Butterfly house photography

Photography and Text © 2008 Michael Lustbader

all rights reserved

Butterfly World, established in 1988in Tradewinds Park, CoconutGrove, Florida, was the first“butterfly house” in North America.Since then, there has been aproliferation of similar facilities,where a variety of exotic butterfliesand moths hatch and flourish. Thereare species from Asia, Africa, andSouth America—little flying jewelsthat most of us could not hope tophotograph during the course ofone lifetime, for reasons of bothtime and finances. You would thinkthat, with such controlled subjects,it would be a simple matter toproduce unique and creativeimages. There are, however,challenges to be met if you don’twant your photographs to look justlike everyone else's. These generallyinvolve the following issues:

Small subjectsMoving subjects“Sameness” of butterflies

and plantsDifficult lightingCluttered backgrounds

The Challenge ofButterfly HousePhotography

Above Right: Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsisvulgaris)

Left: Green Jay (Graphium agamemnon)

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Small SubjectsThe challenge of small subject size is met by increasing magnification.Butterflies are fairly large subjects (for a macro photographer), andmagnification from 1/4 to 1/2 life size is usually quite adequate. If youdon’t do this type of photography often enough to justify the purchase ofa $500-$1200 specialty lens, check out the multi-element close-up lenses,such as the Canon 500D or Nikon “T” series. These are accessories that fiton the front of your normal lenses like filters. They are reasonablyinexpensive and any optical distortion is usually seen at the edges of theframe. If you keep your subject fairly centered and stop down at least onestop, you can generally achieve decent results. Avoid the single elementclose-up filters — their optical quality is poor.Extension tubes and bellows units increase magnification by increasingthe distance between the subject and the eye/film/sensor plane. They areless expensive than macro lenses, but involve a “fumble factor”—anaccessory to attach to the camera while the subject flies away. The betterones preserve all the automatic functions of the camera, but your lens canno longer focus at infinity with the extension attached.

Moving subjectsIf you wish to photograph butterflies in flight, go with high-speed flashunits, infrared beam triggers, and lots of patience. Otherwise, your bestbet will be to photograph these lovely creatures as they rest. Butterfliesare cold-blooded—they rely upon the temperature of their surroundingsto maintain their own body temperature. Their level of activity increaseswith the temperature of their surroundings, so be there in the morningwhen they are cool and sluggish.

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The best (and costliest)option remains thededicated macro lens.These lenses are opticallycorrected for close-upimaging and focus from1:1 (life-size) or 1:2 (halflife-size) to infinity. I prefer the 180-200 mmlens because it providesthe same magnificationwith a bit more subject-to-lens distance, a helpfulcharacteristic whenphotographing snakes,bees, and scorpions. Thelonger focal length alsokeeps you out of yourown light as youphotograph smallersubjects, and compressesdepth-of-field, to give youa “softer” background. Formost photographers,however, the 85-105 mmrange macro lens is a goodcompromise, and candouble as a goodlandscape or portrait lens.

Sometimes, breaking the rules enables us to achieve an unexpected result--Here is an effective abstract of a hovering butterfly using a slow shutter speedand fill-flash. We accept the subsequent blur as a part of the composition.

Close-up lens

Extension Tubes

Bellows

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Sameness of butterflies and plants Most butterfly facilities do not maintain their own breeding stock, but relyupon the same group of breeders and importers. Butterfly and plant speciesare relatively similar, therefore, from one facility to the next. (To the pointthat John Kaprielian, nature editor of the stock agency Photo ResearchersInc., pleads, “Please, no more heliconid butterflies on lantana orbougainvillaea”.) Since we have no control over the subject matter to makeour images unique, we must look for behaviors, angles, or poses that areinteresting, different, and/or aesthetically pleasing.

Difficult LightingLighting within butterfly facilities may pose several challenges. It may beuneven or contrasty, actually not much different from lighting in therainforest. The absolute level of light may also be quite low.

