Highest resolution hummingbird photos on internet? (1 Viewer)

[Greg Scott]

I shot some very sharp high speed flash hummingbird photos on my vacation in Arizona this year.
You can see them on my website, www.gregscott.com.
Here's a sample:

There's a magnificent hummingbird which is probably the largest, but these are just about all higher resolution than you can see anywhere elsewhere on the web that I'm aware of.

 

[Derry]

Greg, really some nice work,,

how are you tying the flash in and at what speed are your exposures,,??

Derry

 

[Greg Scott]

I used tripod to pre-focus on the flash.
I had a custom flash, with 4 flash heads. One head is aimed at the white background cardboard, and 3 flash heads aimed at the spot where the bird will hover, a few inches behind the hummingbird feeder port. I use F16 when possible, or even F32, and place the flash heads as close as necessary to achieve this. If necessary, I kick up the ISO to 200 or 400 to get the necessary DOF. I use a 100 mm Canon F2.8 macro lens. Shutter speed is usually 1/200, unless I'm trying to achieve a "natural" background. If so, I set the shutter speed so that the ambient light in the background is 2 stops underexposed, or so. Otherwise, ghost images occur. I trigger the camera with an electric trigger release cable, standard Canon issue. This photo was made with a Canon 5D, and is full frame, thus my claim to being the highest resolution that I've seen on the internet. The flash was made by Ken Olson, who is no longer living, and I inherited the flash from my Dad. These days you really can't buy a flash as strong and fast, (at least I've searched), but you can get the same approximate speed on a Canon flash, which has a 1/128th power setting. These flashes must be used in with the subject and the background in shade to avoid ghosts. I've used 2 or 3 flashes, and gotten good results, but 4 would be even better.
Summary: All manual settings, all setting preset including focus. No auto features. With digital, testing your setup exposure setup is easy. Just flash your hand where the bird will be. Properly overexposed is good if you're light skinned. Adjust as needed. Flash placement is critical in some species to show irridescence, in other species it's completely forgiving in this regard.
It's extremely difficult to get the irridescence of the top of the head of a magnificent hummingbird, for example. Ruby throats and Broadbills are very easy to show irridescence. Black Chinned is very difficult to show irridescent using flash.

 

[arco13]

WOW! Good job dude. Looks like you have really put some time into it. Nice work!

 

[Robert / Seattle]

Extremely well done! Reminds me a bit of Eliot Porter's work. What's your file size?

Robert / Seattle ... aka

Robert Pisano, ASMP
Robert Pisano Photography
206-525-3500
email: [email protected]
web: www.pisanostudio.com
Architectural Digest Magazine, March, 2006
Architectural Record Magazine, March, 2007

 

[wings]

Greg
Thanks for sharing your photography tips with us. I have tried, without much success, photographing hummers using my Canon 20D built-in flash to trigger one Sigma EF500 DG Super slave unit. Granted this is a very primitive setup compared with your more elaborate system of multi-strobes and wireless release. I have several questions for you:

1. Every time I activate my built-in camera flash, it is set for the default 1/250 second. I have experimented with manual controls and the circular "joystick" to no avail. Does it matter if the actual camera speed is 1/250 sec?

2. Do you use your in-camera flash to activate the slave units or do you use the 580EX?

3. Does the Canon 580EX speedlite have more flexibility there?

So far, I position for frontal lighting (sun directly behind me and 90 degree to bird's side, with the slave unit at a 45 degree angle pointed towards the birds front, and at same subject height and distance about 4.5 ft away (overexposed at ISO 400). I am aware of FEC and try to reduce flash duration but my flash LCD doesn't show me if I'm doing it right.

So far, what am I doing wrong? Having your equipment is out of the question.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Dennis

 

[wings]

My equipment:

Canon 20D w/400mm/5.6L lens, sometimes used in conjunction with 12mm extension tube (sometimes I use a 100-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens with 12mm extension tube)
ISO 200-400
Sigma EF 500 DG Super flash (slave)
Natural background
Sunpak Ultra 777 tripod with Arca-Swiss Z1 ballhead
Prefocus, Manual focus
Camera mode: Av
Single shot with flash (Burst rate without flash)

Extension tube cuts down shutter speed, but is this relevant when using flash?

