Qasim’s top four tips for capturing butterflies

1 Know your subject

In any genre of photography, you really need to know at least the basics of the subject you choose to photograph, in order get better shots. This common blue butterfly, for example, opens its wings with the setting sun. Predicting this behaviour, I was already poised with my camera set and steady. Invertebrates are sluggish and slow in the cold, so you can get very close!

2 Travel light

Learn to shoot hand-held stacks early. There is not always a need for heavy gear, tripods and rails; just you and your camera. This image of a female Glanville fritillary was taken midday, when it was most active. It landed for a few seconds, which is more than enough time to fire off a quick stack. If I’d had to set up my tripod, I would’ve missed the opportunity to get the shot.

3 There are no ‘perfect settings’

Camera settings will have to be different for each scenario and composition. As a guide, though, I typically shoot with an aperture of about f/4.5, and aim for a set of 8-10 images. For me, the shutter speed is always at least twice the focal length of the lens (so 105mm means 1/250 sec) and I try to keep the ISO as low as possible within these settings.

4 Specialist software

To get the best out of your focus stacks, export the raw files to specialist software that will do all the hard work for you. Helicon and Zerene are two popular apps, each with free trials. You can, of course, also stack your images via Photoshop: open the shots, then go to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack. This loads all the as layers within a single document, ready to work on.