I used a compact camera finally and the results are quite surprising. See my page The Best Compact Camera in the World (in 2008) for details. So I won't insist absolutely on a DSLR anymore !!

NOTE: You need good quality equipment. The brand matters less, but you should know your equipment line well. I give here examples from Canon and Nikon lines. Please do research for your own brand equivalent of the camera body and the lenses.

Choose a camera body from Canon or Nikon or any other good brand. I use Canon but Nikon cameras are just as good or better depending on models. We are not religious about brands. What you need are cameras that can handle ISO 1600 levels or so. In this posting I will recommend using an affordable SLR from Canon or Nikon. In the Canon lineup either a 40D or a 50D (the newest lineup of Canon in this series, not yet available but will be soon). The Nikon camera body candidates in this range are either Nikon D300 DX or Nikon D90 DX.

These are semi-pro models. If you have more money to burn you may go for the pro models.

Please try to find a good quality camera equivalent if you use other brands. It just so happens that I have a Canon 20D that I still love and use it for this type of macro photography.

There is a superb macro lens from Canon that fits Canon 40D, 50D series and this lens is the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM and I love it!! Especially for butterfly garden macro photography this lens, in my opinion, is the best you can get in the Canon series. It is very light. The Nikon equivalent of this lens is the 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor Lens.

CAUTION: In the Canon lineup, the EF-S series lens will not fit full frame Canon DSLRs. You will need to use Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens for full frame sensors (but it doesn't give you 1:1 magnification on its own).

Why a short macro lens such as this one?

Because the 60mm lens gives you a shorter working distance of 3.5" (9 cm) vs the 6" (15 cm) of the 100mm lens and 60mm lens will have a greater field of view. The shorter working distance is a disadvantage if you are photographing in the wild. It is an advantage in this case because we are inside a controlled environment where the butterfly don't fly away so often.

You can choose the 100mm lens (or longer) also if you like but I will be using the 60mm lens for most of the discussion here. The 100mm is heavier than 60mm and 180mm is much more heavier. I want to be light!! Nikon's 105mm macro lens, the Nikon AF-S VR Macro 105mm/2.8G IF-ED, has image stabilization built in and produces superb results.

If you use other brands of camera/lens system please do a little research and try to find the equivalent of this lens.

Blue Morpho (Morpho peleides); Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200); Aperture: f/2.8; Focal Length: 60 mm; ISO Speed: 800; Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV; Flash: Flash fired

Yes, you need to find butterflies if you are going to photograph them. And you need obedient ones that will pose patiently for you and not the skittish ones that fly away at your slightest movement.

Where could this place be?

Simple. It's a butterfly garden. Doh!! Maybe your city has one, or your neighboring city. But you must find a butterfly garden. Trying to do butterfly macro photography in the wild will make you slowly go mad - guaranteed.

I took these all of these pictures in the Papiliorama butterfly garden in Kerzers, Switzerland, once during a photography class and once I just went there by myself. It was around February, 2008.

Postman Butterfly (Heliconius erato); Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100); Aperture: f/4; Focal Length: 60 mm; ISO Speed: 1600; Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Now you have all the ingredients except the skills necessary for photographing these magnificent creatures.

FIRST, DO NO HARM: We should not harm these fragile creatures in any way. I have heard of some people, for the sake of photography, killing butterflies and insects and then photographing them at their convenience. That is just cruel and unnecessary. Let's not indulge in such unethical photography.

In fact, it's a joy to be in the company of the butterflies as they flit around and we chase them with our camera, our patience and sometimes a bit of irritation. It's part of the fun.

CAUTION: I must point out that these skills are very specific to this special situation, i.e., "for macro photography of butterflies in a butterfly garden" and my advice may not extend to other situations. So be careful: when I say don't use flash, I mean don't use flash in this situation; I don't mean you should never use a flash in macro photography. In fact, if you read the properties of photographs that are in this article, on some of the photographs (such as the Blue Morpho in previous section and below) I used the flash, but that was because I was experimenting. Do experiment if you like, but I think you will not like flashes for this kind of photography. My hope is that having a good experience with photographing the butterflies up-close, you will then explore macro photography further using a variety of other subjects in other settings.

Here are some notes to help you. I assume you are familiar with photography terms such as aperture and ISO and what not. (If not, please brush up your knowledge on the web or by browsing some of the books I recommend below.)

1. Since you are inside a butterfly garden, you have plenty of opportunity to photograph them. They will not fly away (this depends on species and individuals a bit but usually you can expect them to not pay you any attention).

2. It will be hot and humid inside the butterfly garden. Wear light clothes.

3. Because of humidity your lens may fog if you take your camera out of your bag too quickly. After entering the garden wait about 8 minutes and then take out your camera. If your lens fogs, wait until the water evaporates naturally.

4. Tripods are essential photography equipment. Do not use tripods. There!! Talk about being inconsistent!! Using a tripod is inconvenient and cumbersome in this scenario. Forget what your textbook said. In some situations tripods are essential. In fact tripods are a must!! But when chasing butterflies, using tripods will give you a hard time. But if you have patience and don't mind a small harvest use tripods by all means.

And I will not let you use a flash either. No matter how fancy, ring-like, robot-like your flash is, I expressly forbid it. Because I don't like flat pictures (and that's what you get if you don't know how to use flashes well) and I want you to be light and focused on chasing the butterflies, not on adjusting your flash all the time. Yes, flash can be used very creatively if we have sufficient skills, but I am not using it for butterfly hunt.

