Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

With a short flash duration, there is no need for high shutter speeds. In fact, anything faster than 250 will usually cause the bottom of the frame to be black. I've used very short flash durations to freeze bee's wings, with the shutter speed at 1/200sec. I expect the same to be true for Hummers.

Djack41 Loc: Tennessee

A flash at full power has a strobe duration of roughly 1/1000sec.

A flash set at 1/16 power has a strobe duration of roughly 1/16000sec. This will easily freeze the bird. Select an F-stop to provide good DOF. Shutter speed of about 1/200sec. is good.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Hummingbirds are very challenging.

Flash is a possibility... but has it's drawbacks, too. For one, most hummers have iridescent feathers that might look great... or may reflect too strongly.

Also, full powered flash (needed for the distance) fires at about the equivalent of 1/720 shutter speed, which typically is not be fast enough to fully freeze the extremely fast movement of the bird... especially it's wings. A hovering hummingbird's wings beat about 500 times per second!

Mixed with ambient light, fill flash might cause motion "ghosts", too. But fill and reduced power flash will fire at shorter duration (see Doug's post and examples above) and that may do a better job freezing the rapid movements.

You could try some sort of continuous light source, which might scare it away initially, but the bird will acclimate to and learn to ignore it pretty quickly..

Set your camera to a somewhat higher ISO and use larger apertures to push the shutter speeds higher. With hummingbirds 1/1000 is a good starting point. (Note: I think shade or lightly overcast skies are perfect! Full sun is often too contrasty.)

Some portable flashes can be used in High Speed Sync mode at shutter speeds faster than the 7D's 1/250 sync speed. However, HSS greatly reduces the flash's reach, so you might need to set it up off-camera and closer to the subject.

There also are flash extenders that can help. These postion a Fresnel lens in front of the flash to concentrate it's output. Extenders are limited to lenses 300mm or longer focal length (200mm is probably okay on a crop-sensor camera such as the 7D).

The next "trick" is using a fast focusing and close focusing lens. Canon's USM are fast focusing, especially combined with the equally fast 7D (try using Single Point AF pattern). The Canon EF 300/4L IS USM is the closest focusing of their telephotos longer than 200mm and would be my lens of choice, if I could get close enough with it. But I've often needed to use 500/4 lens, sometimes with a 36mm macro extension tube so that it would focus a little closer.

I agree, too, that it will take some patience! You'll have your share of missed and bad shots.... but don't give up.

iebi Loc: Vancouver. Canada

Thanks so much for great advise from you amazing people and also people who are so selfish if you were in my shose you were not be still even a live I have been going through a lot including torturs and had accident that almost lost a part of my head so please have a heart and think before you post if you do not like a post just pass by.

BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas

Obviously, English is his second language.

Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

That's actually true here, more often than some people realize.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

You need to use a flash.

(Download)

raferrelljr Loc: CHARLOTTE, NC

I vote with using a flash unit.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

http://www.digitalbirdphotography.com/7.7.html

Good tutorial about shooting hummingbirds

iebi Loc: Vancouver. Canada

Happy new year to your Dog only kibbles 304 because he must be so loyal to stand a companion like u period. :thumbdown:

Preachdude Loc: Geneva, OH

Absolutely! I used to belong to a camera club where one of our members was frequently getting award-winning pictures of hummingbirds with electronic flash.

seymour

nice photos
in canon cameras, there is a flash setting in the white
balance menu

This warms up the colors so that the photos are not too
blue- i'm sure NIKON has something like this
best of luck in your efforts- humming birds are a fun photo

seymour

seymour

nice photos
in canon cameras, there is a flash setting in the white
balance menu

This warms up the colors so that the photos are not too
blue- i'm sure NIKON has something like this
best of luck in your efforts- humming birds are a fun photo

seymour

iebi Loc: Vancouver. Canada

:thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown:

boydimages Loc: California

Watch hummers while they feed. They have habits. They dip their beak then back up 7-8 inches from the flower or feeder. This is to your advantage if you want to not have that red feeder in the photo. Manual focus and pre-focus where the hummer backs up to. A nice out of focus background works well.
When they are on flowers the included flowers are a nice feature to include.
Fast shutter speeds and f/stop to deliver the amount of depth of field desired.