Humming Bird

Two differnt ones actually. C&C please.


20D W/ 70-200mm L USM

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These birds are very difficult to capture period...very tiny and very fast. My suggestions would be to get at eye level with the bird and a little closer...stay very still or use a blind. Also provide some perches near the feeder as they will rest and offer opportunities to capture them when they aren't moving. Use the center focus only and 1,000 sec or higher for flight shots. Nice start and with a little practice you should see your shots improve each time...

You have beautiful visitors. Is that a male Rufous Hummingbird?
#1 is pretty cool. However, it is not as sharp as images normally come from the 70-200mm L. Is it a big crop? It was taken at f4, 1/640s ISO100. IMHO, the DoF is a little too narrow. With the subject constantly moving left/right/up/down, you could easily miss the focus unless they sit still. So, try f5.6 for wider DoF, ISO400 for faster shutter speed, and fill flash next time .
As for #2, the feeder silhouette and pano crop just don't work well, IMHO of course.

Also, it would be much easier for other folks to give you more accurate critique/comment if you post the exif data along with the image. Keep shooting and posting.

yup , thats a rufus male.

nice work but like was suggested a little soft. being a hummer afficianado and photographer(my favorite bird) i can tell you, all you have to do is be a little more patient and put up another 5-6 feeders.

you have a lot more huummers than you think . the rufus is one of the most agressive breeds of hummer and will drive off any intruder to his food source.

put the feeders in a place where you will have correct lighting and hang them lower so you can get better shots.

cheap walmart plastic feeders and 1 cup white sugar mixed with 4 cups water is all you need for food.

i have about 75-100 hummers at my house right now and will have over 300 during the peak season in july and august.

you don't need a blind for hummers. get them enough to eat and they will ignore you while while you are standing 5 feet away.

this is one of my feeders and i have 16 of them hung up right now.

get the hummers coming to you like this

Thanks for the critique!

I don't know exactly what kind of humming bid they are I'm quite new to bird spotting.

I do have quite a few shots of them on the actual perch but I like to see them frozen in flight.

Both are 100% crops at the full 200mm with that lens which is why they appear somewhat blurry.

top was hand held.
#Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/640 second = 0.00156 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 40/10 = F4.00
# Exposure Program = manual control (1)
# ISO Speed Ratings = 100
# Exif Version = 0221
# Original Date/Time = 2007:04:22 15:02:23
# Digitization Date/Time = 2007:04:22 15:02:23
# Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
# Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 610922/65536
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/640.00 second
# Aperture Value (APEX) = 262144/65536
Aperture = F4.00
# Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/2 = 0.00
# Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
# Flash = Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
# Focal Length = 200/1 mm = 200.00 mm

Bottom was with a tripod and remote.
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/4000 second = 0.00025 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 50/10 = F5.00
# ISO Speed Ratings = 800
# Exif Version = 0221
# Original Date/Time = 2007:04:20 17:45:39
# Digitization Date/Time = 2007:04:20 17:45:39
# Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
# Compressed Bits per Pixel = 3/1 = 3.00
# Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 784190/65536
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/4000.02 second
# Aperture Value (APEX) = 304340/65536
Aperture = F5.00
# Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/3 = 0.00
# Max Aperture Value (APEX) = 262144/65536 = 4.00
Max Aperture = F4.00
# Metering Mode = average (1)
# Flash = Flash did not fire
# Focal Length = 200/1 mm = 200.00 mm

Thanks again for the suggestions. More to come soon.

The top shot is interesting. At first I thought it was a shrimp with wings. Well, I guess it is a shrimp with wings, but it looked at first like a real shrimp.

another with the 300d

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Isaac86hatch wrote in post #3096007
another with the 300d

# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/2500 second = 0.00040 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 50/10 = F5.00
# ISO Speed Ratings = 800
# Exif Version = 0220
# Original Date/Time = 2007:04:20 17:47:30
# Digitization Date/Time = 2007:04:20 17:47:30
# Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
# Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 739752/65536
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/2500.01 second
# Aperture Value (APEX) = 304340/65536
Aperture = F5.00
# Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/3 = 0.00
# Flash = Flash did not fire
# Focal Length = 200/1 mm = 200.00 mm

This image makes the viewers think the blue bottle is the subject because it is exposed and focus correctly. Whereas the hummer is underexposed badly.
I assume the bg is the sky for this particular image. It's difficult to shoot a small subject that's backlit. So, there are a few things you can do to give you better photo opportunity.
1. lower the feeder until you can get some darker background (trees from far back, woonden fence (non-white), neighbor's dark roof....anything that's not too bright).
2. If #1 is impossible, try raise the camera until it is the same level, or higher than the feeder. Same purpose, to get darker bg and avoid cloudy sky as bg.
3. if both #1 and #2 are impossible, increase your EC (exposure Compensation) to +2/3, or even +1. If either 1 or 2 is achieveable, skip this step.
4. In addition to #1,2 and 3, pop up your flash, increase the FEC(Flash Exposure Compensation, different from EC). If you have an external flash unit like 430EX speedlite, even better.

Give that another try and see if that improves your hummer images. Remember to post back, ok.