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Thread: Butterfly photography tips?

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    FlyingSquirrel's Avatar
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    Butterfly photography tips?

    Hopefully I'm posting this in the correct forum area. Does anyone have any butterfly photography tips they would be willing to share? particularly interested in if anyone uses "bait" or "butterfly food" of any kind to attract them? Thanks

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Do two internet searches. Attracting butterflies then baiting butterflies. You will get some good ideas on how to get them in your yard. Watch where they land, what they land on and how. When you've seen that then set up the same in front of your camera. We've used branches stuck in a pail of sand next to the water to get dragonflies and it works extremely well repeatedly. I'm sure something similar would work.

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    rtbaum's Avatar
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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    My favorite lens

    Butterfly photography tips?
    400 mm

    Liatris is monarch magnet

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Firstly, Matt, never flash a butterfly with wings open. It makes them react instantly and you get in image with wings closed; usually from the wrong angle. But if photographing from the side with wings closed, flash is often advantageous and will prevent harsh shadows; as well as giving you a chance to vary the exposure and aperture settings.

    Some species actually look better in the wings closed position and it is often necessary for identification.

    As with most insects, always get the head sharply focused. It doesn't matter too much if this means part of the wings etc are fractionally on the soft side. Particularly important for side views.

    When photographing wings open shots get yourself into a position square on to your subject so the wings are an equal size.

    Always worry about the background; and the foreground if it is obstructing a clear view of your subject. Gently move around to get the best view; eg when feeding on a flower the flower, in full or part, becomes an important element of the scene. Allow space for rotation and cropping.

    When I have tried attracting insects with various mixtures I found it attracts all the very common flies, but nothing of any real interest; but maybe I should keep experimenting. However, checking out suitable looking flowers can produce results.

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    Moderator Dave Humphries's Avatar
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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Hi Matt,

    I'd thoroughly recommend going to a 'target rich environment' for plenty of practice - e.g. a butterfly house, if you have one within reach.

    Apart from that, where I am, the wild ones are just far too thinly spread to be worth putting the lens on with butterflies as the sole subject - you'll see them yes, but rarely will you be able to get close enough for a shot.

    At least with dragonflies and damselflies, you can go to a pond or river (in the right season and weather) and be almost guaranteed to get some shots, but with butterflies, unless you have the knowledge to get lucky and find a mass hatching event, I suspect you will soon become frustrated.

    Good luck, Dave

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Plant a butterfly bush and several purple coneflowers. You can buy mature plants that will already be flowering, dig a hole, and have summer butterflies now and for years to come. The butterfly bush is aptly named and will attract bees and other insects. The flowers can be nice to photograph without any help from the insect world.

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Dragonflies and damsels are a bit easier that way. The look for a high, isolated stalk as a base. As carnivores, they fly off to capture their prey and return.

    Butterflies are a bit different. They are nectar sippers and very active. The best bet is to find a place with an abundance of 'butterfly' plants and be prepared to react. They won't come back to a picked flower but, a bit of judicious trimming behind a flower that is working can clean up the background and give some pleasing results.

    Butterfly photography tips?

    Butterfly photography tips?

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Wow, great advice! Thanks so much for the really helpful tips.

    I love the bonus dragonfly idea of the branch in sand by a body of water as a set up! Brilliant!

    Definitely good butterfly tips, about the flash issue, wing position, identification considerations, locations, and so forth. Great idea also to look for a butterfly house / exhibit. As it turns out, a google search for seattle turns up an exhibit at the pacific science center. Looks like a decent option to get started, though I doubt flash is much approved of there (and tripods not a good idea with children going bonkers everywhere)

    I am going to try a few bait /food ideas and see if I can get some butterflies to come into a set up - luckily for me, I am interested in photos of ANY insects, even flies, so whatever shows up is a viable subject for me. I like complete control over the artistic aspects of my images (primarily the background) so set ups are the best way to go. I will probably pick a productive flower as suggested in one of the previous comments, and/or put a little bait on a flower. Then set up with flash and frame everything with the right background. Then wait. Luckily, I am rather patient - have to be if you are going to be a wildlife photographer. Not to mention if I am in a nice natural area in a field or the mountains, I can just relax and enjoy being there!

