Chefneil

I have been trying to get a decent image of a humming bird in my backyard-with little luck. After some trial and error, more error than trial, I figured that the minimum shutter speed is no less than 1/800, faster if possible. The light in the yard is dappled, some times nice and bright, while other times too dark for even 1600 ISO. Ha!, you say, use a flash! Well, we all know the draw backs with that--shutter speed. So, I went and got a Yungnuo 685 and attending trigger.

It arrived today! All of my problems are gone!

Not so much.

While I can shoot up to 1/8000 of a second, the ambient light is still lacking. In other words, I think the HSS enhances the ambient light but does not give off enough overall luminesce to make of for a general lack of light.

I have a couple of ideas to get over this problem, but want to see what you Hoggers may come up with.

thx!!!

olc

CO

I know a couple of photographers who use a Better Beamer flash extender for bird photography. I don't have one personally, so I don't know how much it would extend the range of your speedlight. I can see how the 1/8000 second shutter speed would reduce ambient light a lot.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

If they birds are generally in one place, like at a feeder, you could try moving the flash closer using a remote flash trigger. Otherwise, you loose a lot of power with the flash and you won’t be able to use the higher shutter setting you need to reduce the ambient light.

Chefneil

Indeed I have put the flash within 3 feet of the feeder. Even still, I do not get enough light during the Golden Hour.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Hmmm. Don’t shoot birds, but do I use HSS a lot. Hopefully someone else will enlighten us.

Joe Blow

I hope this quickie summary helps.

A camera shutter uses two curtains. The first is closed and slides across, opening the sensor to the light. Then the second curtain closes to block the light. The longest time that the curtains are fully open is usually around 1/200 of a second.

In order to achieve faster shutter speeds, while the first curtain is still moving, the second curtain starts moving. This results in a slit of light instead of a fully open shutter. The faster the shutter speed, the smaller the slit. If the flash goes off when the curtain has started to close, then part of the photo is cut off. Thus, the 1/200 is the fastest shutter you can use with a flash.

Camera flashes are timed to go off when the first shutter curtain is totally open. A typical flash operates for about 1/1000 to 1/5000 depending on its light output. (The brightness of flash light is constant so the variable is the amount of time it is available) Since the flash output is dependent on the light being reflected back, a lot of ambient light will operate the flash for a shorter time (1/5000).

OK, now you have all that ambient light coming in that 1/200 shutter you want to add a flash burst to. You want to reduce the ambient light. So whadda gunna do? Shoot with the smallest aperture you can for starters. Experiment with neutral density (ND) filters. Add some shade. Move the feeder away from the light. Wait for dawn / dusk. Slow your ISO to the lowest it goes.

OR

Shoot without a flash. Use a reflector to bounce some natural light on the scene. Use a flood light and scare the birds. Put your feeder in full sun and dry out the seeds.

NOTE: Ya ya, some people have a camera that can shoot at 1/250. That still allows a lot of ambient light in. For darkened rooms though, the duration of the flash will be more important than the shutter speed. In daylight motion though, the 1/250 shutter will catch some movement blur even if the 1/5000 flash stops it.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Chef, you might be doing a balancing act.
Remember the two BASICS:
1, f-stop controls the flash subject illumination on the sensor.
2, shutter speed controls the AMBIENT light reaching the sensor.
If you get the ss to high, the ambient will be dark/black.
BUT the flash will properly illuminate the subject.
Slow the shutter to add more ambient brightness.
Open or close the f-stop to make the subject more or less lit.
Good luck
SS

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

HSS reduces the flash output a LOT. Try upping the ISO. That would be my first adjustment. Oh, and do not use an aperture any smaller than absolutely necessary to get good focus as f16 will require twice as much flash output a f11.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

HSS does not enhance the ambient light, heck at that speed you probably eliminated about all of it, and that is ok. Shooting flash, you have to exposures, one for the ambient (shutter speed) and one for the flash (aperture). When you shoot in HSS, you loose a lot of power, that means you have to move the flash a lot closer to your subject/subjects! Increasing the ISO will give you just a bit more "reach" too, but its not a fix!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Set up your speedlight(s) off camera with radio triggers, closer to the hummer on light stands. It's what I did to get these.

I did not use HSS, but I did use a lower power on the manual flash - 1/8 power gave me a shutter speed of 1/4000 (or maybe a little faster) on a manual Sunpak 383. I used a shutter speed of 1/250 to mostly eliminate ambient light, and the flash was bounced.

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