Capturing Hummers

**ddt0725** · 08-23-2010, 12:17 AM

Bob, First off I would like to thank you for posting this thread. I have been stalking my 3 hb feeders but have yet to see one although my daughter has seen them a number of times ...she's home more often then I am. Next year, I'm going to double the amount of feeders I have! Second,nice captures on all your photos ...I really like your last photo alot, what kind of flower is that? Your noise level is pretty high though, did you try any noise reduction in DPP?

Tom - ALL your photos are really nice. I especially like the second one ...fantastic capture!

Question for both of you - What time of day do you mostly see your hummingbirds? Also, I live in SE Wisconsin and I am wondering when the hummingbirds will fly south ...where do you live and for how much longer do you think you will still see them or do you live where they are seen year 'round?

Denise

**Tom Wertman** · 08-23-2010, 12:37 AM

Originally Posted by ddt0725

Tom - ALL your photos are really nice. I especially like the second one ...fantastic capture!

Question for both of you - What time of day do you mostly see your hummingbirds? Also, I live in SE Wisconsin and I am wondering when the hummingbirds will fly south ...where do you live and for how much longer do you think you will still see them or do you live where they are seen year 'round?

Denise
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Denise,

Thank you. I see our little guys in the morning and evening the most. They do show up mid-day but it is mostly to guard their feeder. They are very territorial and one tries to be dominant. Some times when they fight they put on a really good show. I live in the Northeast. The only Hummingbird east of the Mississippi is the Ruby Throated. All others are found west with the greatest variety in the southwest. They will be heading to Costa Rica in the next few weeks as temperatures drop and won't return until May. One thing I did not mention about my method for capturing these shots is the yield is low. I may shoot 100 pics and have 10 keepers. But that's OK since it's digital. It's all about timing and watching how they move in and out to feed while constantly on the lookout for predators. Or a dominant hummer as the case may be. Good luck in your shooting.

Tom

**Kayaker72** · 08-23-2010, 01:20 AM

First of all, both of your pictures are excellent and much sharper than these. But I was out in my lawn testing my old 75-300 USM III trying to decide if I could use it with my new 7D. Basically, I know it isn't "L," but considering Bryan calls it "mediocre" several times in his review,how bad is it? Anyway, this guy flew by and I snapped these pictures. Hand held, manual focus (because the focus does hunt).

[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.46.64/Humming-1.jpg[/img][img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.46.64/Humming-2.jpg[/img][img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.46.64/Humming-3.jpg[/img]

**Joel Eade** · 08-23-2010, 01:35 AM

Very nice work, capturing those little guys in natural light.

I tend to like both types of hummingbird shots, the "frozen" multi-flash ones and the natural ones. The challenge with ambient light alone is to get enough light for a good exposure to review good feather detail on the head and body. These I took with a combination of ambient light and fill flash. I don't like the head angle on the first one but it demonstrates the technique.

EOS 1D MKIII + 300mm 2.8L

1/160

f/8

iso 125

[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.32.28/343V9865.jpg[/img][img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.32.28/343V9895.jpg[/img]

**bob williams** · 08-23-2010, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by Joel Eade

Very nice work, capturing those little guys in natural light.

I tend to like both types of hummingbird shots, the "frozen" multi-flash ones and the natural ones. The challenge with ambient light alone is to get enough light for a good exposure to review good feather detail on the head and body. These I took with a combination of ambient light and fill flash. I don't like the head angle on the first one but it demonstrates the technique.

Joel, Very Nice Work, ---I really like these shots.

**bob williams** · 08-23-2010, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by ddt0725

Bob, First off I would like to thank you for posting this thread. I have been stalking my 3 hb feeders but have yet to see one although my daughter has seen them a number of times ...she's home more often then I am. Next year, I'm going to double the amount of feeders I have! Second,nice captures on all your photos ...I really like your last photo alot, what kind of flower is that? Your noise level is pretty high though, did you try any noise reduction in DPP?

