Sony Artisan Caroline Jensen loves photographing prairie conservation and pollinator habitat. “I really like photographing flowers and bees and birds and butterflies and all the things that go along with that,” he explains. “Historically, my approach to trying to photograph insects has been to focus part of their body because they move in all different directions and they are small.” Now with the new Sony Alpha 7R V and its AI advances, including the new Insect Eye AutoFocus, Jensen’s approach to focusing on insects has changed. She recently brought a new camera to her butterfly home to test its performance and we hooked up with her to learn more about her experience using it to photograph delicate and beautiful butterflies. Learn more about the new Alpha 7R V here.
Photo by Caroline Jensen. Sony Alpha 7R V. Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G. 1/400-sec., f/4.5, ISO 2000
Sony Artisan Caroline Jensen shares her experience using new camera enhancements, such as Insect Eye AF, to photograph delicate and beautiful butterflies.
A New Approach To Insect Photography
As Jensen mentioned, in the past when he photographed insects his approach was to try to focus any part of them. “Until now, getting something in focus has been my goal,” he says. “There’s very little you can do strategically, photographically, with insects because a lot of them are very hit or miss. Most of the time you shoot blind and just hope the tracking system tracks the bug and you’ll get the guard there.
When he brought the new Alpha 7R V into the butterfly house, he quickly realized that the ‘grip and rip’ method of photographing insects had disappeared. The accuracy of the Insect Eye AF really surprised him. In the past, if there was a butterfly stretched out right in front of it, usually the autofocus would automatically focus on the wings. With the new Alpha 7R V, it actually goes over the wing, over the antenna and down to the eye.
Photo by Caroline Jensen. Sony Alpha 7R V. Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G. 1/400-sec., f/5.6, ISO 3200
Butterfly Portrait With Alpha 7R V
“I had to reassemble and it took a bit of finesse to realize how accurate it was,” says Jensen. “I have to decide compositionally whether I want the eyes to be focused or not. If I want wings I can use point focus, and if I want eyes I can use Insect Eye AF.”
He continued, “When the butterfly wings are aligned with the sensor it becomes very important to have the eyes in focus as it is more of a portrait attitude. This camera really shines in that regard. I have never seen such detailed butterfly eyes in my life. It was a unique experience. The eyes are all very different among the different butterflies. Some are more smooth and marbled, whereas others look very textured and have variations in color. The bug eye autofocus is just amazing and crazy and very hard to wrap my brain around.
Jensen uses lenses such as the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master II, Sony 50mm f/1.2 G Master and Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G paired with the new camera to photograph butterflies. “Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master II is very sharp. It’s more like a work home lens, my bread and butter. I am very impressed with the bokeh in this new version. It’s really pretty and sharp. I also shot some with the Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G but most of my photography was with the Sony 50mm f/1.2 G Master. That lens is my favorite – so sharp and amazing.”
Photo by Caroline Jensen. Sony Alpha 7R V. Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G. 1/250-sec., f/5.6, ISO 640
One photo of the butterfly house in particular stood out to Jensen, and he captured it with his new camera and Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G lens. There was a butterfly on the railing of the bridge over the river and the climate-controlled butterfly house got a lot of people excited. go. The water drops collect on the butterfly, the perfect scene for the advantages of the new camera and classic macro lens. “The details are very interesting to me. To see the world of butterflies on that scale.”
Versatile Game Changer
Overall, Jensen says the Alpha 7R V will be a game changer for people like him who love photographing insects. “You don’t have to rely so much on spraying and praying and hoping to capture that elusive great composition,” he explains. “Insects can be erratic, they can go up, down, sideways, diagonally. They are never predictable as far as their trajectory goes. It’s hard to anticipate a great composition, and in the past you had to keep shooting and hoping the stars aligned.
He continued, “But with Insect Eye Autofocus, it just changes that stress level because you know that when you hit your target, their face will come into focus. It was something so radical and so out of the ordinary for me, that it would really cut down on the amount of extermination someone had to do. You’ll get used to the fact that you can get the face of a bee, bumblebee or dragonfly or something like that in focus. And that’s just revolutionary. It’s surprising that it could become something. Shooting from the hip will be much easier and you will be able to give the insect plenty of room to get a good shot.”
Learn more about the new Alpha 7R V here.
This article originally appeared on the Sony Alpha Universe website on November 3 Click here to view the original article.
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