cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Requesting advice on how to successfully focus specifically on hummingbirds in flight.

garymak
Enthusiast

Requesting advice on how to successfully focus specifically on hummingbirds in flight.

 

I’m asking this only of photographers with direct, successful experience specifically photographing hummingbirds in-flight for any tips and tricks you have found that have worked well with focusing issues.  

 

(Please, if you do not have direct, successful experience specifically photographing hummingbirds in-flight, then with all due respect and appreciation for your good intentions, please refrain from offering ideas, thoughts, conjectures, or other experiences with other birds or animals.)

 

Background: 

I have used 4 different methods for photographing hummingbirds in flight:

1) “The Usual”: high SS, medium ƒ-stop, high ISO. 

2) “Strobe for high speed shutter” with a high-shutter speed sync, a very low ISO, a very high ƒ-stop, utilizing the strobe burst of the flash (usually 1/10,000th or so) to stop-action the hummingbird in flight.  The high ƒ-stop also creates a much wider DoF in which to capture the bird in focus.

3) In turn, both of these methods have utilized 2 different types of focusing methodology: 

    A. Autofocus (various different settings and areas)

    B. Manual pre-focus on the area the hummingbird will most likely come and hover for a brief moment before setting down on the feeder.

 

All of these methods have yielded just 3-5 decent shots each, based purely on luck, because the main issue is FOCUSING.  The R5 auto-focus mechanism is the worst of the two, practically useless, as it simply isn’t fast enough or sophisticated enough to react to the sudden appearance of a tiny hummingbird and focus on it, and usually the autofocus misses the bird entirely and focuses on the farthest background item in the frame (the distant hedges.) Manual focus has worked the best, but still yielded only about half a dozen out of about 1,000 shots, only by luck of the hummingbird being in the exact plane of the pre-focused area.  All successes can be attributed entirely to “luck.”

 

Give the above, does anyone have any direct, successful experience specifically photographing hummingbirds in flight?  If so, what did you do differently that worked, or at least yielded better results than 5 lucky shots out of 1,000?  Thanks!

27 REPLIES 27

zakslm
Rising Star
Rising Star

This a quite a timely topic for me.  

Yesterday there were 1 or 2 Anna's visiting some newly bloomed flowers just over my backyard wall.  They sometimes perch on small branches and seem to just "chill" for a while and if I have my camera or set up my camera and go back out to photograph them, sometimes they're still there.  It seems to be an area that they are attracted to so I can observe them and photograph them perched, sometimes hovering but rarely get anything decent when they are in flight.  

When in flight, they're so fast and they zig-zag in 3 dimensions so randomly, I'm lucky if they're in the frame somewhere, in the depth of focus and distinguishable as hummingbirds.  What comes to mind as a comparbale challenge vs. your camera's autofocus system (excuse the movie reference) is Mr. Miyagi and Daniel trying to catch flies with chop sticks. In other words based on my experience, a bit of preparation and a lot of luck goes further than relying only on the amazing technology and features of current cameras.    

For example, below are a couple of shots I took as a hummingbird left the perch.  I was using the center focus point on my Rebel T7 in One Shot Focus in Aperture Priority at F7.1, ISO 200.  Given that the T7 is only capable of 3fps, I was in single shooting and I think I can at least equal 3fps manually tapping the shutter button.  Shutter speed on the first shot was 1/1250th and the second was 1/1000th.  The 2 crops below were the only shots in my attempts to catch the bird in flight where you tell it's a bird.  

IMG_4154jhb1.JPG

IMG_4150jhb2.JPG

I was luckier a couple of months ago.  At dawn, I saw this guy feeding on some flowers in the backyard.  I focused on the flower as it hovered, flew away then came back.  This shot is of it flying back.  I was in Manual with auto ISO. Camera set to F7.1, 1000th Sec, (ISO 1600) and used an external speedlite set for High Speed Sync.  

IMG_0993jhb3.JPG

So to summarize, I would suggest you keep doing what works best for you given your location and set up and take some guidance from a quote that I think is attributable to Lee Trevino who said, "The more I practice, the luckier I get".  

Good luck!

LZ

I thought that was Arnold Palmer, but hey, I'm not a golfer!🤣

Yes, I have about 4,000 images so far this year (thank goodness for digital images and not film!,) with barely about 1% meeting my criteria: tack sharp, well-lit, mid-flight.  (I let the hummingbirds do their own posing. 😅) I've gotten results with multiple methods, but more results with "standing by" with a pre-focused spot based on immediate past flight patterns, then switching to AF horizontal long rectangle while on the feeder, then waiting for the slight poop to indicate the bird is ready to take off, and hoping my reflexes and burst mode on the R5 will capture it in flight. Sometimes I'm very lucky and it takes off and hovers and comes back again.  Usually, the AF will work to track it (I have better luck with the "0" setting on tracking, locking on to the subject.). Those have produced a higher success rate.

