I photographed these amazing butterflies in Bali, Indonesia. They are Malay lacewings, and like many species of lepidoptera, they are more beautiful when their wings are folded than when they're open. The two most important considerations when photographing butterflies are depth of field and backgrounds. Busy and distracting elements behind the subject(s) will ruin the picture, and DOF that is too shallow will, in my opinion, detract as well. It's crucial to be able to see all of that wonderful detail with tack sharp clarity. To insure both of the mating insects were sharp, I positioned myself so the back of the camera (i.e. the plane of the digital sensor) was as parallel as possible to the plane of the butterflies. I used a fast shutter because a slight breeze was causing movement. My settings were 1/000, f/11, and 6400 ISO in this relatively dark environment. I used a Canon 100-400mm zoom for this, and it was set to 214mm.
0 Comments