JohninRockville Loc: Rockville, Indiana

I took the attached this afternoon - used 4 flashes about 4-5 ft from the flowers. I set the Canon 580 at 1/8 power and two Vivitar flashes at about half power to try to freeze the motion. The 4th flash was an older slave - not adjustable positioned higher pointing down.
All pictures were underexposed!! I sat about 20 ft away using a wireless remote when a hummer approached the flowers. I REALLY wanted one at the big open flower - and they never went near it!! I'm open to suggestions - gonna try again tomorrow with the flashes set to full power and hope for the best. I'm running out of time - these little guys are gonna be migrating very soon.
BTW I had the ISO set at 400, f 11 and 1/250. I used my 28 - 200mm lens and focused on the flowers but directed a bit above the flowers.

Hummer at flower 1


Hummer at flower 2

MtnMan Loc: ID

Quite good for a tough situation.

You need more depth of field. You didn't note the lens mm you actually used...that will affect the DOF. I might try a higher shutter speed and if necessary higher ISO to achieve it at possibly also higher fstop to increase DOF.

I don't use flash but understand that may limit your useful shutter speed. The reason I use it is to remove camera motion.

Are you using image stabilization?

(PS: Ours are about ready to bail also...but saw one this evening.)

JohninRockville Loc: Rockville, Indiana

The lens was set at 50mm. I used the flashes to try to freeze the wing action. There is no IS on this lens.

MtnMan Loc: ID

You might want to play with this and consider backing up using higher mm on the lens. I think that will give you more DOF at the same settings.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Even at 200mm you shouldn't need IS at 1/250 assuming you are on a tripod with remote release.

Jim Jameson

Spray some sugar water on the flower you want them to come to.

jrb1213 Loc: McDonough GEorgia

First suggestion- Put this on the Birds if Flight/Birds on water section and give the same info. They really know bird photography.

Second suggestion - You might not have time to do it this year but I tried a trick to get the hummers where I wanted them. I put up a feeder for several days then took the feeder down and replaced it with an artificial red flower in which I had placed a small vial with sugar water. I left my auto focus on and put the focus point slightly above and to the side of the flower.I got some great shots (the flash was within two feet) I then noticed when the shutter was activated the bird reacted the same way each time. It woud back away about 8 inches and hover. So I reset where my camera was pointed and after several tries I got good results.

Suggestion 3 - I next bought a Sigma 150-500 stayed in the house and fired away.
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-142043-1.html

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Here is an article to help you http://www.firefallphotography.com/hummingbird-heaven/

Also consider a wireless flash set-up

cthahn

You are mixing flash equipment. Stick to Canon only and your problems might disappear.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

John, this might sound silly, but how about a single flash? There was a guy out here that use a single flash on his feeder and the photos were nothing short of awesome. He had the wings frozen perfectly. I have some archived somewhere that the wings are frozen using just a bounce flash. On those I probably could have used a couple more flashes. Try using just one though and see what happens. The problem is that it is late in the season and you don't have much time to experiment. Is there any way that you can push your sync speed up? The reason I ask this is because if you can push it, you don't always get the curtain lag.

Tom

JohninRockville Loc: Rockville, Indiana

Many thanks for that!! I had previously looked at another similar website - they used a much more complex setup and this offers much better advice on how to get the hummers just where you want them.

jrb1213 Loc: McDonough GEorgia

With multiple flashes close (2 feet) from the hummer you can use a lower ISO and a higher fstop number. Which means the image without flash is darker and this helps in preventing ghosting.

jmhicks

Shooting hummingbirds using flash, you need to have all the light come from the flashes or you will get ghosting of the wings. You need to decrease the power to about 1/16th (low power, shorter flash duration) and they need to be from 12-16 inches from the subject. To keep from having a dark background, aim you old flash at the background. Usually need to stop down to f/16 or f/22 to control the ambient. Probably would set the camera back a bit, so use the longer end of the zoom. Take test shots. There is a good hummingbird guide ebook available on Arthur Morris' site.

You can also add some sugar water to the flower you want them to visit.

multiflash set up, manual 1/16th power, D300 70-300 lens at f/22

JohninRockville Loc: Rockville, Indiana

I appreciate all the helpful replies and will work on taking the advice of those more skilled and experienced. I need to stock up on batteries tonight. In the meantime here are a couple shots I took this afternoon - no flashes - just sunlight. I hung a feeder just inches away from the flower and shot using my 400mm lens from the enclosed part of the deck. I set the ISO at 1600 to gain some speed 1/500 while the fstop stayed around 11 or close. I'm pretty happy with the results but gonna work with those flashes tomorrow. Fortunately there are lots of buds on the flower yet to open, just hope the little guys stick around for a few more days!

MtnMan Loc: ID

Yes, much nicer!

I'm surprised those wings still blur at 1/500. Fast!

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

Actually, John, you're really close to getting it. Move your flash units closer to the birds. Remember the inverse square law? If you move the flashes to half of what they were today, (from 4 feet to 2 feet) you will get four times the light. Move them to only 1 foot away and you will have 8 times the light you had today. With 3 other adjustable flashes, I'm not sure you will need the old non-adjustable flash.

The basic concept is to use the flash units on low power setting because that gives you the briefest flash duration which will stop the wing action. Moving the flash closer gives you a lot more light. You need to underexpose the ambient light by 2 or more stops to prevent ghosting. So, set your shutter speed to your camera's max synch speed, adjust your ISO and/or f/stop to underexpose by 2 stops and then adjust the flash exposure by either moving the flash units closer or farther away or adjusting the flash power. It will take a few experimental exposures to get it set up right for your particular situation.

Here is a link to a blog that a friend of mine writes. It will give you more information on the technique. http://travelthroughpictures.com/photo-items/how-to-photo-hummingbirds-2/

Let us know how you make out!