1/250 sec., f8, ISO 200, Nikon D300 with 80-400mm lens at 190mm

First off, the above image still shows wing movement, but I like a bit of blur. But you can stop, or freeze, hummingbird wings.

Hummingbird wings are fast. Really fast, with a wing movement of 90 beats per second or more.  A shutter speed of 1/4000 sec. just about freezes the action, but not quite.  This brings up a lot of problems for the photographer. 

I don’t have much going on today, I still can’t ski or bike (knee surgery), so I’ll use this down time to write a very detailed, and possibly boring, description on hummingbird photography.

My Nikon D300 will shoot at 1/8000 of a second.  That’s fast, probably fast enough to freeze the wings.  However, I want to have a good depth of field, so that the entire bird is in focus.  To do that I need to stop my lens down to at least f/16, if not more, when using a longer focal length (telephoto lens) so as to get in good and close to the action.  Using the basic formula of sunlight shooting would mean I would need an ISO setting of 8000.  Let’s see, my camera will go to an ISO of 6400, but the images are really getting to be bad quality.  So this is not the answer.

The solution then is artificial lighting.  My studio lights are fairly fast; at least I thought they were.  They work really well for portraits, but their flash time is only 1/250 of second.  There are more expensive setups that will flash at 1/4000 of second (like the AlienBees), but how much money do you want to spend to take a hummingbird portrait?

Then how about using a camera flash?  Yes, that will do the trick. But wait; there are more things to consider.

First here are some interesting, well maybe interesting things about flashes.  My studio strobe shoots about 1/250 second and can be adjusted to change their light output.  Dropping the output drops the amount of light fired at 1/250 second.  Just less light, that’s all.  Now, the camera flash, both the internal and the external type, fire for a shorter duration to decrease the amount of light it fires off.  So for example, my SB-800, at full power, has a flash duration of about 1/1050 of a second, and when set at 1/128 power it fires at 1/41,600 second.  Holy crap, 1/41,600 of a second will freeze a hummingbird’s wings for sure.  But wait, there are more problems.

Now I have to cover how the shutter works in a SLR or DSLR camera.  There’s a small screen, or curtain in front of the film or image sensor.  When you press the shutter release, it slides open to expose the sensor (film and sensor – same thing, ok?).  If that same curtain then closed back to where it started it would then expose the sensor more at the start of the opening, than at the end.  I hope you grasp that.  So to fix that, there’s a second curtain, known as the “rear curtain” that follows behind the front curtain, at the specified interval.  So for example, a shutter speed of 1/250 second will have the rear curtain follow the front by 1/250 second.  So what? 

Well, at 1/60 of a second, the front curtain and rear curtain are fully retracted, or out of the way.  The entire sensor is completely exposed for a brief time.  So if the flash fires just as the front curtain is fully out of the way, and before the rear curtain starts its journey, then the entire sensor gets an even exposure of light.

When the shutter speed is set at 1/1000 of a second, the rear curtain will begin its journey way before the front curtain gets to the far end of the sensor.  So if the flash fires at anytime during that 1/1000 second, only a small fraction, or a sliver, of the sensor will get exposed to the flash.

So what’s the maximum shutter speed you can normally use with a flash?  Let’s just say it’s 1/250 on most cameras.  The D300 will shoot at 1/320 second correctly, and even more, but that’s a whole new bunch of camera talk.  Let’s just stick with the 1/250 second.

That means to shoot with a flash you need to have set your shutter down to1/250 second or less.  That won’t freeze the wings, but you still can, if you set it up right.  First, you have to do the easiest thing we all do, screw up the camera settings.  If you set up to shoot the hummingbird in the shade, with a dark background, and set your shutter speed at 1/250 second, your ISO at 200 (or lower if possible), and then set you aperture to f16 or more, you will get a black image when you take the photo.  That’s what you want.  Maybe even shoot at f40 if your lens can do that.  A low ISO and very large DOF (Depth Of Field) is a good thing.

Now if you add in the flash, set at a low level (you should be using manual mode), you can maybe get a good shot of a hummingbird, if one will cooperate.  However, if your flash is set at a low level, there will not be enough light to expose the hummingbird correctly.  To fix that, you should have at least 2, if not 3 flashes being used to illuminate the little bird.  With 2 or 3 flashes, you can get some really nice exposures.  You will have to play around with f-stops, flash placement, and flash power in order to get the results you are looking for.  For my flash, I find 1/16 power is still fast enough.  If you’re really serious you can use beam condensers, like the Better Beamer to put more light on the subject.

So with all this in mind, you need the hummingbird to pose for you.  It would be very difficult to chase the little hummers around with a 3 flash setup and get them in the shade.  So obviously you set up a hummingbird feeder, put the camera on a tripod, setup the flashes, and point everything toward the feeder.  I suggest having only one hole on the feeder, and no perches.  I also like to pre-focus with manual focus, just to save all the camera time I can.

Now you just have to hold still, wait for a hummer to come your way, and press the shutter.  It works well, but now you have an ugly black background behind the bird.

To fix that, you put even another flash behind the bird, and maybe 2.  Wow, that’s $2000 worth of flashes; maybe the AlienBees aren’t so expensive job after all.  Anyway, these other flashes can be used to creatively light the background, plus, with the right f-stop and camera focal length, the background will be out of focus.  If your background has natural light, or the flashes have a flash time longer than your main flashes, you will get light through the wing beats, making them looked blurred.

I hope you have the patience to wait at the camera.  You have to hold really still.  A remote shutter release may work, but not for me.  I have ADD, or maybe even, HADD.  I CAN NOT sit behind my camera very long.  So being the creative type, and having experience in electronics and computer programming, I created a device to help me out.  I wired up an old motion sensor to a microprocessor.  After some modification to the sensor, a bit of programming to the microprocessor, and cutting up a remote cable for my camera, I came up with an automatic trigging device.  When a hummingbird flys in front of the sensor, the camera snaps a picture.  I can set stuff up, go for a bike ride, have a beer, come home and check out the photos.  I get lots of images that way, but only 1 in 50 is any good.  But I like those numbers!

The programming part was important.  I was able to delay between shots and give the flashes time to charge back up.  I could also delay the shot slightly after the motion was first detected, and limit the total number of shots per session.  I tried delaying the shutter for 2 seconds, then have the microprocessor fire off a buzzer mounted over the lens for a half a second, and then take the picture.  The idea was to get the hummingbird to look at the camera.  It worked for about 15 minutes, but then the little guys ignored it.

If you Google “hummingbird photography tips” you’ll get even more hints and tips.

Here’s a little gallery of mine with hummingbird shots…