Shooting butterflies

A few tips for photographing butterflies (and other insects)

Photo of a black and white butterfly by me using a Nikon D750 with a Sigma 70–200mm f/2.8 lens.

I’m not into butterflies, by which I mean, I couldn’t tell you what type of butterfly this is by looking at it. I’m not not into butterflies either, at least from a photography point of view. I mean as far as insects go they aren’t bad looking, like spiders for example, those things are creepy.

Tips for photographing butterflies

#1

Butterflies, like most insects are generally rather skittish and won’t sit still if you try and get close to them so having a long lens is a good start. The photo above was shot with a 70–200mm at 200mm and even then it was difficult to get close enough to fill the frame. I’d love to get something like a 300, 400, hell even a 600mm lens. I’d love to get into some more wildlife photography and it would certainly help for insects like butterflies as well.

When it comes to lenses, a macro lens will of course give the best results and a lens capable of a 1:1 reproduction ratio is the ultimate goal, but you can still get decent results with any lens.

#2

Manual focus can be a big help when it comes to photographing insects like butterflies. Autofocus will work in many situations but I find it easiest to use…