Shooting hummingbirds

[JAB1]

Can someone HELP....I am trying to shoot hummers on the wing and stop their wing action...I am shooting with a Canon 10D....100-400 lens @400 with 1.4 telextender...ISO 400, Tv mode @ 1/1500....pictures are way too dark...the aperture is flashing 8.0 in the viewfinder...what am I doing wrong...help steer me straight...thanks...Allan

[Lee_Allison]

If the aperature is flashing that setting isn't good enough for a good photo.

You need more light, try bumping the ISO way up and then work with it some more. But with a lens that gives you at best 8.0 you just aren't getting a lot of light in there, so either your ISO or your shutter speed will have to make up the difference.

[Sam_Leeper]

Don't have the link at hand, but do a search & you will find a multitude of links...

One suggestion was to use a slower shutter speed & let the strobe control the exposure... being that I don't have a high speed strobe I have not yet tried...

One (of many) site with a number of pictures... but no photo info.
http://hummingbirdwebsite.com/gallery/index.htm

also check this...
http://www.s2pro.com/forums/showthre...;threadid=1335

[loubuscher]

Allen, I do wildlife photography on birds and have shot from the tiny Hummer to our Bald Eagle and I have found that anytme the sky is involved in the shot I will get a dark picture. I try to arrange my shoots on eagles with the sun in mind for best detail. If I have dark trees for a backgroung the shot looks much better. The Hummers I have shot I used a Nikor 80 to 200 on a Fuji S2 in the Aperture mode and set at F 2.8 to blur the background and help stop the wings due to my fast shutter speed. As with the eagles I set up in a kind of blind close to my feeder and in good relation to the sun and just wait. They will go back and forth from feeder to tree branches and then try to get your shot but you must have the sun (light source) in your favor.I have many shots of birds other than eagles but the eagles are my favorite. Take a look.
www.loubuscher.com

[GarySchulze]

Just to spell it out for you, the 100-400 at 400 is a 5.6 lens. Add a stop for the 1.4 teleconverter and you have a f/8.0 lens. So the flashing 8.0 means that 1/1500 is just too fast. At that shutter speed you need a larger aperture and you just can't have it.

The suggestion to use a flash is a good one. It's more likely to stop the wing motion. In manual mode, set the shutter to 1/200 and experiment with the aperture. If you're too far for the flash to work well, there are flash extenders that concentrate the light.

Or buy a faster lens - you need a good excuse for that, anyway, don't you

[Brian_Hamfeldt]

JAB1,

You will want to keep the shutter above 1/1000th (or faster) to completely stop the wing action. But like other posters have commented, you'll need a faster lens and more ISO. The drawback to faster lenses is the lower DOF and more critical focussing.

Here are a couple shots I took with my 200/1.8, 1.4x and at least one (up to 3) extension tubes.
I lowered my settings in camera to f/4.5 to get some more DOF back, but it is still shallow. I was only about 8 feet away for the hummers, and the next shot of the fly was only about 4 feet way - even at f/5.6, the DOF is about the width of the fly!

These images are full frame, straight from the camera (except for web size)
http://public.fotki.com/Hammy/misc/44db5509.html

Brian.

[loubuscher]

Jab1, Suggestion for a new lens is a good one. As a wildlife photographer I have mostly long lenes up to 800mm. I just bought a new Sigma 120 to 300 F2.8 from Norman Camera and have to say this is a great lens, very sharp pics from it. Weight is a little on the heavy side (5.7Lbs.) but this is not to bad for my type of shooting. With a 2X I go to 600mm at 5.6 and get great shots as long as I can rest it some how. Have tried it on Hummers from 25 feet away at 300mm and they are great shots. Very fast lens.
Lou Buscher