Dealing with low light levels:Butterfly houses are established with the general public (not photographers)in mind, and because of space and safety issues, many do not allow tripods.If you wish to come home with exceptional images, be prepared to shoothand-held. This gives you two main options—high ISO or electronic flash.(Use your tripod if you can, but always ask first). Increasing the ISO allowsyou to use a faster shutter speed. Digital imaging has a clear advantage overfilm in this regard–the ability to change ISO in mid-stream to adapt todifferent lighting conditions. Before you begin to gloat, however, be awarethat when you boost the ISO, you also increase the level of “noise” (thedigital equivalent of film grain) especially in areas of shadow. Most moderndigital cameras will provide a “reasonable” noise structure up to ISO 400,with many of the newer ones providing very fine noise structure well abovethat range. You can also decrease noise during post-capture processing.


You can use the unique characteristicsof the butterfly as part of yourcomposition. The glasswing on the leftposed in front of a colorful blossom,drawing attention to the transparencyof its wings.

The “twins” below present a moreinteresting composition than a singleanimal. They only stayed in this posefor a minute, but I walk with myequipment already set for the desiredexposure and magnification. When Ispot a worthy subject, all I have to dois frame, focus, and press the shutter.

Behaviors such as egg-laying, feeding, mating,territorial challenges,hovering, and emergencefrom chrysalids are allgrist for the macro-photographer’s mill. Asyou walk around, youwill also become familiarwith the butterfly’shabits. Some willrepeatedly return to thesame flower, allowingyou to set up and prepareyourself and your camerafor image-making.

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Dealing with contrasty light:If you’ve ever photographed in a rain forest or tropical jungle, you’veexperienced the frustration caused by deep shadows alternating withbright highlights as sunlight filters down through the canopy. Your meterseems schizoid as it bounces back and forth, trying to measure lightintensity that can vary over a ten-stop contrast range in an area measuredby inches. Dealing with this type of lighting may involve the use ofdiffusers, reflectors, flash, and constant awareness. The screen on the backof your digital camera shows a fairly low quality image with a limitedcontrast range (more contrasty than the actual image) and is usually notvery helpful in the evaluation of image quality. However, its low contrastrange exaggerates and actually helps you identify potential problems.

The use of Electronic Flash is somewhat more complicated, and requiressome pre-planning, but is capable of solving many of these low-lightproblems. However, If you think that in the electronic TTL age, flash is ano-brainer, think again. Not all TTL systems can handle the super-shortflash durations required for close-distance photography. The result—grossand unpredictable overexposure. Good flash technique can make animage “pop”. Poor technique can make it look like a grade C monstermovie, with heavy shadows and black legs or antennae disappearing intoblack backgrounds. These effects are caused by light obeying the InverseSquare Law (See sidebar).


This Leopard Lacewing (Cethosiacyane) was photographed inbright contrasty light, which was“softened” with a diffuser.Diffusers are inexpensive andeasy to use. The light passingthrough them is uniformly softand even. I find the 12” to 18”size quite adequate. Just becareful to open the diffuser whenyou are still at a good distancefrom your subject.

Reflectors are a bit trickier touse, as they can overexpose and“burn out” highlights, even asthey direct the light to bring outhidden detail in deep shadows.Use the histogram as your guide.

