Rest assured that I'm not talking about gigantic rhino beetles or stick insects here, but rather fairly 'large' insects such as dragonflies and butterflies. These are some of the most popular and beautiful creatures to photograph. Generally, the techniques used here are very similar to those discussed earlier in the previous section Photographing Small Insects. The differences are mainly the camera settings and a little less equipments used. The settings to use and tips to follow will depend very much on the type of insects. To further explain this point, take a closer look at the following 2 sub-sections on each type of insect.
Dragonflies are relatively large and usually brightly and distinctively coloured. They can be found near ponds or near any water bodies, resting on leave tips. If you noticed, they have broad wings and long tails. Therefore, always set your Aperture value as small a value as possible. This is to get as much of the insect as possible in focus. Always focus on the insect's large eyes. A picture with the eyes out-of-focus will be as good as none. For S602 users, use at least F8. F11 is preferred if lighting condition is favourable. Do note that a very small aperture will render the background very dark if sunlight is not very bright. Shutter speed is preferrably set as 1/200 sec, to minimise effect of handshaking as well as the unpredictable wind. Set the camera to use AF-Area mode. The 49 AF points are extremely useful when it comes to taking dragonflies. Shift the focus point to a position that coincides with the dragonfly's eyes to ensure the eyes is sharp in focus. If lighting is good, flash intensity should be kept minimal to provide only fill-in effect. This will highlight the details that are covered under shadow. Too strong a flashlight will
overexpose the insect, especially its body.
Dragonflies usually fly off when you approach them. Do not despair. Just wait quietly near the spot and position your camera. They'll usually return to the same place and rest. You have to be quick and snap as soon as they land, while their wings are still in an upright position (see above picture). Very often, their wings will tilt down after a while, and they don't look good with that. If you're unable to get a shot in time before the wings are down, try this trick - flap your hand near it so that it'll fly off. Wait for a while and it should return to the same spot. You can then have a 2nd shot at it.
Recommended camera settings:
- Shooting mode: Manual
- Aperture value: F8 - 11
- Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
- Auto Focus type: AF Area
- Additional lens/filter: Single +4 Close-up filter
Butterflies are one of the most beautiful insects. They're also some of the most difficult to photograph. Most scurried off at the 1st sign of humans approaching. Some simply refuse to stay still or stop flapping their wings. Alot of patience is required to take good shots of these active insects. Butterflies are usually more passive during the early morning hours, and they tend to spread their wings to sun them, as seen in the right picture. One of the better period of the day to take them is when the sun is high and hot. Butterflies start to get active and start feeding. The technique here is to approach slowly while they're busy feeding, so they'll not notice your presence. If they happen to be frightened away, stay for a while longer as butterflies often return to feed on the same spot.Butterflies are bascially very thin in their bodily structure. Therefore, using a large aperture value (F3.2 - F4) is sufficient to keep the entire insect in focus. The narrow DOF also helps to de-focus the background to create a smooth effect. Shutter speed is set at around 1/200 sec as butterflies can keep moving even when feeding. Take note that if sunlight is very ample, you can switch to Aperture Priority (Av) mode instead of Manual. Set aperture value to within the recommended range. You may end up with a very high shutter speed (e.g., 1/600 or 1/800 sec), but its alright as long as it doesn't exceed 1/1000 sec, where it will be indicated in red color. The butterfly will turn out overexposed. One workaround is to adjust the aperture value smaller until the speed falls slightly below 1/1000 sec.
Auto-focus is used as the camera usually has no problem focusing on these insects. Equipment wise, take note that a close-up filter with diopter rating of +2 is more than sufficient when coupled with the 6x zoom of the S602.
Similar to taking dragonflies, only mild flash power is required to provide the fill-in effect. Take care that wings of some species of butterflies are very reflective to light and they tend to overexpose if a little more than the required amount of flash is applied.
Recommended camera settings:
- Shooting mode: Manual, Av
- Aperture value: F3.2 - 4
- Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
- Auto Focus type: Normal AF
- Additional lens/filter: Single +2 Close-up filter
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