 

[Greg Scott]

Greg
Thanks for sharing your photography tips with us. I have tried, without much success, photographing hummers using my Canon 20D built-in flash to trigger one Sigma EF500 DG Super slave unit. Granted this is a very primitive setup compared with your more elaborate system of multi-strobes and wire release. I have several questions for you:

1. Every time I activate my built-in camera flash, it is set for the default 1/250 second. I have experimented with manual controls and the circular "joystick" to no avail. Does it matter if the actual camera speed is 1/250 sec? yes, it matters. For a sharp flash exposure, you want ambient light to be two stops underexposed, or darker, to avoid ghost images] use canon also, but have a d60, a 10d and a 5d. From what I know of the canon system, it only uses the on-camera flash in automatic mode. I suspect your flash only works in automatic mode, sets the shutter and aperture automatically. That's not the desired effect. The best you can to is put your camera on full manual, and put your flash in the hot shoe, or use a sync cable

2. Do you use your in-camera flash to activate the slave units or do you use the 580EX?
I don't use in camera flash. I use 2 550EX slaves and a 580ex master when I use canon flashes. I set them on manual 1/128th power, 105mm focal length, and place them extremely close to the feeder. I only use them when feeder and background are both in shade. (That's one of the reasons I use a white cardboard background behind the feeder on most occasions. I can keep it shaded. I have an off camera shoe "extender" cable that I use for the master. This lets me use all 3 flashes to good effect. Thus I need 4 tripods, generally, in tight quarters. A nice frame for camera and flash would be very handy.

If I weren't using the canon system flashes, any PC sync cable to connect the flash to the camera should do. My camera syncs at 1/200 sec, I believe, so I presume yours syncs at 1/250sec.
3. Does the Canon 580EX speedlite have more flexibility there?
Not really. It has a little more power than the 550ex flash, but mainly the 550 and 580 have a 1/128th power setting which provides a very brief flash. I think I measured it to be about 1/20000 second.

So far, I position for frontal lighting (sun directly behind me and 90 degree to bird's side, with the slave unit at a 45 degree angle pointed towards the birds front, and at same subject height and distance about 4.5 ft away (overexposed at ISO 400). I am aware of FEC and try to reduce flash duration but my flash LCD doesn't show me if I'm doing it right.

So far, what am I doing wrong? Having your equipment is out of the question.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Dennis

My summary advice is:
1. put your slave on the hot shoe or use a PC cable, turning it into a master. 2. Use all manual setting for focus, flash, and camera exposure.
3. To avoid ghost images, the ambient light of the shutter/aperture "camera" exposure should be 2 or more stops underexposed. To accomplish this, on low power, you'll probably need to put the subject and background in the shade. Raise the ISO if you need more light.
4. Try to shoot at about F16 or F22 with your flash, if possible. Adjust this by how close the flash is to the subject, and the ISO sensitivity. This should be "properly" exposed. I use digital, so getting the flash exposure correct merely involves making a few test shots. Often I put a blade of grass (temporarily) into the feeder port so I can check both focus where the bird will be and exposure. Usually I actually use a "fuzzy" shock of grass seed, so that I can check DOF as well.
5. Add additional flash slaves as budget and success dictate. Most folks like 3 for the bird, 1 for the background, perhaps one more for a backlit portion.
6. BTW, Moving the white cardboard closer to the flashes or further away makes the background appear white or grey as you prefer. Grey usually seems a bit better to me, but if you're going to digitally edit a background, or for "NO" background, white may be easier.
If any of this is unclear, feel free to ask follow up questions.


All of the above advice is based on producing "blur free" photographs like mine, but with with ordinary hot shoe flashes and slaves.
The best hummer photo I ever took used just 2 canon 550EX flashes and an off-camera extender cable for the master flash:

 

[wings]

Greg:

Superb shot of the Broad-billed hummer.

Thanks for the very detailed instructions and tips. I do as you suggested, on manually prefocusing by sticking a small ping-pong size sphere skewered on a 8" long BBQ stick (the sphere has letters I can focus on) into the feeder. I am enlightened on your comment about placing feeder in the shade and using a plain background. My flash unit can go down to 1/128 power. As I understand it, the flash unit is essentially providing all or most of the lighting, since the camera should be underexposed 2 stops to avoid ghose images.

I will try using a remote cord to trigger the slave flash unit but I'll have to purchase the wireless unit first.

Mounting the flash unit on my camera and setting it to high speed sync. has never been a problem. It's just that I don't like direct frontal illumination for modeling.

Thanks again for your help, and I hope you don't mind my contacting you in the future.

 

[Greg Scott]

I don't use a wireless unit, unless you mean my slave flashes.
My trigger is a special trigger cable, which mainly allows me to sit comfortably in a chair and shoot without moving. The triggering is manual, not by electric eye. I just catch him hovering just in front of the feeder, but no in it (ideally). This is very common, at least with some birds. They'll sip, then hover, and perhaps look around, and then sip again.

 

[wings]

You mean like this?

"I don't use a wireless unit, unless you mean my slave flashes.
My trigger is a special trigger cable, which mainly allows me to sit comfortably in a chair and shoot without moving."
__________

Just have a cooler filled with beer.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/65/195546313_c45c9e5ec4_o.jpg