| The links that follow are to pages of tropical butterflies. These are some of my favorites and many are among the most spectacular butterflies in the world. The real butterflies are more spectacular than the images can show. The RGB system employed in computers cannot capture the metallic and iridescent colors of some of the species. | ||
| The equipment used for the photographs was simple. The camera was a Nikon Coolpix 5700. It does a good job of getting the entire field in focus when used in macro mode. The camera was mounted on the end of a heavy aluminum rectangular rod which was screwed to a tripod. This allowed the camera to point straight down and away from the tripod. The butterflies were pinned one at a time to the end of a 1/4 inch wooden dowel about 12 inches tall and the dowel was inserted into a block of wood and stuck through a large white board. The camera pointed down at the butterfly so it appeared that the butterfly was suspended in midair above an out-of-focus white background. This provided high contrast between the butterfly and the background so that it was possible to cut and paste the butterfly without loosing any details (like the antennas). Natural diffuse lighting was used. The entire setup was next to a window. White balance was adjusted in Photoshop to make the background neutral. |
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