Setting up a camera for humming birds?

[EricFiskCGD]

I see a lot of awesome photos of hummingbirds and I'm wondering how the members here set their cameras up to take those shots.

We have hummingbird feeders here and I would like to take some shots of my own for my wife. Suggestions?

 

[cid]

I see a lot of awesome photos of hummingbirds and I'm wondering how the members here set their cameras up to take those shots.

We have hummingbird feeders here and I would like to take some shots of my own for my wife. Suggestions?

well, maybe this can help, it's tutorial for 5D mk III written by cervantes (forum member)
forum discussion
direct tutorial link

 

[cid]

I just looked at your signature, your camera probably doesn't have all the settings, but in general

• high ISO setting - if you want to freeze action
• Tv mode
• AI Servo mode - for continous tracking
• fast SD card - for high speed write in "burst mode" shooting[\li]

If you want to add some equipment then some longer ultrasonic focusing lens (faster focussing) and maybe some external flash won't hurt

 

[chauncey]

It's really difficult...plug all the holes in the feeder but one, wait a day for the birds to accustom themselves to one hole> using a tripod with a long lens and a remote shutter, pre-focus near the feeder hole. Now the tough part>grab a cuppa and wait, with the remote in your hand...when a bird comes close to your pre-focus area, fire off a burst. You won't have a high keeper rate but, you will have some killer images...like this

 

[neuroanatomist]

A common setup is 3-4 external flashes with radio triggers. The camera shutter isn't fast enough to freeze wing motion. With Speedlites, flash duration is inversely proportional to power - at high power, a flash is no faster than the shutter, but at minimum power (1/128), the flash duration is shorter than 1/30000 s - and that's fast enough to freeze wing motion. The reason for using multiple flashes is to get enough light at the minimum power settings.

No need to spend in exorbitant amount for the set up, you only need manual flashes and dumb radio triggers. A set of four flashes and triggers can run $200 or less.

 

[Don Haines]

A common setup is 3-4 external flashes with radio triggers. The camera shutter isn't fast enough to freeze wing motion. With Speedlites, flash duration is inversely proportional to power - at high power, a flash is no faster than the shutter, but at minimum power (1/128), the flash duration is shorter than 1/30000 s - and that's fast enough to freeze wing motion. The reason for using multiple flashes is to get enough light at the minimum power settings.

No need to spend in exorbitant amount for the set up, you only need manual flashes and dumb radio triggers. A set of four flashes and triggers can run $200 or less.

I have tried that with a camera, the pop-up flash, and the button-style remote control and it worked reasonably well. I am hoping to repeat it again this summer (if the snow ever melts here) with a decent flash and a wireless tether (yes, I know there is delay, but the buton-style remote I have needs to be in front of the camera).

 

[DRJPWPHOTOGRAPHY]

Here I used five Speedlites set at min power

 

[DRJPWPHOTOGRAPHY]

Here I did not use low enough speedlite settings to freeze wings.
Also should have used lower F stop think this was f4, should have used maybe 5.6 or higher, would have gotten total wing in focus.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

Here I used five Speedlites set at min power

AWESOME!