Butterfly Pics

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Hi,

I'm looking for advice about taking pictures of butterflies and am having trouble getting quality shot, most of my shots are slightly out of focus affairs, with the odd one being ok

Is there any advice that the more seasoned wildlife photographers could give?

Thanks in advance

John


P.S i'm using a Fuji Finepix 9500

[carlj]

John, if you're using macro mode, try setting aperture to as small as possible for max depth of field, and if feasible, manually focus. I find AF can be a bit picky on macro.

Carl

[glsammy]

As well as using a small aperture, (i.e. a HIGH number!) You should try and use some sort of support either tripod or mono-pod. The small aperture will usually leave you with a slow shutter speed, so shake as well as focus can become a problem.

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Thanks for the advice, think a good read of the book is in order to suss out all the manual controls been taking most my images so far using AF, and as Carl says it's very picky in what it picks out when using the Macro mode

[aeshna]

Hi Lincs,

I agree with the above posts, go for manual focus everytime/ high f stops.

It may be worth getting your eyes checked out!! cos it's obvious but if they are out of focus your pics will be too. I'm blind without contact lenses!!!

Look also for butterflies that are lying flat, lots of Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Commas around at the minute basking in the sun and 'flatter' they are the better chance you have of getting everything pin sharpe. Also look for butterflies sitting side on and again go for the flat side, angle yourself around to get it as flat as possible.

Also when using digital don't be mean with the shutter, click, click, click. Sometimes I'll shoot of a few that I think I have 'perfect' sharpness on then rock back a very little then forwards while clicking.

Consider using the flash to get that extra depth of fied and expiriment with f stops/setting etc.

Good luck.

Cheers

Aeshna

[Ollie]

Hi John, I also agree with all the advice given, especially the nanual focus. I used to shoot everything on AF but have recently been using manual focus for close up work and my success rate has increased considerably.
Roger

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Cheers aeshna and Roger i've been playing with the camera this evening and figuring out all the f settings and Manual focus settings weather being ok i'll take it out tomorrow dinner and have a play

Roger,

While your here, do you know any good spots around here for butterflies? can find plenty of the common species at the pond such as Gatekeeper, Ringlet and Comma. But nothing unusual

[Ollie]

Hi John, at Messingham today there were Common Blue, Ringlet, Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma, Small Skipper and possibly large, Gatekeeper, Small White, Large White, Painted Lady and a couple of Copper's which I didn't manage to get a decent shot of
Roger

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Hi John, at Messingham today there were Common Blue, Ringlet, Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma, Small Skipper and possibly large, Gatekeeper, Small White, Large White, Painted Lady and a couple of Copper's which I didn't manage to get a decent shot of
Roger

Thanks, maybe a visit is in order

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Been out practising this dinner, although unfortunatly every butterfly was either a Peacock or Painted lady, which feed with wing closed messed about with the aperture settings, keeping it higher up and got better results, going to try manual focus tomorrow, i did want to run before i could walk

This is about the best quality shot i got today, although cropping and shrink to post has taken some quality away