Requesting Input

[Scott Stephen]

You always make thoughtful, useful posts, Bob. Good luck with your new hummingbird thread!
I just set out two nectar feeders tonight (one I just bought today) so I look forward to learning whatever your thread brings to light! I assume you need a TON of bright sunlight so you can use one heck of a fast shutter, but beyond that, I don't know. Being as small as they are, I guess a small (f/2.8) DOF would be fine as long as your little subject is hovering to eat.
This will be interesting.

[bob williams]

I assume you need a TON of bright sunlight so you can use one heck of a fast shutter

Scott, Not really. there are basically two types of hummingbird photography. The first is the "natural look" where some people prefer the look of the blurry wings. In this case, you probably don't need any faster shutter speed than what you would normally use with a bird in flight shot. about 1250-2000. The other type is high detail frozen or near frozen wings. In this case, you freeze motion with flash power and sunlight can actually diminish the quality of your photos.

Her are a couple of examples:

The natural light version:



The flash version

I don't know. Being as small as they are, I guess a small (f/2.8) DOF would be fine as long as your little subject is hovering to eat.

Actually, with moving hummingbirds, you need as much depth of field as possible. You have to remember that since your subjject is so small you are often shooting at or near the minimum focusing distance of your lens. At this distance, your depth of field is also very small, is usually between 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch even at f9 or above depending on your lens and distance. So most usually shoot at higher f-stops to improve in-focus opportunities.

If your interested---I explain much of this in detail in a hummingbird tutorial that is available here: http://rwilliamsimaging.com/photographing-hummingbirds

Good luck,

Bob