Photography skills of shooting butterflies well

Photography skills of shooting butterflies well

In addition to skills, ecological butterfly photography should also have a certain understanding of various species, and the choice of equipment is also particular, because different species have certain habits, they will not be satisfied with the status quo, and you often have to race against time. But I believe that as long as we understand the nature of butterflies and the following four points, we should be able to take satisfactory photos. Then, let me share some of my shooting skills!

First, the choice of photographic equipment

Generally speaking, I think butterfly photography needs to be "one long and one small", and an external flash is needed if possible. As I am a Nikon user, my personal choices are: AF-S VR Micro105 mm f/2.8 g IF ED and AF-S 300mm f/4 IF ED, and the flash is DF800.

Macro lenses are mainly used to correspond to some tiny butterflies or stable species. For example: butterflies, gray butterflies, spotted butterflies, etc. These butterflies are not tall, of course, they still have a certain degree, so the focal length should be above 100mm, which is called "Hundred Micro" for short. As long as you walk gently and approach carefully, you can still be afraid of a sense of satisfaction ~

However, the lens of 100 micron is not enough to shoot all kinds of pictures. Some species fly relatively high and fast, which makes them inaccessible. This time is the appearance time of telephoto lens ~ but the flexibility of telephoto lens is relatively low and the walking distance becomes longer.

If the focal length is short, you may just need to move your arm. Many times they will have some strange angles, and some species will spread their wings and stop. Their wings always face the sky. If you want to shoot the front of it from top to bottom, you need to be 100 microns shorter than the telephoto lens, so you can fly over it and shoot it.

Second, pay attention to the shooting angle.

Butterflies live in flowers and plants, and seem to be disorganized and unpredictable. The most effective way to get rid of clutter is shallow depth of field. Of course, when I say shallow depth of field, I don't mean that the aperture is as shallow as 1.4, but it is shallower than ordinary insect ecological photography. Personally, I usually use f/5.6-f/ 13 for a 100-micron lens.

In order to make the whole butterfly clear in shallow depth of field and make it jump out in a messy environment, in most cases, it is shot from the front of the butterfly. The genus Butterfly is quite special. As long as there is a slight deviation, there is also a chance to blur the butterfly body.

When shooting, it was only slightly tilted to the right, which made the left wing appear blurred. If you are raising butterflies, because of their small wings and big body, it is even more powerful to take a picture of Sanqi.

Photography is very free, of course, there are no certain restrictions, in addition to the above methods, you can try other angles.

Third, with the whole environment, don't indulge in amplification.

Bai Wei is the most common lens in butterfly photography, because it can shoot tiny butterflies, and there is almost no "nearest focal length" problem, so it is very flexible.

But is it necessary to pursue shooting super-large butterflies? Personally, curiosity is more satisfying than filming a work. Of course, I'm not saying this for Hongdie, just don't be addicted to every picture.

I think it is necessary to melt it into nature to shoot ecology. Try to stay late, and use flowers and leaves as shallow scenes before and after. Eco-photography can also be beautiful.

Fourth, consider cutting when shooting, shoot first and then compose.

I often persuade my friends to join eco-photography, telling them that filming ecology is a good training for "decisive moment".

In fact, ecological photography is very close to this concept, so it is inevitable to observe the behavior of the target and wait for the best action. Pay attention to speed, often the best shooting time is fleeting. It's really not easy to finish the whole photography process in an instant. But now the camera pixels are getting higher and higher, and even many entry-level SLR cameras have reached 24mp.

Take the Nikon I used as an example. Two thirds of the crops, 12mp. It is best to shoot the target with the strongest intermediate focus first, and then cut the composition later. Because the composition time is saved when shooting according to the above method, it takes less than one second from the beginning to the completion of shooting. The above methods can also be used when shooting some high-speed varieties, and reserving a wide angle of view is helpful to track the target when shooting.

Fifth, pay attention to the shooting speed.

Shutters need to be between 200 and 2000, according to different types. It is because of the speed problem, which is why the safety shutter is not mentioned in the telephoto description above, because the shutter speed needed to shoot butterflies is much higher than the safety shutter ~

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