One of the most beautiful butterflies in Central and South America is the malachite butterfly. When shooting these ephemeral insects, it’s best to make the back of the camera as parallel as possible with the wings. That maximizes depth of field. Because butterflies usually don’t allow a close approach, you have to use a telephoto lens to fill the frame with them. Often an extension tube is necessary, too. That enables a long lens to focus closely, and that in turn means depth of field is extremely shallow. A small lens aperture helps increase depth of field, but so does making the back of the camera -- i.e. the plane of the flash card -- parallel with the wings. You can see in this shot that the top of the wings aren't tack sharp, and that's because the camera wasn't as parallel as it should have been. Butterflies move so fast and often so erratically that it's hard to get into a perfect position before hitting the shutter button. Regarding lighting, butterflies photograph best in most situations in diffused light.
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