# More Hummers



## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

I finally got my lighting the way I want it and the birds didn't seem to mind it. Now I have to try getting them at a real flower instead of a feeder.


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## Gator_Nutz (Sep 27, 2006)

Absolutely outstanding Brett. What lens???


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Gator_Nutz said:


> Absolutely outstanding Brett. What lens???


I shot these with my 600/4 + 1.4x on my D3. I used (2)SB-600, (2)SB-800 and an SB-900 to freeze the wings. The speedlights were fired by an SU-800. Here's the lighting setup:


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## Harley (Jul 5, 2007)

That is amazing. You have definitely gone out of your way to get the light right.
Those hummers thought they were on TV!
I have not got the hordes of hummers in yet. Shouldn't be long. Every year we get an off the wall bird like a Rufous or Buff-Bellied. We've tried to get pictures but now I see why they don't turn out well.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

It has taken me a few tries to get the lights just right. In order to freeze the wings, you need multiple strobes all set to a pretty low power. This provides a very fast flash duration, which is just about the only way to completely stop the wings for the camera. The lights also help bring out the color of the birds as well. Here's the camera:


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## my3peas (Jan 9, 2007)

WOW! These are absolutely stunning!


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## MT Stringer (May 21, 2004)

I agree with the others. Great shots. Looks like all your hard work has paid off.
Mike


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

I've stopped my string of profanity now. You win...I'll never post another hummer shot. 

After I go buy ten flashes :headknock I still don't know that I could do what you did w/o the SU-800. Can't you elaborate a little more on how the flashes were programmed? Could you have acheivedthe same results using them as slaves? Can the SB-800 be used as an SU-800?

Sorry for the mind pick. Artificial lighting has always been on the back burner for me...until now


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

RustyBrown said:


> I've stopped my string of profanity now. You win...I'll never post another hummer shot.
> 
> After I go buy ten flashes :headknock I still don't know that I could do what you did w/o the SU-800. Can't you elaborate a little more on how the flashes were programmed? Could you have acheivedthe same results using them as slaves? Can the SB-800 be used as an SU-800?
> 
> Sorry for the mind pick. Artificial lighting has always been on the back burner for me...until now


Where should I start...

First, you don't need the SU-800 unless you are wanting to do wireless TTL which I'm not doing. Everything is set to manual and the flashes are all dialed down to 1/16 power. Nothing magic about that number, it's just where my exposure worked out. That being said, you can go buy a bunch of cheap/old strobes and fire them via PC Sync cable. There's a lot of good info on the strobist site and here http://www.dyesscreek.com/miscellaneous_pages/hummingbird_photography.html.
and here http://www.rpphoto.com/howto/hummer/humguide1.asp. 1/16 is the highest power I will set my strobes to fire at. Anything above this seems to cause ghosting in the wings. It's nice to keep them dialed down pretty low because the will recycle faster.

The reason I used the SU-800 was simply because I already had it. You can set an SB-800 or SB-900 to commander mode and use it to remotely fire any Nikon CLS compatible flashes, but that means one of your lights is directly on top of your camera (if you want to use it for a flash in addition to being the commander).

I have found that flash doesn't scare the birds away, but the pre-flash from TTL makes them jump enough that they go out of the frame or move out of your focal plane. That's why I have set everything up to fire in manual mode.

I've still got a long way to go. I need to tackle backgrounds and real flowers in the next round. It has taken me too long to figure out the lighting. Arlon can probably provide some good reccomendations on some older strobes and how to sync them up. That's really all you need for this stuff.


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## grayfish (Jul 31, 2005)

Fantastic images Brett. Words escape me right now.


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## Koru (Sep 25, 2006)

wow your hard work and meticulous tenacity with the lighting sure has paid dividends. stunning images Brett. congratulations.

rosesm


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## yep (Jul 25, 2006)

wow, those are awesome, great pictures


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

Outstanding Brett, Geez you have enought light to light a stadium....Thanks for the instructions.....


