{"id":1003277,"date":"2011-08-21T16:19:59","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T21:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/?p=1003277"},"modified":"2016-06-11T14:21:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T19:21:37","slug":"insect-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/nature\/bugs\/2011\/08\/21\/insect-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"Insect Settings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The problem with photographing insects in New York is that I get maybe 4 good months, and then it&#8217;s back to birds for 8 months. By the time insect season rolls around again, I&#8217;ve forgotten what I figured out last time. So once and for all, let me write this down.<\/p>\n<p>FYI, these settings are all for relatively stationary insects and a 1:1 100mm macro lens. Butterflies and dragonflies (i.e. large flying insects) with a telephoto lens are something else entirely. <\/p>\n<h3>Daytime, no flash<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/wasp.jpg\" alt=\"wasp collecting pollen\" title=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1003894\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/wasp.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/wasp-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>f\/8, maybe f\/11 for deeper insects<\/li>\n<li>shutter speed 1\/400 s or faster<\/li>\n<li>ISO 400-1600 as necessary to get the shutter speed up.<\/li>\n<li>Check your histogram<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Consider using a tripod, cable release, and\/or reflector. <\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Daytime, fill flash<\/h3>\n<p>Still need to figure this one out, or whether it even makes sense. <\/p>\n<h3>Daytime, full flash<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>f\/11<\/li>\n<li>ISO 100<\/li>\n<li>shutter speed 1\/250 s<\/li>\n<li>Flash exposure compensation -2\/3 to -1<\/li>\n<li>Use an external battery pack<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Common-Eastern-Bumblebee.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Common Eastern Bumblebee\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1003892\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Common-Eastern-Bumblebee.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Common-Eastern-Bumblebee-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The key here is that with those settings, ambient light is nigh on nonexistent. The real shutter speed is the flash duration, which is much less than 1\/250s. However backgrounds will be black. <\/p>\n<h3>Photographing Insects at Night<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/firefly.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/firefly.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1003897\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/firefly.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/firefly-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Set the camera on M. Av and Tv modes don&#8217;t really work with the flash, and work even less when the flash doesn&#8217;t fire.<\/li>\n<li>f\/22 or f\/25<\/li>\n<li>ISO 100<\/li>\n<li>Shutter speed to 1\/250s, maximum sync speed. At that aperture, only the flash matters anyway.<\/li>\n<li>Flash exposure compensation 0<\/li>\n<li>Manual focus, usually set at the minimum focusing distance<\/li>\n<li>Use an external battery pack<\/li>\n<li>Use a small flashlight held below the camera to illuminate the insect for shooting. Put the brightest spot on the insect and look for that in the viewfinder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also had good results with f\/29, ISO 200+, and +1 exposure compensation on the flash. Maybe +2\/3 for white insects like <i>Trichodezia albovittata<\/i>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The problem with photographing insects in New York is that I get maybe 4 good months, and then it&#8217;s back to birds for 8 months. By the time insect season rolls around again, I&#8217;ve forgotten what I figured out last time. So once and for all, let me write this down. FYI, these settings are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bugs","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003277"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005256,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003277\/revisions\/1005256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}