Buff-Tailed Coronet

Sandy,

I love the background colors and the position of the bird. I've never done multi-flash stuff so I apologize if this is a silly question but...

What is the reason for ISO 1250? Isn't the shutter speed more or less irrelevant because the multi-flash is what is truly dictating the exposure?

Why was the Exp. Comp set at +5? Aren't the flashes and ISO making the image very bright to begin with? I would expect Exposure Compensation to be a negative number.

Why was f/22 selected? The high ISO resulted in very little detail except on the head so wouldn't something like f/8 be more desirable which also would have allowed for an ISO in the 400 or so range?

Again, I'm asking this because I'm a complete novice with flash setups (never used one other than the little popflash that comes with the camera). Thanks for the explanation and I appreciate the disclosure of the artificial BG as some folks may be mislead (especially when using f/22).

I didn''t even look at the exif info I copied..
the high ISO is a usual setting for any flying birds.Actually, about the lowest i ever use.
Exposure comp doesn't matter, of course, with manual settings.
Sandy

The bird, again, is soft. The leaves are what is in focus. Nice bg and I like how it's looking at the target.

Love the open pose of the bird. Must not be the easiest thing to capture. Must be exciting to see such a bird.

Very interesting flight position, Sandy. The feet seem to be sharp but the head seems to be just a bit soft, or at least there's less detail than I'd expect, and the wings, of course, are very soft. At f22 with multi-strobes, I'd expect some serious DOF.

I like the flight position you caught the bird in Sandy. I know nothing about this type of photography, so all I can comment on is what I see. I might reduce the saturation on the flower, and although the BG looks really cool, I still think I would prefer a natural BG.

Sandy,

What a gorgeous hummer. This is one of the better shots I have seen. When I first looked I thought it was a larger bird due to the sharp focus on the wing feathers which is rare with hummers. I love the way the bird is positioned in the frame.

Rick

Sandy, I really like the pose you managed to capture on this one. Thanks for answering Luke's questions, because I had many of the same. but still confused as to why you use ISO 1250 at the lowest for BIF shots? As long as the shutter spped is there, I have used ISO 400 many times and have even gone to ISO 200 on slow flying or soaring birds. I just like having my SS around 1/1250 or above, not my ISO. I also agree the F/22 has taken away from some of the sharpness of the hummer. Again, I could be wrong because I haven't done this type of photography.
But overall, again, really like th epose. I would be tempted to tone down the flower thoguh. It feel too bright to me.

Sandy,

Thanks for the additional information. I'm curious too about the comment regarding using ISO 1250 for birds in flight. That is a good SS to have set as your minimum but not an ISO... in looking at your gallery there aren't any shots that approach that ISO. Additionally, a previous flight hummer shot with multi-strobes had the ISO set at 500. Just trying to wrap my head around all of this stuff! Thanks.

Hi Sandy: I think you have a pretty nice image of the hummer. Nice pose. I enjoy high speed flash hummingbird photography as well. Some of the discussion here has been about ISO 1250. I'm not sure why you would use that either. At that ISO, I'm guessing you may have had some ambient light contributing to the exposure, not just the flashes. I believe that is evident in the slightly blurred wing tips. If that was the goal, then you achieved it. My preference to achieve that is to use a much lower ISO (something like 200), and change the power settings on the flashes so their duration is a bit longer. Of course the flashes then need to be moved further away from the subject to maintain the proper exposure. For those not aware, doing this type of photography the flashes are set in manual mode at low power settings to create a very short burst of light that allows you to freeze the motion of the wings. The advantages of a lower ISO are well known and that is why I would not choose to use such a high ISO for this type of photography. Using a lower ISO would also allow you to use a wider aperture and not run into the diffraction limitations at f/22. Long rambling response.... sorry. You still have a pretty nice image. I think different settings could have made it even better.

Such a lovely shot Sandy! Beautiful colours ,great composition!

Love the wing position of the bird. Great capture.
May

Nice catch Sandy! I love the positioning of the bird so that you can see the little curled up feet. Very nicely done.

Nice shot Sandy. I really like the pose and shot.

Ron Huff

This is a really nice capture imo. I would add a little selective sharpening to the face if you haven't already done so. I agree on using a lower iso, I think more ambient light than you needed has been let in here. I try to keep my isos between 400 and 640 when doing this type of photography.

Because there were a lot of questions on the F stop I used I will address F-stops and multiple flash photography. The use of very small apertures is more the norm than the exception with this type of photography. F22 and even higher F-stops are commonly used. If you look at Linda Robbins, Ralph Paonessa, Bill Forbes (some of the experts in this area) and many others work in this area, they are almost always at F20 or higher. There are a couple of reasons for this. 1) You are generally using an artifical background so business of the background is not an issue. 2) Oftentimes you are manually focusing on a flower or a feeder which is attracting the hummingbirds and you are working at quite close quarters. To get enough depth of field to get both the bird and the flower in sharp focus you need a very wide depth of field. When a hummer approaches the flower or feeder, you can just fire away. You take a lot of photos this way and most of them aren't very good but you get a few gems. 3) The flashes are providing all or almost all of your light which allows you to stop down a lot and still use a low or medium iso. 4) As I understand it diffraction is not an issue when using a medium or long telephoto lens. I read in a Birds as Art bulletin where George Lepp, one of the most famous living nature photographers and a technical expert, stated this. I searched those archives but couldn't come up with the link. The fact that many of the very good high speed flash photographers such as Linda Robbins and Ralph Paonessa use those sorts of F-stops supports this I think. I'm not saying you can't use a bigger F-stop such as the F8 that some suggested, I'm just saying it does change the dynamic of the shot some. Instead of being able to manually focus on the flower and just fire away when a bird comes in you will generally be forced to try and autofocus on the bird using this technique which is quite a bit more difficult. In addition, it's a lot less likely that you will get both bird and flower in sharp focus together.

Sandy, I hope you'll excuse my lengthy reply. It's a fine shot as posted with an awesome body position, a touch more sharpening to the face and I think it's a real winner.

Nate, thanks for a very nice explanation of what we were doing in your Hummer workshop.
Sandy

You are welcome Sandy, I was in a different area with some of the other photographers in the group when you had this session at Guango otherwise I would have advised you to knock down your iso some.

Looks great to me, I wouldn't mind having this one in my files. Doesn't look to me like the high ISO had much affect on the quality of the image.

Sweet Photo Sandy!!!

Ken Archer

That is just beautiful! Colorful and action packed!!

An excellent capture
Well done Sandy.

Geoff.