I took this violetear in flight with 3 flashes, and dialed the power down to 1/64.
That gave me about 1/15,000 sec., enough to freeze motion with full detail.
Wow Peter, what a beautiful shot! Can you tell us more about how you did this? I mean, this bird isn't just flying around in front of your camera and flashes waiting for you to snap the shutter! How did you get this close? And wouldn't a shot like that take a long time to setup? I really can't imagine ...
@keithostertag Thanks Keith ¡ You are right. To photograph hummingbirds in flight you can shoot from the hip, with high ASA, shutter priority settings @ 1/4,000 and get some beautifull images.
I set up feeders and multiple flashes for most of my hummingbird photos. Using manual flashes with a remote trigger allows me to dial down the power of the flashes to 1/128, which gives a flash
burst of ca. 1/30,000 sec., enough to freeze the bird in flight. I use 2-4 flashes for bird and background. The focus is set on manual and I wait for the birds to fly into the frame.
The technical part can be learned. What is unpredictable is the position of the bird during exposure. This is a great pose and I was luckyt to capture the bird at this very split second.
@Peter- so, you have a large bracket with 2-4 flashes and your camera attached? Aiming it like a cannon? Hah! Or are your flashes setup stationary where your feeders are? At any rate, it is a great shot and hopefully rewards you (and us) for all your prep and effort, and talent!
@Eric Rose Thanks Eric ¡ I usually take about 200-300 images when I photograph hummingbirds with a set-up of lights. I get about 1/3 of the shots in focus and of these perhaps 10-15 have
an interesting body posture. Outstanding, because I caught them in a unusually interesting position, maybe 1 or 2 per session. And I have sessions where I get totally skunked. Not one ¡¡¡
@keithostertag No, I have flashes set on tripods, each one with a remote sensor that is triggered by the unit on the camera´s hotshoe. I take a few images and check if they need to be adjusted in distance and power, and adjust my f/stop.
After a couple of tweaks, its a sit and wait matter