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## Gator_Nutz (Sep 27, 2006)

Well gee. Now the only thing stopping me is a $10,000 lens. Heck fire. 
So just use photoshop and replace the feeder flower with a real flower. Again...superb and most excellent shots Brett.


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## Slip (Jul 25, 2006)

They all look great, but that third one to me is stunning, as well as your setup. From the looks at those, I think I will give up on taking a Hummer pic. I thought I was doing a lot to use my tripod and Speedlite. I bow to the master.


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## sandybottom (Jun 1, 2005)

Love your setup. That's a lot of money right there! I was out last night using my tripod and trying different exposures on whatever was in front of me. All I need is some light and some better lens. I can learn a lot from you guys. Thanks for the info.
Maybe you can tie on some flowers to the feeder to get that flower shot. Just something to throw at you.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

I'll set up some flowers next time and use the old medicine dropper trick to put some nectar in them. If needed, I'll take the feeders down so that I can force them to the flower. These guys are a lot of fun and have been a pretty good challenge for me. I think the hardest part is focusing on them. Hopefully the storm doesn't blow them all out of here.


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

fishphoto said:


> These guys are a lot of fun and have been a pretty good challenge for me. I think the hardest part is focusing on them. .


Your not kidding, Ive had a great time with the little birds. Focus is a BIG challenge for me also, they can move fast....


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

I would like to set a camera with a really wide angle lens up close on a tripod and fire it remotely. I think that would provide a neat perspective on the birds.


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## fishingnotcatching (May 30, 2007)

Gator_Nutz said:


> Well gee. Now the only thing stopping me is a $10,000 lens. Heck fire.
> So just use photoshop and replace the feeder flower with a real flower. Again...superb and most excellent shots Brett.


You could do it with a reaaalllyyy long shutter cable and a tripod, cheap prime lens, and few cheap flashes w/ synch cords.

Notice I said YOU could do it, I'm quite certain I could not..



#3's great. Looks like an insert in texas highways.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Gator_Nutz said:


> Well gee. Now the only thing stopping me is a $10,000 lens. Heck fire.
> So just use photoshop and replace the feeder flower with a real flower. Again...superb and most excellent shots Brett.


You don't actually need a big fast lens for these. If you sit still, they will let you get pretty close to them. Just look at yep's post. Also, I'm shooting at f10 for DOF so a fast aperture isn't a must have either. I just have a huge gap between 200mm and 600mm and chose to use the longer of the two. A lot of people shoot hummers with 300mm lenses.


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

The last hummer I posted was shot with my 70-200 2.8 on a tripod with a phottix remote trigger. I just am not sure of the focusing part. I focused on the feeder in hopes one would come out good. 
I tried the above setup and also set my flash on a seperate tripod and triggered that with the skyports using a remote trigger on the camera but they didnt come out so good. I have been wanting to try again but just havent had the chance. My biggest problem is shutter speed and flash sync. I can only go to 1/200 on the sync and that isnt enought to freeze the wings, so static shots are all I can hope for so far.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Actually, sync speed isn't your problem (my camera's top sync speed is 1/250). I shot these at 1/100. The secret is to freeze the winds with the light, rather than shutter speed. It doesn't matter how long your shutter speed is because your flash duration is 1/10,000 of a second or less. That is what actually freezes the wings. In order to get such a fast duration, you need multiple lights powered waaay down. You also need to be doing this in the shade so that there isn't enough ambient light to expose the image when your flashes aren't firing. That's what causes ghosting. Check out those two links I posted for Rusty last night. They do a much better job of explaining this stuff than I do.


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## fishingnotcatching (May 30, 2007)

stargazer said:


> My biggest problem is shutter speed and flash sync. I can only go to 1/200 on the sync and that isnt enought to freeze the wings, so static shots are all I can hope for so far.


That's why he turned his flashes down to 1/16th to avoid wing ghosting. Flashes regulate power by reducing the time they are on. So if at full power a flash is "on" for 1/100th of a second, it's only on for 1/200th at half power, 1/400th at quarter, and in this case 1/1600th at 1/16th power, Stop down enough to keep most (or all) natural light from exposing the frame, and all you get is light from the flash to expose the birdy, and only for 1/1600 of a second, so even though his shutter speed was 1/100, which is not fast enough to capture the wings,, the lights were only on for 1/1000th or so, freezing the scene.