So there you are: no tripods, no flash and you are indoors, if you know what I mean (but hopefully with a translucent dome of the butterfly garden overhead that lets in adequate daylight).

5. Equip yourself with only a compact macro lens (such as Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens or Nikon 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor lens). Leave all your other lenses at home. This way you will be light and focused on your task at hand.

You want to use your 100mm lens? Please go ahead - it's your choice. Please take a look at the photograph below which I took with my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens.

Clipper (Parthenos sylvia); Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160); Aperture: f/7.1; Focal Length: 100 mm; ISO Speed: 400; Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

I know you could use some extra paraphernalia such as teleconverters, closeup lenses, extension tubes, etc to tweak some of the things (such as focusing distance) but everything comes with a price: sometimes it's the less amount of light available to you, sometimes it's the image quality itself that will suffer, sometimes it's just the hassle you don't want. Stick to simple things.

And you know, the weirdest macro lens I have is Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x Macro Lens. Oh boy! It can magnify things five times! But it's maddening to use. Canon did a great job, it's not their fault, but the physical laws of optics dictate that at such high magnifications it is difficult - extremely difficult - to focus.

Update: I now have an article using MP-E 65mm Macro Lens as Extreme Macro Photography. Please read it and see for yourself !!

6. You may find that you will need to work at ISO 400, 800 or even 1600. This is "normal" for this kind of photography if you don't use a tripod. The example below is at ISO 1600. Keep in mind that high ISO is not a good thing.

Unidentified (Please help me identify this species!!); Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100); Aperture: f/9; Focal Length: 60 mm; ISO Speed: 1600; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

7. Although it is counter intuitive, opening up the lens to its maximum aperture such as f 2.8 is not a good thing. Here is why: your depth of field will be razor thin and this will throw most parts of the butterfly out of focus.

8. Work with an aperture of about 5.6 - 8.0 in Aperture Priority mode and adjust your ISO so that your camera shake is minimized. As you are not using the tripods it is necessary that you operate at something like 1/100s or so. Keeping it around 1/100s for this lens means you will have sharp images. Sometimes you will have to make compromises - life is like that. Experiment in manual mode also if it suits you.

9. Here is a great tip: Do not use automatic focus. Use manual focus. When you see a butterfly sitting on a flower, move the camera slowly backwards and forwards until you get it into focus. Then click!!

Try to get as much of the butterfly as possible into focus. Yes, it is difficult. You have to move back and forth - and back and forth, until you get it in focus. You can see how cumbersome it would have been if you were using a tripod here. Getting the focus on the eyes is crucial - if the eyes are out of focus then you may as well throw the photograph in the wastepaper basket.

Look carefully at photos of the butterflies that I have included in this article (such as two more below): notice how I have tried to focus on the eyes. Always remember to try to focus on the eyes of living things - otherwise they seem lifeless. If you get your focus right they seem alive, breathing. And, oh yes, those compound eyes are just beautiful, aren't they?

Unidentified (Please help me identify this species!!); Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100); Aperture: f/4.5; Focal Length: 60 mm; ISO Speed: 800; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash fired

Unidentified (Please help me identify this species!!); Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100); Aperture: f/8; Focal Length: 60 mm; ISO Speed: 1600; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Get close, real close - most of the butterflies in butterfly gardens will tolerate you upto a certain distance. Getting close is what these short macro lenses allow you to do.

10. In a photograph, your background is as important as your foreground. Your background should not be distracting. It should complement the subject but in a discreet way.

Unidentified (Please help me identify this species!!); Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100); Aperture: f/8; Focal Length: 60 mm; ISO Speed: 1600; Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Now is the time to visit a butterfly garden and I wish you good luck for your butterfly hunt !! I hope you will experiment with other subjects. You can throw away some of my advice and try to learn your own tricks. If you get good photographs, please share with others to double your pleasure and let me know in the comments area below.

My own small butterfly macro collection - from which I have posted all the pictures in this article - is from February this year and can be found in the link below (yes, Kanon Lite, that's me as well):

My Butterfly Macros on Flickr

I hope you have enjoyed this article and I welcome you to visit my pages Macro Photography of Flowers and Extreme Macro Photography.

And, do you want to know which one is The Best Compact Camera in the World?

I will appreciate your comments and criticism in the comments section.

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I know most of the readers were disappointed because it seemed that you absolutely needed a macro lens and a DSLR to do the job. I couldn't wait to try a small compact camera for a comparison and I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. See my page The Best Compact Camera in the World (in 2008) for details. Here are the samples. Enjoy !!

I am happy to report that there is hope for the point and shooters as well. How technology has advanced !!

Flame (Dryas julia); Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800); Aperture: f/2; Focal Length: 5.1 mm; ISO Speed: 400; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Malachite (Siproeta stelenes); Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250); Aperture: f/2; Focal Length: 5.1 mm; ISO Speed: 80; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Owl (Caligo memnon); Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160); Aperture: f/2; Focal Length: 5.1 mm; ISO Speed: 400; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Red Lacewing (Cethosa biblis); Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500); Aperture: f/2; Focal Length: 5.1 mm; ISO Speed: 400; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

Flame (Dryas julia); Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500); Aperture: f/2; Focal Length: 5.1 mm; ISO Speed: 400; Exposure Bias: 0 EV; Flash: Flash did not fire

See the whole Butterflies LX3 Flickr Set.