How To Photograph Bees on a Flower

Okay, so you want to photograph bees on flowers, but you don't know how to do it? Are you afraid you'll have to get close to them and risk being stung? Don't worry, if you're afraid of bees, you don't need to get up close to actually take a picture of them. I will walk you through the steps. (Hmm... where to start off, though, is the question.)

In this post, I will be describing how to do it with the Olympus SP-820UZ, which is my main camera. It has an optical zoom of up to 40 times, a Super-res zoom (Olympus version of a digital zoom that does not decrease picture quality) of 2 times, and a digital zoom of 2 times. This gives a total zoom of 160 times.

First off, you will want to put the camera in Program mode, symbolized on the camera dial by a "P." You may also want to set the JPEG compression ratio in the Menu at High. This ensures it will produce all the colors it can with a high-quality image. Next, set the metering mode to Spot in the menu, and also, since you will be outside in the sun, set the screen brightness all the way up. Make sure "Rec. Image" is on, and then exit the menu. It's been a while since I've photographed bees on flowers, so I cannot remember if I had the Macro on. If I had to guess, I'd say yes. Only put it on Macro, since Super Macro will not let you zoom in.

Next, set the ISO to "Auto," and exposure to 0.0. Feel free to adjust the exposure when you need to, especially with bright flowers (test on a flower with no bee), but make sure the color still comes through, otherwise, you have it too high. If the dirt in the image is either brown or much darker than what you see with your own eyes(depending on the type of soil), put the exposure higher. You typically want to have the image look somewhat between what you see with your own eyes and what would be too dark. An example of a underexposed image is shown below:

Underexposed image.

An overexposed image is also shown below.

Over-exposed image, notice flower at bottom left.

By the way, with the camera, you can be 5 or 10 feet back and still get a good image. Sometimes, though, you may want to use a standard photographic tripod to ensure that you get a steady image.

You will need to know how to point the camera in the right position, and this may take several tries. You will also need to be quick at photographing them, as bees can do do their business very fast.

Hopefully this should give you a good start, so go out there and practice when you can!

Properly exposed image