wildeyephotography

[wildeyephotography]

How to photograph Dragonflies in flight

It's pretty obvious to anyone who observes dragonflies that they spend the majority of their time in flight and they're extremely quick and agile. Their acceleration is astonishing - one moment they are perched on a reed, the next they're 30 feet up in the air catching a fly or seeing off another dragonfly.

So, how on earth do you get in flight images? Let me take you through some key pointers.

1. Gear & Settings

Using the right lens is critical, as are the settings. I'd say that a 300mm lens is about ideal but other focal lengths will work. Between 200-400mm is probably best so you can capture images from a few feet to a few metres in front of you. A lens that has a fairly close minimum focus is quite important as some species will come quite close.

Once you have the right selected on the camera, there are some key settings to consider:

Manual Focus - Dragonflies are small and very fast and no matter how good your camera's auto-focus, it won't be able to locate & track your subject very well, if at all. Manual focusing is the best way to go (see below).

Shutter Speed - This depends on what you're trying to achieve with your images. You want to freeze all motion, including the wings. In that case, you'll want a shutter speed of around 1/2000 of a second but that'll depend on your subject. Personally, I like to have some motion in the wings but everything else frozen. For this, I use between 1/800 & 1/1000 typically, again dependant on the species and conditions (if it's really bright usually 1/1000).

Aperture - This depends on a number of factors including what sort of image I want, light conditions, background and angle of the subject. I use anything from f4 through to f11 typically. F4 will usually only mean part of the subject is sharp but provides the best way to get a clean background, whereas a higher number will give you a better chance of getting more of the subject sharp, but could mean the background is not so clean. Higher f numbers could also mean you have to choose lower shutter speeds to let enough light onto the sensor for a good exposure. It's all a balancing act which usually requires some trial & error on the day.

ISO - It pays well to try and keep the ISO fairly low, say maximum 400. This isn't usually an issue as it's very likely to be bright & sunny. I have been frustrated at times when using Auto-ISO, photographing a subject against a dark background as the camera will bump the ISO up and images get very noisy.

2. Observe your subject

One of the greatest things about dragonflies from a photographers perspective is that they are not that bothered by humans, especially when in flight. Each species has its own general characteristics, that can be picked up after a short time observing them. The males of the Hawker species for example usually patrol a patch using the pretty much the same flight path, time & again, often hovering as they reach one end of it before turning to go back to the other end. Chasers are much more erratic flyers, spending most of their time chasing others either for territorial or breeding purposes. They are very quick and quite small and photographing them in flight it extremely challenging (to date I have not had any success).

Emperor's are similar to Hawkers and as they're typically larger, are perhaps the easiest to photograph in flight.

Emerald's like to follow fairly set flight paths, albeit usually quite close to the water's surface and their fairly small size makes it pretty tricky.

To date, I've not yet attempted to photograph Darters and Skimmers in flight due to their small size and erratic flight.

Take the time to observe your subject. Is it following a fairly set flight path? Where is it hovering? Where's the best place for you to sit or stand to give yourself the best chance of capturing good images of it?

3. Get in position

Once you've observed your subject, you can choose the best place to stand, crouch or sit. As well as deciding based on where you think the dragonfly is going to pass/pause etc. You also should consider the position of the sun - ensure you're not facing it and if possible you should try and keep it at your back. There will be times when having the sun to your side or even to your front works fine and produces some nice images but for the best chances of a well lit, sharp image, keep it behind you.

Try and get level with your subject so the image produces a feeling of connection with the subject. That can often mean crouching or perhaps getting into the water if you're working with a low-flyer.

Once in position, give it some time. As with most wildlife, if your presence has spooked your subject, it probably won't be long before it returns.

4. Manual Focus

If you're new to this, as most of us, given how reliant we are on auto-focus, it does take some patience (and a lot of deleted images!) before you get fairly consistent.

If you've observed your subject and selected your position based on where you think the dragonfly will be when you photograph it, then you can focus at roughly that point using some nearby vegetation for example. It's then a case of waiting for the dragonfly, getting it in the viewfinder, make adjustments using the focus ring and taking some shots when you see the dragonfly is sharp.

I have found it challenging to learn that it takes only very small movements of the focusing ring, often overcompensating and missing the shot.

I have tried setting the focus at a specific distance and leaving it there, on the proviso that the dragonfly will fly through that point and so providing I take a shot at that exact moment, it should be in focus. This, however, is not the best advice as it usually means dozens of unusable images and rarely a usable one.

It really is down to practice and suddenly you'll find you're seeing the subject sharp in the viewfinder a lot more often.

Getting sharp images using manual focusing is very satisfying in my opinion but learning this technique is frustrating at times and certainly bumps your camera's shutter count up!

5. Post-processing

Once you have a bunch of images saved on your camera's memory card, you can start to go through them and select the ones you want to digitally process. I use Adobe Lightroom (which is pretty much the standard) and work with RAW images.

In terms of which images to work with, as a rule of thumb, I make sure that first & foremost the eyes/face of the dragonfly are in focus and sharp. After that, it's all down to personal taste and what you have to work with. I usually consider composition, exposure, contrast and noise as well as making sure the colours in the image look as natural as possible.