Usually the lighting in my yard permits ISO 800-1600, ƒ8-16, 1/2000-1/3000ss.  Usually use a 100-500mm ƒ5.6L.  On occasion a 24-105mm ƒ4L.  One thing (on another discussion board) the would be VERY useful for these kinds of situations is a short range limiter on these lenses that have a long-range limiter already on them, such as the 100-500mm (i.e., not just a switch limiting the range from say 3m-infinity so it can skip the short range focusing, but rather, also a long range limiter, say "min focus - 4m" so that it doesn't go beyond that range and get lost hunting for and focusing on objects in "infinity" when I already know that the birds (or whatever subject) is going to be 4m or less from the camera!) I digress...

I have experimented with some success (not too much now...) with using my Speedlight, but at a much slower shutter speeds (1/60th-1/100th) and very high ƒ-stops (like ƒ18-20, just below maximum) and very LOW ISO, like 100-200 (with variations due to ambient light of course.) Those settings are based on concept that the flash burst speed is about 10x faster than the fastest shutter speed on a camera, so you use the flash to be your actual shutter speed to "stop action."  (There's a balance between your actual shutter speed bringing in just the right amount of ambient light so it's not pitch black in the background (although that works nicely, too) but not enough to bring in any image of the bird (which would just be blurry at that speed) and let the flash stop the action.)  

The advantage of this is that with guessing the pre-focus spot, the maximum ƒ-stop settings also brings with it the maximum DoF - unlike at ƒ8 or so when using just the sunlight and a very high SS - which gives you more leeway  (a.k.a. "forgiveness") in where your bird ends up vis-a-vis a-vis your focus spot.  Further, at 10x the "shutter speed," it'll jolly well completely stop a hummingbird's wings completely!  As I said, in theory, this can produce a great shot, but with the Speedlight's HSS,  you don't get many shots at its full power, so the later images on burst mode get darker.  So this too, needs a large dollop of "luck" to come away with a good image...

... Oh, and as we all know, a huge dollop of "patience", requisite for any wildlife photography...😉😁

 

garymak
Enthusiast

"ISO 800-1600, ƒ8-11, 1/2000-1/3000ss." not  "ISO 800-1600, ƒ8-16, 1/2000-1/3000ss"

wq9nsc
Elite
Elite

Technique will definitely improve the odds but there is still going to be luck involved in capturing highly dynamic events with a camera.  I shoot primarily sports but I spent a few minutes yesterday afternoon capturing a hummingbird that was hanging out by the trumpet vine near the pool.

With sports photography, I always tell people trying to learn the basics that the three most important decisions in shooting sports are location, location, and location.  Photographing wildlife is very much the same because you will have an extremely small keeper rate if there is a high probability that something is likely to partially block the view, if the chosen point of photography is likely to have the subject constantly in and out of blocking branches, and/or if the lighting is going to be so sub-optimal that even a good capture is fairly poor with details lost to shadow or strong back illumination.

No camera or lens can focus instantly so you want to stake out your location and then choose a high probability focal point of interest and pre-focus on something in the same focal plane.  Now your camera/lens combo has a much better chance of grabbing sharp focus in the tiny amount of time the subject is in that great location.  So patience becomes a huge factor waiting for the variables to fall in line and the temptation is great to start capturing a lot of sub-optimal photos which will of course keep you distracted from that single optimal moment you set up.

Professionally I am a marketing prof with a PhD in marketing and for much of my career I did research and consulting in enterprise risk management.  I apply this general approach to many things in life including photography because with risk management you are trying to shift the odds to increase the likelihood of a favorable result and decrease the likelihood of a negative outcome but even the best risk management never guarantees a specific perfect outcome-it just greatly increases the probability of that or an acceptably similar outcome.  Think of wildlife or any fast action photography in those terms, there isn't any single magic bullet but instead a range of tactics and activities that increases the likelihood of achieving what you want.

With fall HS sports coming up, I wanted to test my recently cleaned and checked EF 400 f2.8 glass and this hummingbird was casually captured Monday afternoon.  I noticed his/her activity and chose a fairly good spot but otherwise I didn't put in a lot of effort including just shooting handheld even though the 1DX III and EF 400 f2.8 is a fairly heavy combo.  This was captured with the lens stepped down to f4, shutter @ 1/1600, and ISO set to auto which in this case was ISO 200 so pretty much the same setup I use for sports.  I used small zone AF set to the center zone of the array and pre-focused on a group of flowers near where I expected the bird to appear and then waited for a few minutes and the hummingbird rewarded me by showing up fairly quickly.

Rodger


1DX III, EF 400 f2.8, 1/1600, f4, ISO 200, servo AF case IV1DX III, EF 400 f2.8, 1/1600, f4, ISO 200, servo AF case IV

EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video

garymak
Enthusiast

Nice capture!!  thanks very much for taking the time to describe your technique and settings details.  This is not too far off from my settings.  I'm beginning to think that there is a better opportunity with hummingbirds around flowers than feeders.  We don't have flowers in our yard.  We have a wall of tall (50'+) Leyland Cyprus trees that provide a great nesting resource for the hummingbirds (and others) and a wonderful mottled green backdrop for the photos:

Rufous @ ƒ711/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 500mm R5+ RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM  Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ711/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 500mm R5+ RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ7.1/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 500mm R5+ RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM  Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ7.1/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 500mm R5+ RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposureAna's @ ƒ7.1/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 105 mm R5+ RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM L IS USM Manual exposureAna's @ ƒ7.1/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 105 mm R5+ RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM L IS USM Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ9.0/ 1/2500 s/ ISO1250 Lens focal length: 363.0 mm R5+RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ9.0/ 1/2500 s/ ISO1250 Lens focal length: 363.0 mm R5+RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ9.0/ 1/2500 s/ ISO1250 Lens focal length: 363.0 mm R5+RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ9.0/ 1/2500 s/ ISO1250 Lens focal length: 363.0 mm R5+RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ7.1/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 105 mm R5+ RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM L IS USM Manual exposureRufous @ ƒ7.1/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 105 mm R5+ RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM L IS USM Manual exposureAnna's @ ƒ8.0/ 1/2500 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 324.0 mm R5+RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposureAnna's @ ƒ8.0/ 1/2500 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 324.0 mm R5+RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposure

(Not sure what happened to all the data I meticulously added for each photo, but that's the problem with this clunky website.🙄 Not doing it over, though. Roughly, the images were taken either  @ ƒ7.1/ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 500mm R5+ RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM Manual exposure OR  ƒ9 or ƒ11 @ 1/2000 s/ ISO800 Lens focal length: 105mm R5+ RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM Manual exposure

 But, over time and seeing other photos and seeing other humming bird situations, it seems that they hover a very short time at a feeder before diving in, and, importantly, when they are finished feeding, the just poop and dart off, back to the nest.  At flowers, however, once they finish one flower, they are drawn to the next couple or so, and don't dart over, but hover around, looking and choosing the next one.  At a feeder, they seem to take their fill from the relatively large supply, and, since they're "done", buzz off right away.

Anyway, thanks for the details. A lot of good confirmation in there.

Stunning photos!

Thank you.  (After 10,000 shots, you're bound to get a couple of good ones in there! 😅)

Great captures Gary and they are fascinating creatures.  I first "met" them shortly after I bought my place in the country and there was a forecast that the visible aurora might extend as far south as central IL.  I set up a blanket outside to comfortably watch the sky at dusk with a glass of rum punch sitting next to me.  I heard the classic "buzzing" sound and saw four of them trying to sip from my glass so I went inside and mixed them a glass of sugar water and put a top and straw on mine since rum would not be good for them!

The trumpet vine works well for them because it has a lot of flowers in different arrangements and at different levels but it isn't great for photography because there is a lot of cover.

Thank you for sharing those incredible captures, they are stunning!

Rodger

EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video

Thanks very much. 

I should add that I learned that trying to do this "automatically" relying on the autofocus system was my original motivation. And it didn't work well at all. 😬 Frankly, I was hoping to set up my camera on the deck, but sit inside on a comfortable chair in the comfort of my kitchen with an expresso or cup of tea (depending on time of day,) relax with the door closed, and just wait for the hummingbirds to show up, when I'd then press the button on my remote and have the camera do the rest... I still say that wasn't a bad motivation and plan.

However, the camera simple can't focus.  So, taking a monopod to take the weight off holding the camera, I can still stay inside the kitchen, albeit not as comfortably, but have to have the door open, which is fine in summer ( not so good in other seasons ) and wait on edge in a state of constant high alert, and then  actively track the hummingbirds when they come... That produced a much higher percentage of good shots.

So, the moral of the storyis : don't drink coffee when photographing hummingbirds!😉

When I was hell bent on taking Hummingbird shots I bought a small Hide/blind. I would sit in there for hours, and I did get some good captures. Most of those are during August -October in Central Texas. Ruby Throated almost all of them. Males are prized captures. So 90's most days. I hadn't done that for years.

I might pull it out this winter for the lone Rufous that comes to the 1 or 2 feeders I have on my deck. I've had a hiatus from shooting for about 4 years. I'm going to see if I can get some shots at my garden stands of Turks Cap and Mexican petunia. That calls for lots of patience. I'm retired now so I have the time. 

Avatar
Announcements