Denise, Thanks and your welcome. Regarding the bird feeders: I only have one bird feeder which sits under the overhang of my back porch. Here in New Mexico, we typically start start seeing birds in April and they migrate in late September or October. With only one feeder, I still have more than 10 birds that hit the feeder regulalry throughout the day but most frequently in early morning and just before sunset.

The flower is off of a Mimosa Tree--I just picked one and stuck it in the bird feeder. As far as the noise---You are absolutely correct, This doesn't come from the high ISO, but from pushing the exposure and over sharpening in post processing, sometimes a lot. I find the high ISO (1600)worksfine with virtually no noiseif your exposure is correct.

Bob

**peety3** · 08-23-2010, 12:20 AM

Art Morris at Birds As Art has often tried to sell a guide to shooting hummingbirds, and I think it often involves using multiple (i.e. 5-6) remote speedlites in HSS to get the shot. I think the ghosting comes down to time, and you're chasing a tough animal since the 7D doesn't seem to support HSS direct or remote.

Approach #1: stay at/above sync speed, get the ambient dark, and let the flash's short duration help freeze the motion. Try dropping to ISO 200 (three stops up), keeping the aperture and shutter the same. Your background will go dark, so your subject will be lit by the flash. If your subject goes dark, it means your flash is at too low of a power and you'll need to walk that up. The one glitch is that flash duration is normally shortest at lowest power, as is flash recharge, but you need the flash to get the stop-action effect you want so I don't think there's much alternative.

Approach #2: shoot when ambient is inherently darker, either earlier in the morning or later in the evening, and/or by bringing your own shade. Use that to be able to get an ambient exposure that's still heavily underexposed while keeping the ISO low and the aperture wider than f/22. That'll help you get more out of your flash at low power settings, keeping the duration short as well as the recharge.

**highmigh** · 08-30-2010, 11:25 AM

I also loved this game with floating hummers and it was like capture
the flag. I don't remember the name of it but it came on a CD with the
OS.
Bactium

Alan · 09-01-2010, 02:44 AM

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I've finally gotten some hummers to show up at a feeder. For my
technique, I set up the feeder about 4 feet from a window pane (thoroughly
cleaned on both sides). I line the feeder perch parallel to the window
pane. Then, with a 7D and 100-400 L, I sit about 4 feet away from the
window (inside the house) and hand hold the camera/lens, and track it with the
AF (spot or a bit more, on occasion).

The perch has two landing spots. The left works best for morning
shots, and the right side, for later morning, or early afternoon. Enough
light lands on the bird, usually, in the morning. The sun is slowly
getting lower in the sky, so the afternoon shots are less and less, for the
proper lighting.

I set the 7D at 400 mm, and lock the lens ring tight. I put the camera
into Av mode, and set the exposure compensation to +2/3. At f/5.6, the
shutter speed varies from 1/250 to upwards of 1/1250, or more, depending on the
sunlight landing on the bird. ISO no higher than 200.

I sit in a position that is comfortable, then hold the lens and prop my arm
on my knee. It's heavy, but I'm able to hold the camera/lens
steady. I pre-focus on the feeder, then wait patiently with the lens
pointed near the perch. It's usually about 10 minutes between visits.
I've tried the tripod method, but invariably have had difficulty getting a bird
in focus, due to the narrow DOF. Hand holding it works much better for
me.

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"]Here's an example:

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**bob williams** · 09-02-2010, 01:12 AM

Originally Posted by Alan

I've finally gotten some hummers to show up at a feeder. For my technique, I set up the feeder about 4 feet from a window pane (thoroughly cleaned on both sides). I line the feeder perch parallel to the window pane. Then, with a 7D and 100-400 L, I sit about 4 feet away from the window (inside the house) and hand hold the camera/lens, and track it with the AF (spot or a bit more, on occasion).

Nice shot Alan. I personally dont have the patience or arms to hold the camera for that long. Sometimes it may take me two or three hours just to get a few shots. So great job taking these handheld.

I am curious about your background. Is it just open space, or did you use something?

Bob

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