The Inverse Square Law (liberallyparaphrased) states that the intensityof light decreases in a predictablefashion as it travels from the sourceto the subject and beyond. TheInverse Square Law is thusresponsible for the black backgroundsthat were so prevalent in macro-flashphotography 20 years ago. By thetime the light has traveled two flash-to-subject distances behind thesubject, it has lost about two stops ofintensity. As you may recall fromyour study of the Zone System, twostops below middle tone (your“perfect exposure”) is almost black.Let’s say that your flash-to-subjectdistance is 12 inches. If there is nobackground from which your lightcan reflect, your subject may beperfectly exposed, but everything 24inches or more behind your subjectwill be black. The practical application of this isthat for each flash unit, there is oneparticular aperture (f-stop) that willyield a “perfect” exposure at aspecific subject distance. In the “olddays”, finding that magiccombination was a trial-and-errorprocess. It involved several rolls offilm and several weeks waiting forthe processed slides to return. Today,because of the magic andinstantaneous feedback of digitalcapture, the same testing can beaccomplished painlessly, in minutes.You can do your testing for severalpower levels, allowing you to varythe amount of fill-flash used.You can place something behind thesubject to act as a reflectingbackground or use a second lightsource to illuminate the background.I use a slower shutter speed whichallows natural light to play more of arole in the exposure. Watch out for“ghosting”--a double image causedby both ambient light and flashmaking separate exposures on thesame file.

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Effective Close-up Flash Photography with Manual FlashOne of the older but still reliable techniques involves the use of a low-powered inexpensive manual flash (no automation, no TTL). Once youhave done some initial trial-and-error testing, your results are accurateand predictable, with minimal fussing. The ultimate object is to use theflash to “fill” shadows and to use ambient light to provide the mainexposure (including the backgrounds).

Procedure:First, choose a model that has both texture and color and is about thesame size as the subjects you will be photographing . (I used to use asmall clown doll about 3” tall). Find a manual flash unit that allows youto vary the power setting. (Older Sunpack and Vivitar units are ideal forthis purpose). Then, select an f-stop and take a series of images, varyingthe flash-to-subject distance, or select a flash-to-subject distance and varythe f-stop. When you review your series of images, look for thecombination of f-stop and distance that yields the “perfect” exposure. Youmay need to compensate for subjects that are very light, very dark, orhighly reflective, but you will find that your results are quite consistent.Result—perfectly exposed images using a $30 manual flash unit. Using aSunpack 444 at 1/4 power, f16-f22 would yield a perfect exposurebetween eight and fourteen inches. Your histogram will help you fine-tune the exposures.

TTL flashAll TTL flash units have a minimum working distance. A subject closerthan this minimal distance will usually be quite over-exposed. The work-around for this is to simply handhold the flash or use a bracket that willhold the unit the appropriate distance from the subject so the TTLfunction will function correctly. This minimal distance will be found in theflash instruction book, and is generally about 18-24 inches.Another work-around involves decreasing the intensity of the flash byplacing a diffuser over the flash head. Some manufacturers include one. Ifnot , a piece of white handkerchief and a rubber band works fine. Justmake sure that the material you use is white or your image will have acolor cast. (This doesn’t always work, as the automatic flash may try tocompensate).

When using flash on an adjustable bracket, consider how and where thelight will strike the subject and where the shadows will fall. You can varythe direction of the flash head so the shadows you invariably create atleast appear real. For instance, a butterfly hanging upside down from aleaf will not normally have shadows above it. Aim for believability. Catch-lights in the eyes also should be unobtrusive and believable.


Fill-flash brings out the detail in thispredominantly black Scarlet Mormon(Papilio rumanzovia) withoutburning out the reds. RGBhistograms are very helpful withcolors that may go out of gamut orlose detail even though the B&Whistogram looks fine.

One of the olderbut still reliableflash techniquesinvolves the use oflow-powered,inexpensivemanual flash units

The Wimberley Bracket in action

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Ring FlashThese are lower powered flash units manufactured specifically for closedistance photography. Traditionally, there have been several schools ofthought regarding ring lights:One group feels that straight-on lighting along the lens axis obliteratesshadows. This “flat” lighting eliminates texture and yields an image withdecreased dimensionality and/or detail. A second group feels that thering light is such a large light source compared to the subject size that itacts more like the large body-length light boxes or “soft boxes” thatportrait photographers use, and provides a soft, diffuse light. I suspectthat the truth of the matter lies somewhere in-between. At one time, I wasabsolutely opposed to any bracket that held the flash directly along thelens axis. Now, however there is a new generation of ring flashes thatutilize independent flash heads (or lamps within the ring itself) that canbe adjusted to add directionality to the light. Ultimately, if you can’t seethe difference, you probably shouldn’t worry about it. The bottom line istrial and error, simplified by the immediate feedback provided by yourhistogram. Note that ring lights are low-powered units, and rarely able tofreeze motion. They are not generally useful for flight photography.

