ahudina Loc: Browns Point, WA

All of the previous comments are very good advice. One other thought, instead of trying to focus on these fast fliers, since you know, from observation which is critical, where they are going, pick their most used trajectory and focus there, use your tripod and when they fly into your focus area shoot at your highest frame rate. Be prepared to delete a lot of shots but you should get some very good ones as well. Best of luck.

tiphareth51 Loc: Somewhere near North Pole, Alaska

Hello. It has taken awhile to get the hummers used to me sitting by their bush and feeders. I can place my tripod relatively close; however, their small size still requires a zoom lens. If you look at my last post Hummer Lessons, my Nikon D810 and a 200-500mm f5.6 lens was used; most were shot at 500mm, f5.6, iso 3200, shutter of 1/800 was used. All of this will vary dependent upon your shooting factors: light, closeness to subject, etc. Post-processing was minimally done: mostly crop. I hope this information adds to the already excellent information you have been given. Please post some of your new hummer photos. Enjoy!
PS: It also helped that I watched their habits, where they like to land, which feeder each prefers, etc. That helped focus on an area where activity would be highly likely.

photoman43

I should have mentioned this technique too. If acquiring af is a problem, torn off af and use manual focus. It may be easier to get sharp focus manually than with af where the focus square has to be on the eye. I do this often when I am shooting on a tripod and trigger the shutter with a cable release. My hand just tweaks the focus ring as needed.

Overthehill1

I've had success with shutter speeds as low as 640 and ISO in the 320-400 range, handheld, provided there is enough light. If the bird is hovering, thats usually enough to freeze the body but provide a pleasant wing blur. To freeze the wings, I've found that 2000-2500 is usually enough. I'm using a D500 and a 80-200mm 2.8 zoom, my fastest lens. The first photo is an example of the slower settings. Enjoy, its lots of fun.

(Download)


(Download)

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

We seem to have a language problem. Even tho' 2000 is greater than 60, 1/60 sec is a greater amount of time than 1/2000 sec. so 1/2000 minimum means 1/60 is acceptable here, which is NOT correct. Since there is no consensus even tho' there is a proper use, the words minimum and maximum here should be avoided.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

When the numerator and denominator switch places things turn around.

Orion B

I tend to be more concerned with getting the bird as close (filling the frame) as possible more than worried about the shutter speed. A little playing with the shutter speed you can stop the wings in flight, but I prefer to have a little motion blur. Back in the Navy during Vietnam era, during one particular assault, we had helo's landing on our flight deck, one after the other. My Canon QLFT film 35mm, I took tons of helo landings and take offs ... and most of them ended up in the trash. I thought a fast shutter speed and stopping the blades would be the best photos. They looked stupid ... as if our ship hit a bump and they bounced off the flight deck rather than under power landing or taking off. Same thing applies to humming birds ... motion blur is really best in my opinion.

DRam11 Loc: Polson, MT

It seems there are as many ways to get pictures of hummingbirds as there are people taking the pictures.

My success came with ISO 2500. shutter speeds from 1250 - 3250, 70-300 lens at 300 mm and bright sun. The birds were comfortable with me being within 5 - 6 feet. In fact, one buzzed around me a couple feet away. They are easily spooked by sudden movement though, something I learned by quickly moving the camera to shooting position. So a comfortable position to wait - a deck chair for me - and the camera arm supported on a knee with camera close to my face makes for minimal movement on my part. Watching for their habits helps also - what individual bird's visiting times,

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Really good shots!

keywest305 Loc: Baltimore Md.

I got these at 1000 auto iso 5.6

Attached file:
(Download)

Attached file:
(Download)

Attached file:
(Download)

Larryshuman

At 1/250 and the flash fires at 1/25000 or 1/50000, the flash fires and the slower shutter is set at 1/250 is still recording the image. In Edmond Scientific info they stop a bullitt going thru an apple with electronic flash. In order to do that they have a darkened room because the shutter is locked open. The image is made with a sound trigger. I believe 1/250 is 100 times slower that 1/25000 so you be getting motion blur at 1/250.

dustychow

I don’t use a tripod - my hands aren’t that steady. I almost always keep my shutter speed at 1/8000. An f/(range 8-10) and ISO Auto. For me this compensates for the for-camera shake. Sometimes a little bit of blur is acceptable for the affect that you want – then turn down the Shutter Speed I have tried 1/4000 and I get a little blur. Otherwise my Hummingbird shots are totally “frozen” - The wings have no blur whatsoever. I keep my camera settings to Back Button Focus. Always lookout for light conditions sometimes the wrong light can affect exposure darkness or lightness. My camera + lens include Canon EOS 90D & Canon EF 100-400mm IS USM II zoom lens.

(Download)

jcboy3

I shoot hummingbirds at 1/2000 to 1/3200 shutter speed. At 1/2000 there is some blur to the wings, which I find pleasing in many shots. At 1/3200, there is very little blur. If I wanted to stop the motion blur, I would shoot at 1/4000 or use a flash.

I usually shoot at f/11 full frame equivalent aperture to ensure I get enough DOF that the bird is in focus.

I usually use a focal length of 800-1000 full frame equivalent. If you can get close enough, then your might be able to use a shorter lens. But you risk scaring the birds off, and if you use a remote shutter, you risk getting out of focus images. Hummingbirds are typically 3-4 inches. If you want them to be about 1/3 the frame, then with a 200mm lens on DX camera you need to be at 10 feet. Any further, and you will be cropping a lot.

If it's a good, sunny day, my ISO can be as low as 500. But often it will rise to as high as 4000. I will usually back off the shutter speed a bit (to closer to 1/2000 than 1/3200) to bring the ISO back down, but it depends on how I'm feeling about blurred wings at the time.

I shoot Manual mode, Auto ISO.

I usually shoot somewhere between 10-20 fps bursts, in order to get an image that is in focus with good wing positions. Hummingbirds wings move at up 80 times per second, so I'm just sampling several wing cycles.

This shot was taken at 1/3200, f/6.3 (to get the flower more in focus as well), 1000mm FF equivalent, ISO 500.

dustychow

Markag

I didn't want to purchase a 500mm lens either so contrary to other replies, this was shot with a 105 macro, manually focused, remote shutter release and flash, (flash set up on another old tripod). F20, 1/4000 sec, ISO 1600. I also painted a spot -- for focusing purposes -- on the feeder where I thought the creatures would eventually present themselves.

(Download)