Capturing Hummers

[Bill W]

Tom....adding some lighting to my HB garden will enable me to keep the ISO down (I don't like going higher than 800) and the shutter speeds above 1/100th. And, hopefuly,allow me to shoot after 3pm when there is a nice mottled golden light in the garden, but not strong enough for the HBs.


My technique for capture is nearly spot on to your style.


Now that fall is approaching quickly my feeding stations, in the garden, are shaded by 1015a....yes, I could move them, but the garden is fully shaded by 1030a.


Bob....I like your background, very natural and nicelyOOF'ed, especiallyfor the 100-400. IMO, I wouldn't purchase a fake background, just pay attention to your positioning, i.e. shooting distance to subject and subject distance to background.


Here's a shot I took this morning at about 715a....there was a stream of light hitting the HB, but nowhere else.


7D, 100-400 at 400, f8, 1/400, ISO 250, tripod, cropped and enlarged to 66%.





C&C welcome


Regards


Bill

[Tom Wertman]

I like it. Very nicely done.

[Sheiky]

Wow Bob, you really improved your shots by a huge leap!!! Very nice second set!

1. The noise, I adjusted exposure so that I didn't have to push in post. I also dropped my ISO by half

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Much better!! I personally am not bothered anymore. Although if you really want to, you could do some noise reduction on the background only. I guess if the background was more variable the noise wouldn't be really noticeable anymore.

2. This is a taste thing, But the wing blur is about like I want it. It shows some detail, but also shows some movement without the ghosting (Shutter speed 2000)------ 4000+ does a pretty good job atfreezing thewings.

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I like it. It seems like a good shutterspeed to me. I personally wouldn't mind an even lower shutterspeed for some of the shots. Especially the last shot. But overall, I like the amount of wingmovement.

On this set, I was still trying to light up the iridescent feathers so I used a 400 watt halogen shop light at about a 30 degree angle from the bird and 2 feet away (Surprisingly, this didn't seem to bother them)---And my on camera speed light set at 1/8th. Unfortunately, the heavily colored birds weren't interested in modeling for me---They were more interested in defending the feeder than eating from it.

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I don't know what they should look like, but you managed to show some very nice colors. I like the colors on the last one.

I was just trying to get some of the technique down.

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Nice job for some practice-shots [Y]
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[bob williams]

Bob....I like your background, very natural and nicelyOOF'ed, especiallyfor the 100-400. IMO, I wouldn't purchase a fake background, just pay attention to your positioning, i.e. shooting distance to subject and subject distance to background.

Bill, I wasn't really planning on buying a factory background, just some hanging or potted plants and a board or two to position them somewhere purposeful. Of course the wife also likes hanging baskets which makes this dual purpose.


Alo, I really like the color you were able to bring out on this guy.





Bob

[bob williams]

Back at it again today. Added some colored back ground, blurred the wings a little more, but still had some problems with shadows on the back ground, My utility light helped that a bit. Also, I bought a couple of pocket wizards, a stand and umbrella, and I am considering and inexpensive flash, something like the vivatar 258, just to help light the background a little better. Maybe next weekend I can put those to work. Anyway, here are the results of today's adventure.





Well, It seems like the insert media tab has stopped working for me. So here are the links for the rest---Sorry, I couldn't get them on the page.


http://rwilliamsimaging.com/img/s8/v11/p416744069-4.jpg


http://rwilliamsimaging.com/img/s8/v9/p139913931-4.jpg


http://rwilliamsimaging.com/img/s5/v4/p1065667702-4.jpg


http://rwilliamsimaging.com/img/s8/v11/p837120909-4.jpg


http://rwilliamsimaging.com/img/s10/v16/p588893943-4.jpg


http://rwilliamsimaging.com/img/s9/v13/p579028630-4.jpg


Comments are welcome, Thanks


Bob

[Tom Wertman]

Very nice. I like the single catch light in the sharp eye, the beak is crisp right down to the nectar and slight tongue protruding out and you show more colors on the Hummer too. But I'm not too fond of the background. A little too busy for my taste and the color purple I find distracting. I guess I'm a fan of the buttery bokeh of trees off in the distance. Maybe moving the plant farther away might help. But I know there is a limit to that unless it is a very large hanging basket. But that is just my personal taste. Your shots have improved orders of magnitude in a very short time.


Tom

[bob williams]

<span class="613451419-29082010"]<span style="font-family: Arial; color: #0000ff; font-size: x-small;"]Thanks Tom, I do agree about the colors. I have another plant that I plan to use this afternoon---the flowers are smaller and not as bold. Well, see what that effort brings.


<span class="613451419-29082010"]<span style="font-family: Arial; color: #0000ff; font-size: x-small;"]Bob


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<span class="613451419-29082010"]<span style="font-family: Arial; color: #0000ff; font-size: x-small;"]

[Richard Lane]

Bob,


I absolutely love this shot. It's one of the best I've seen. I love the purple colored flowers in the background. I agree with trying a smaller flower though. I also agree with trying to have the plant further away if possible in order to blur the background just a little bit more.


Is it possible for you to post a wide shot, so I could check out the full setup that you've got going on in your background, including the placement of the lights and/or flash? Thanks!


Really Great Job!





Rich

[bob williams]

Thanks Richard. Sure I'll post a picture of my setup, but only if you don't laugh. When you you are working on a budget, there is a lot of backyard engineering involved[:$].


Bob

[Shea Design]

This one is particularly interesting, awesome background on all: