How do you photograph hummingbirds in flight and freeze their wings?
Asked 6/12/2011
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Standard bird-photography techniques often struggle with hummingbirds: their flight is erratic, autofocus may not keep up, and their wings beat so fast that even very fast shutter speeds can leave blur. What techniques work for getting sharp hummingbird photos, especially in flight?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
10
Disclaimer: This is second hand information, so YMMV.
While I was guiding a tour in Ecuador, I met a photographer who spent almost 10 years chasing hummingbirds for a book. We spent an hour or so talking about how to photograph them. Here are the basics:
- They are too fast to freeze with a high-speed shutter.
- Use flash with an ultra-fast discharge speed. He said around 1/20,000s.
- He said using the flash on lower power increases the discharge speed.
- Shoot continuously as fast as possible.
- Manual focus on where you want them to be. Usually an interesting flower or branch.
- They can be moved by hand while in their sleeping state. They are very delicate, avoid nets to catch them.
- Move them to a tent with a sweet flower as bait and studio lighting setup. Take a few shots and let them go. They need to eat every few minutes apparently.
- Learn about the flowers they like to know where they'll be and how to bait them.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Two practical approaches came up:
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Photograph them while perched. Hummingbirds do rest, and this is the easiest way to get sharp images.
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For flight shots, pre-focus and use flash. A common technique is to manually focus on a spot where the bird is likely to hover, such as a flower or perch, then shoot bursts as it enters that zone. To really freeze the wings, a flash with very short flash duration is more effective than relying on shutter speed alone. Lower flash power often gives a shorter burst, which helps stop motion.
Very fast shutter speeds in bright light can help, but they may still not fully freeze the wings. Also, blur depends on the direction and phase of wing motion relative to the camera, so some frames will look sharper than others even at the same settings.
In short: perched shots are easiest; for flight, pre-focus on a known position and use short-duration flash if possible.
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