I sat about 2 hours this morning to get some hummer shots and that's the maximum I wanted to stay outside due to the heat. I saw a young hummer,
hoping he would come to the flower but as I expected,this dominant male chased
the younger one away. I didn't get many shots but these are my today's keepers.

Hide

#1

Another great set! The colors certainly sparkles. What's the secret to shooting hummers? Are you sitting there with camera on tripod waiting for these guys to show up and are you using a flash? What's your lens of choice? Thanks.

Hide, you must be down So. Cal. way, or maybe in AZ. That's one gorgeous Costas Hummingbird male that you've captured so beautifully here. Well done!

Excellent job, awesome shots....

More nice stuff from the Hide. Great detail, lovely colors and a wonderful bg. The comps are very nice too ~ Ron

Truly outstanding - some of the best images I've seen on this board!!

Magnificent set Hide, you had a good morning

Tom

#2 Hide rocks! Love the detail on the hummer and the lighting is exquisite. The flowere seems to have a great exposure balance on it where as it appears a bit too bright in the other images. Interesting to see them at a white flower too. Splendid work on all three of the hummers bodies. BG is wonderful, love the variations and coloring in it

Karl

What a way to spend a morning.

These shots are smashing.

Paul.

wing tong wrote:
Another great set! The colors certainly sparkles. What's the secret to shooting hummers? Are you sitting there with camera on tripod waiting for these guys to show up and are you using a flash? What's your lens of choice? Thanks.

The secret to shooting hummers? It's all about the setup. I shoot hummers in a
controlled environment,an outdoor studio setup.

First, you'll need to attract hummers. A feeder is a good start and I use it ,too.
But the feeder has some problems. You'll almost always get a part of the feeder
in the image or the hummer will hang on a perch,stop hovering.
To avoid these problems, I put my feeder on a stand,taping off all the feeder's holes with Scotch Tape. Next, using a clamp and a water pic with a piece of
flower,I position the flower right above the feeder and drop some sugar water on
the flower's petals. This way,not only the hummer won't stay on the feeder but also
it has to hover around the flower to get food. Once the hummer found where the food was,you're 50% done.

If you want to use only natural light, you can do it but make sure you'll get a good light so that you'll be able to use a fast shutter speed,at least 1/800 or faster.
I use 5 flashes and a 300 f/4-AFS+tripod. 2 flashes on both sides of the camera at about 45 degrees,slightly above the flower. The 3rd flash is a belly flash. You put this flash right under your lens,aiming at the hummer. This flash is necessary to eliminate the shadow caused by the two side flashes. The 4th flash is an overhead one and the last one for the BG. And all 5 flashes fire simutaneously and wirelessly.

By taking series of flower test shots,you adjust the exposure by using the camera's histograph. I used f/9,1/250,iso 400.

And then,just wait for the hummers to show up. And lots of patience.

Hide

Edward Rotberg wrote:
Hide, you must be down So. Cal. way, or maybe in AZ. That's one gorgeous Costas Hummingbird male that you've captured so beautifully here. Well done!

Thank you, Edward. I'm glad you like them. I live in So,CA and in my area,Costa's are everywhere.

Hide

z06jim wrote:
Excellent job, awesome shots....

Thanks for looking and your comments.

Hide

surfnron wrote:
More nice stuff from the Hide. Great detail, lovely colors and a wonderful bg. The comps are very nice too ~ Ron

Thank you,Ron. I wanted to stay longer to get more shots but I couldn't due to
the heat.

Hide

CarlG wrote:
Truly outstanding - some of the best images I've seen on this board!!

I appreciate your kind words,Carl. Hummingbird photography is addictive.

Hide

Thomas Sanders wrote:
Magnificent set Hide, you had a good morning

Tom

Thank you,Tom. I had a bottle of water and I drank it all within 2 hours. I didn't feel
any fatigue till I came inside the house. After I ate my lunch,I really really felt tired.
Of course, I'm not as young as I used to be.

Hide
Karl Witt wrote:
#2 Hide rocks! Love the detail on the hummer and the lighting is exquisite. The flowere seems to have a great exposure balance on it where as it appears a bit too bright in the other images. Interesting to see them at a white flower too. Splendid work on all three of the hummers bodies. BG is wonderful, love the variations and coloring in it

Karl

Wow!. thank you,Karl. You know,I'm always amazed by your keen eyes. You pointed out the exact issues I wanted to solve or achieve. This flower has actually faint pink color and becasue of that weak color,it doesn't show much because of the flashes. I paid more attention to the exposure so that the whole image would not look like an abvious flash shot.