"full power" at 1/100th is an estimate and changes by flash model, but you get the idea. At flash intensities of 1/128 or so you can freeze VERY fast motion, like the string on a weedeater going full throttle

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii261/mrexplodo/weedeater.jpg

Near as I can figure, the string is traveling about 600 Mph, and the camera is 4 feet away. My shutter speed was 1/250, so it was the flash that froze the motion, not the shutter. Note that this pic was taken in full sun, at F22 or so, but looks like night, because the only light that made it into the exposure was from the strobe.

Ah, fish photo you beat me to it.


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

AHHA! I see what you are saying....Kinda like the old strobe lights from years back.....Ive been approching it all wrong....Thanks guys for the info....Ill give it a shot next time, I was wondering how in the heck to get the shutter speed up....but nothing I tried worked...I figured I just didnt have the capability to do it....

Thanks


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Yeah, it's totally opposite of what you think you should do. This is my first year to shoot hummers so all of this is new to me also. I was thinking speed speed speed, when all you really have to do is provide some light.


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## hooter (Aug 12, 2005)

now you don't have to go to BBSP to shoot. saves enough money in gas to afford 37 flashes and a $10000 lens....

hOOter


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

I am getting a bit spoiled by shooting in my back yard. It's too hot for BBSP right now anyway.


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## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

fishphoto said:


> Where should I start...
> 
> That being said, you can go buy a bunch of cheap/old strobes and fire them via PC Sync cable.


Those are really nice shots (better than anything I've ever pulled off) but you don't have to spend $20k to get a useable hummer shot. Patience and setting up a stage is probably more valuable than equipment here. I use a feeder with 4 openings, I just duct tape off three of them so they are forced to go pretty much where I want them to. It's nice if you have the stuff but don't feel like you can't have some fun with hummers if you don't..

Personally instead of sync cables, I like to use the little $12 IR slave triggers I get off ebay or even the $15 110v flashes that are IR triggered. They work pretty well.

Maybe not perfect but here's a shot from my D50 with a $25 manual focus vivitar "close focus" zoom lens, $12 IR slave and a $25 used nikon sb-20 flash. Shot *through* my bedroom window with onboard flash to trigger the remote that was hanging from the roof via a coat hanger wire and a little duct tape.

Brett, I'd normally NEVER post a picture on someone elses thread but I don't want anyone to be discouraged to the point that they don't at least try a hummer shot with lesser gear. Hope you don't get mad at me..

Click image for the larger version (note the two catch lights in the birds eye).


http://www.pbase.com/arlon/image/101251753/medium.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/arlon/image/101251753/medium.jpg


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Actually, I was hoping you would join in and share some of your experiences with everyone.


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## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

Thanks for not throwing sticks at me! (-:}

Stick a "plastic bee" on the feeder and they will hover for 5 minutes waiting for it to leave.. (-:} At least long enough to focus a MF lens. I've wanted to try using "trap focus" but I just haven't had 30 minutes of spare time to try it. One of those things that seems like it should work but I have not done it.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Focusing has definitely been the hardest part for me. I've been manually focusing most of the time. Explain "trap focus" for me, it sounds interesting.


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## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

Trap focus is just presetting your focus and setting the camera to not take a picture until it gets focus lock (two menu clicks with a D200). Use bulb thing on a remote or just hold down the shutter button manually. Set the bulb, wait for something to enter the "focus box" when the camera gets a focus lock it allows the shutter to release. 

Google "trap focus" and you will find a lot of info. Used to be popular with sports shooters. Set the focus manually, hold the shutter down, track the subject and when it gets into focus the shutter trips.

Look in your manual for "focus priority" or fire on focus, something like that..


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

That's what I thought it was. I'll have to give it a try. Hopefully we'll still have hummingbirds around here after Ike moves through.


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