BackgroundsMost butterfly facilities are essentially large greenhouses, consisting oftranslucent panels and screens interspersed with beams, railings, andsigns. Trails and paths within wind back and forth, and the colorfulHawaiian shirts of other visitors will find their way into yourphotographs if you are not alert. You must constantly be aware of yoursurroundings and use camera angle and shallow depth-of-field to tonedown background clutter and other distractions.

TECHNIQUE:Butterfly photography involves stalking. Pre-set everything you can. Pre-select your f-stop, shutter speed, flash settings, and ISO, so all you have toworry about is composition, focus, and following the action. Choose anaperture according to the depth-of-field you desire, and use your depth-of-field preview button often! Pre-set the focusing range according todistance and size of image desired, and adjust shutter speed for correctambient (natural) light exposure. Aim for an accurate available lightexposure by ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop. Begin to photograph whenyou’re further away than you would ideally like to be, gradually drawingcloser, avoiding abrupt, jerky movements. Within limits, you can alwayscrop down to make your subject larger in the final image.


A soft muted background picking upthe colors of the foreground flowers.The butterfly is a Golden Helicon(Heliconius hecale).

The plastic walls of the greenhousebecome part of the composition,accentuating the delicacy of theCitrus Swallowtails (Papiliodemodocus).

Nikon R1C1 Ringlight

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Your technique will vary according to the desired result—textbooks orguidebooks usually require tack-sharp f22 images with huge depth-of-field. On the other hand, I use a shallower depth-of-field for more “artsy”images, where the gestalt (general feeling) is more important to me thanthe absolute detail. One approach is not necessarily better than theother—a different purpose calls for a different aesthetic.


Euiedes isabella, a South American butterfly, poses on a palmfrond. The solitary butterfly makes a nice counterpoint to therepeating rhythm of the fronds, even as the wing bars seem torepeat the pattern.

Cruiser (Vindula dejone),a native of SE Asia. Byholding the camera planeparallel to the subjectplane, you can use ashallow depth-of-field andkeep your subject sharpwhile maintaining a soft,out-of-focus background.

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The kite butterfly (Idea leuconoe), alsoknown as paper kite, tree nymph,Japanese kite butterfly, is a native ofSE Asia.

Vignetting is an effective techniquewhich focuses attention on thesubject by photographing it“through” its foreground. Useyour depth-of-field preview buttonto confirm that the foregroundremains out-of-focus. If there is noforeground, but you feel as thoughthe subject might benefit from thistechnique, you can sometimescreate a foreground by holdingleaves, grass, or flowers in front ofthe lens. Make sure that yourchosen materials are out-of-focusby holding them close to the lens.Choose a color that does not“fight” with the subject. In thisphotograph, the vignette isprovided by the lower pinkblossom. The upper one is in thebackground, but has the samedegree of softness as the lowerone. The two together frame thebutterfly effectively.

This Archduke (Lexias dirtea) isvisually isolated by the vignettingtechnique. If the viewer feels like avoyeur, you’ve succeeded!


A native of Central and South America, the Blue Morpho butterfly(Morpho peleides) is most often seen as a flash of electric blue,flitting through the undergrowth of deep jungle. When alarmed, itfolds its wings and seems to disappear, as its brown underwingsblend perfectly into the dappled light of the forest. This behaviorconfuses birds which are zoned into the bright blue.


You can also be on the look-out for interesting posesor behaviors, such as head-and-shoulders portraits,egg-laying, caterpillars, and mating.

Butterfly house photography

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