Hide

waldr_p wrote:
What a way to spend a morning.

These shots are smashing.

Paul.


I appreciate for looking and your comments,Paul.

Hide

Wow, thanks for your hummer guide, Hide. Very detail and well thought out. Much more involved than I had thought, now I have an even greater appreciation for the shots you hummer shooters post.

gorgeous shots Hide.

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for the description about our setup.
harsha

Hide, thanks for the explanation of your setup.

I see you are shooting with a Nikon setup so are you using 5 Nikon speed lights? If so, are you using them in manual mode or in ETTL mode? I am a Canon shooter so I am not sure of the Nikon terminology equivalent or how you use the Nikon flash system. To be honest, the Canon ETTL flash system is the pits so if I ever did something like this, I would most likely use studio strobes. But then I am limited to the camera's flash sync speed of 1/200 sec - not quite fast enough for freezing these birds in flight.

Just curious.

wing tong wrote:
Wow, thanks for your hummer guide, Hide. Very detail and well thought out. Much more involved than I had thought, now I have an even greater appreciation for the shots you hummer shooters post.

You're welcome,Wing. Since I got my first PS camera 10 years ago,my burning passion has been to get a shot like these. It's been a long and slow learning curve
but I think I'm getting there.

Hide

DarrenMcKenna wrote:
gorgeous shots Hide.

Thank you,Darren.

Hide

Congrats Hide Fantastic images, some of your best.

Tim

harshaj1 wrote:
Beautiful pictures. Thanks for the description about our setup.
harsha

You're welcome,harsha. Hummingbird photography is fun but addictive.

Hide

CarlG wrote:
Hide, thanks for the explanation of your setup.

I see you are shooting with a Nikon setup so are you using 5 Nikon speed lights? If so, are you using them in manual mode or in ETTL mode? I am a Canon shooter so I am not sure of the Nikon terminology equivalent or how you use the Nikon flash system. To be honest, the Canon ETTL flash system is the pits so if I ever did something like this, I would most likely use studio strobes. But then I am limited to the camera's flash sync speed of 1/200 sec - not quite fast enough for freezing these birds in flight.

Just curious.

When it comes to flash system,I like Nikon very much. I don't know about Canon flash system but you can use Nikon's newer models and old flashes together as a wireless system. My only modern flashes are SB800 and SB600. And I picked up 3 SB26s from ebay over the past year or so. You set the SB26s in maual,simultaneous mode,setting the SB800 as a master and the SB600 in wireless mode,you have a Nikon wireless system. Ony the SB800/600 works as i-TTL,meaning that whatever setting you change in the SB800,it will change the setting in the SB600 automatically. Since the SB26 is an old flash,you'll have to change the setting for this flash manually. But it doesn't bother me and you can get this flash at around $100.

The flash sync speed of 1/200 will do though I prefer to use 1/250. The point is that you use the flash duration to freeze the hummer's wing motion.
For example,using a Nikon SB 800 in manual mode,
flash durations are:

M 1/1 : 1/1050 sec.

M 1/2 : 1/1100 sec.

M 1/4 : 1/2700 sec.

M 1/8 : 1/5900 sec.

M 1/16 : 1/10900 sec.

M 1/32 : 1/17800 sec.

M 1.64 : 1/32300 sec.

Now you get the picture?

I used either M 1/16 or 1/32 for these shots.

But there are more to it.

If you use your flash(s) to freeze the motion,then make sure that your flash light is
the main source of light, not the ambient light. This is very important. That's why you want to put the setup in a shaded area.

Hide

Tim Kuhn wrote:
Congrats Hide Fantastic images, some of your best.

Tim

Thank you,Tim. I'm glad you like them.

Hide

Fantastic Hide.

Beautiful images Hide! I always love your pretty backgrounds

Brilliant images Hide, as usual ... amazing detail and color!

Thanks for sharing,
Tom

Stunning set Hide,

Last two are my favorites - just stunning.

Lil

Chad,noelle and Tom,

Thanks for looking and your comments.

Hide