Insect Macro Photography

Introduction to Insect Macro Photography

Insect macro photography is a very challenging endeavor and requires plenty of patience and a bit of specialized equipment. This is much more demanding than still macro photography where the subject is not moving.

First, you’ll need a lens with high enough magnification that the bug isn’t just a speck on the screen.
Second, you’ll need LOTS of light. Either use a lamp, bright sun, or a flash.

You need WAY more light, because the insect will likely be moving and you’ll need a rather fast shutter speed to capture the action and also to avoid blurring from camera shake.

Insect Macro Photography Equipment

Below is what I use for insect macro photography:

• Olympus E-3 DSLR body
• Olympus 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 zoom lense
• Olympus FL-36r remote flash
• Sigma 105mm 1:1 Macro Lens

Choosing a Lens for Insect Macro Photography

Any macro lens capable of 1:1 or even 1:2 reproduction should do from the big brands like Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Pentax. Even third party lenses like Sigma and Tamron are worthy of consideration in the macro lens category.

For insect macro photography, I would not want a macro lens less than 50mm. There’s just simply not enough working distance to not frighten off the bugs. Plus, I don’t REALLY want to be THAT close to a bug either. The Sigma 105mm f2.8 is probably the best bargin out there for a 1:1 macro lens.

Focusing on Insect Macro Photography

Use manual focus only for macro photography as autofocus in almost all cases of macro photography is completely useless.
Set the lens to the magnification that you want and move the camera back and forth until the image is sharp.
Since this is live insect macro photography, you’re probably not using a tripod and the camera is just handheld.

Lighting for Insect Macro Photography

Light is always a problem in macro photography, there’s never enough. Try to point your flash unit down enough to light bugs in front of you or if you’re lucky enough to have a remote flash put it off to the side or above. Take some test shots as always with flash and hopefully things will work out. The sun is always a good source of light, even starting out try going out on a bright sunny day and away from the shade for the best insect macro pictures.

ISO Settings for Insect Macro Photography

Bugs are fast enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to go to ISO 800 on the Olympus E-3. Canon and Nikon users shouldn’t have much problems going to ISO 1600. Although camera are spec’ed to some ridiculous ISO numbers, they look horrible and way too noisy. Use only as a last resort.

Aperature Settings for Insect Macro Photography

You’ll want to get more in focus by using a small aperature like f11 or f16. Most lenses hit their diffraction limit by about f16 and starts to get softer in sharpness as you increase to f22 which defeats the whole purposes of trying to get more in focus. Since you’ll be wanting to use small aperatures, you’ll NEED LIGHT!

Shutter Speed Settings for Insect Macro Photography

You might be able to get away with not using a flash if it’s bright and sunny, but a flash helps makes things A LOT easier. Shutter speed depend a lot on the insects you’re trying to capture, I’d go no slower than 1/250 for the slow moving bugs and about 1/2000 for the crazy fast ones. For the fast bugs you’re going to need more light!

Take the picture! Keep your camera on burst and hope for the best, especially if the bugs you’re trying to photograph are running around like crazy.