Butterflies have decreased in number a bit around where we live, but I know a place to go to see many of different varieties. That is at the Chicago Botanic Gardens seasonal Butterflies and Blooms Exhibit. I went there a couple of times this summer and was happy with the ability to walk into an enclosed "jungle" of flowering shrubs and photograph to my hearts content.
One day was sunny which made for some contrasty and distracting leaf backgrounds. I had my nice full frame camera with me on this day, but I had to be very careful and look for a nice even lit background behind my subjects.
The other day was overcast which made for nice even lighting but also a little dull and need of a little more light. I used my cropped sensor camera as it has a small built in flash. So I used the flash set at -2/3 power to give a little fill light and some vibrance to the shots.
The gardens allow you to photograph as much as you want without a tripod and as long as you don't touch the butterflies. Therefore the flash along with the image stabilizing helped me to get a little sharper picture hand holding my camera. This is especially important because a lot of the butterflies are small and you have to get fairly close to get a full frame shot and the depth of field you can get may not be as much as you would like. I also tried to keep the butterfly wings as close to a straight line with the camera for this same reason. Since you are close to the butterflies and the butterflies are close to all the vegetation behind them, it can be a struggle to decide on an f-stop that will be enough to have a sharp butterfly and yet have the background be pleasingly out of focus and not distracting.
I used my 100 mm macro lens and slowly approached the beauties to get some nice close up shots. A slow approach is important because even though the butterflies may sit for a while in a certain area, you don't want them to flit off on you by too fast of an approach.
Happy butterfly hunting!
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