    Here is a the ONLY butterfly photo that I have ever taken that was worth keeping (not that I've taken many butterfly shots). From August of 2014. This was a set up with a diffused flash on a tripod, and a printed green background behind the flower to eliminate the distracting "real" background (next time I'll go for a background with a little more texture and color variation). I waited about 2 hours in the scorching sun for a butterfly to land on my chosen flower. Got some decent bee photos on this bloom as well.

    Skipper on Knapweed - Canon 7D, Sigma 150mm macro, 1/250th s @f/11, ISO 100

    Butterfly photography tips?

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    A yellow admiral on sunflower last summer. 100-400mm at 400mm, f7.1, 1/640 sec, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mk II. (the caterpillar feeds on stinging nettle!). A very difficult butterfly to photograph as it is very nervous.

    Butterfly photography tips?

    A red admiral on a NZ native clematis. 100mm macro, f8.0, 1/250sec, Canon 5D Mk ll. Note the proboscis into the flower.

    Butterfly photography tips?
    Last edited by Ken MT; 16th July 2015 at 09:23 AM. Reason: added another butterfly

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Matt,

    You've already gotten some good advice. I'll just add a few things.

    First, I agree with Geoff: I really doubt that putting out some kind of bait will help. Some insects have mouths well suited to slurping up stuff from a surface. Bottle flies are a great example, and very easy to attract where I live. Butterflies don't. Nothing to be lost by trying, but I don't think you will have much luck.

    One moderate-term option is to plant flowers that attract butterflies, like asclepius and buddleia. We have planted both, but we haven't attracted all that many butterflies. however, the asclepius we planted (tuberosa) is very attractive to native pollinators, at least here in the northeast. When it is at its peak, the bush is like a train station full of bugs. I have lost count of the species of bees and wasps I have found, but it is a lot--several species of bumblebees, lots of species of sweat bees of various sizes, some varieties of honeybees (these aren't native, of course), I think recently some miner bees, and a number of species of wasps.

    Re flashing them: I assume Geoff is right about this--he knows more about photographing insects than I do--but in my experience, they don't always close their wings when exposed to flash. I'll post a few examples below.

    I second Dave's suggestion of going to a butterfly zoo. I've gone to one twice, with good luck both times. Just be careful: they are often kept hot and humid, so you might want to take your equipment in a plastic bag and let it warm up a bit before taking it out, to minimize condensation.

    One suggestion about dragonflies and damselflies: I don't know why this is so, but in my experience, the species I most often see are MUCH more skittish if approached from above. I am guessing that this has something to do with the three simple eyes on the tops of their heads, but I have never found anything written about it. I have much better luck if I get down to their level and try to approach them from the front or side.

    Good luck

    Dan

    Butterfly photography tips?

    Butterfly photography tips?

    Butterfly photography tips?

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    FlyingSquirrel's Avatar
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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Thanks again guys. Great pics.

    Dan, that is a lot of really excellent advice, thank you for posting in detail! I will have to go off now and try to actually follow through with some of these things. Will report back in the future with my findings (and hopefully some good shots)

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    First off bait....our local butterfly house use freshly cut oranges as well as honey, which seems to work in their tropical glasshouse. I guess they are pretty well expert at this stuff.

    The other thing I would agree with is the need to spend at least half an hour acclimatising if in a greenhouse as your camera and lenses will be misted and useless for about that time after going into such an environment from a colder outside one.

    Early mornings are the time to get there. The butterflies are cold blooded so cannot fly until they have basked in the sunlight for a while, so you have masses of time to grab shots, and if you are there very early (some locations open especially early for photographers if you ask), you will get less of the two legged pests too.

    Finally, depending on the angle you are to the insect, focus stacking using a tripod can help achieve that professional look. So don't dismiss the tripod. Or the flash, but for goodness sake, soften it with a large soft box, rather than bare flash.

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    That's helpful to know. I stand corrected about the bait. Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall seeing something similar at a butterfly zoo some years ago.

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    Re: Butterfly photography tips?

    Some moths will readily come to various sugary mixes and every one who uses this method seems to have their own specific secret mix.

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