Photo Short #38 - Is It A Butterfly Or A Moth?

Macro Photograph Of A Small Brown Butterfly, Or Moth.

I found this small brown moth/butterfly sitting on the inside of my kitchen window. It was during the day, and the animal stayed still long enough for me to set my camera on a tripod and take a few pictures. Though I’ve tried to do a little research on the internet, I’m still not sure if this is a moth or a butterfly. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know in the comments.

To take this photo, I used a 50mm lens with a 4x magnifying filter attached to the front. As using this filter creates a shallow depth of field, and because the animal was motionless and I had time to set the camera on a tripod, I set my aperture to f/20 and didn’t worry about the slow shutter speed. This narrow aperture allowed me to get a relatively deep focal plane for a macro shot and make sure all of the animal was in focus. The green background is actually the grass on my lawn, it’s completely blurred out because of the close focus.

Though using these magnifying filters is not ideal, and can create some strange optical problems, I’m relatively pleased with the results. It’s a cheaper option than buying a specialist macro lens if you only want to dabble in macro photography.