Beginners Guide to Photographing Bugs

Spider, beetles and flies, among thousands of other bugs, offer the beginner photographer ample opportunities to polish and hone their macro photograph abilities. I should also mention that these creepy crawlers are everywhere! There's really no day of the year where you can't find an insect to photograph. Trust me, I've taken full advantage of this. I'm no professional photographer, but through my own experiences with insect photography, I've learned quite a few tricks to achieve high quality images. So throughout the context of this article, I'll be explaining my version of the basics to photographing bugs.

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To be quite honest with you, just about any camera these days can be used to photograph insects. The professionals and aspiring photographers will of course use the most expensive setups, but for the rest of us, a simple digital camera can work wonders. Take for example the digital camera I use, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS15. It features a 29mm lens with 5x zoom capabilities and photo qualities up to 12 Mega Pixels. It's a pretty standard small digital camera that I purchased for around $200 a couple years back. All the photos in this article were taken using this camera, so you can be the judge of photo quality. Basically what you'll want in a camera is something with 10+ mega pixels and basic settings such as ISO, Macro-Zoom, and light filters. Most digital cameras sold nowadays contain all these features, so finding a camera should be a breeze.

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The first step of learning how to take good digital pictures of insects is to learn your camera inside and out. Most beginners get snagged up and are unhappy with their insect photographs because they haven't properly learned their camera. Of course settings will vary from one camera to another, but make sure you know how to use the basic settings such as ISO, Macro-Zoom and light filters. Knowing how to use these properly can greatly improve your picture quality. Experimenting is the only true way to learn!

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For the sake of easy explanations, I'm only going to cover general camera settings for when you are taking pictures outdoors. Indoor artificial light can be tricky, and beginners will find that natural light is much easier to work with. Don't worry, you'll be using artificial light in no time, just not today. Here's a couple settings that are crucial to taking quality photos of insects outdoors:

• ISO - I'm not going to cover the technical details of what exactly ISO is because even I don't quite understand all the jargon associated with it. So as a beginner, you should at least know that ISO deals with light sensitivity. For outdoor natural sunlight and even shade, an ISO of 80-100 should be used. If you use an ISO greater than this, you risk grain and noise showing up in your photograph, and you don't want that!
• Macro Zoom - When I'm photographing insects, a majority of the time, I'm using the Macro-zoom option on my camera. This setting is used for focusing the lens on objects that are less than three feet away and is extremely helpful for taking pictures of rather small insects. I've found that the Macro zoom option allows me to get closer to the insect and take a photo with much greater clarity than the standard zoom alone. The macro-zoom feature is usually represented by a camera button with a flower image on it.

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With prior knowledge of your camera and completed experience using its settings, you're now ready to capture your image. Yes, at this point, it's as easy as point and capture. Everyone has their own style of taking pictures, so find what works best for you and use it to your advantage! Beyond your own techniques, try and think about a few of these tips to also increase your insect photography quality:

• Dawn and Dusk - Sunrise and sunset are the best times to take pictures outdoors. The natural light available during these times is prime time for photographers!
• Don't Zoom - Using the Macro zoom is different than using the regular zoom to focus in on an insect. Using the regular zoom will decrease pixel quality and create an image that is not sharp and defined.
• Don't Delete - Many beginner photographers will tend to instantly delete photographs that they perceive as bad. Don't do this! A camera screen is much smaller than a computer screen, so do you really know if it's a bad picture? Plus it's just a good habit to process your photographs separate from taking them.
• Get Close & Have Patience - The best pictures of insects are taken from fairly close up. Unlike animals, insects are generally a whole lot better at letting you get really close to take a shot. They are insects though, so patience must be taken as to not scare the subject away!

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Having barely worked out of the beginner photographer stages myself, I'm going to stop here for now. Who knows, maybe I'll be back to write about advanced techniques one day, but at least you've learned the basics. Thank you for reading my article on photographing bugs. I hope that you've enjoyed the read as well as my pictures! Please feel free to share any comments or suggestions. Have fun out there.