Hummingbird Preening Itself on a Branch
2017-09-03, A Hummingbird on a branch near the feeder in the back yard. This one has been busy trying to chase away all the other Hummingbirds from the three f...
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2017-09-03, A Hummingbird on a branch near the feeder in the back yard. This one has been busy trying to chase away all the other Hummingbirds from the three feeders in the yard. I think if Hummingbirds were as big as eagles they would be dangerous.
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Sep, 2017Views
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Contest Finalist in Monthly Pro Vol 35 Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
In our backyard near Longview Texas.Time
We often sit in the backyard on the patio during breakfast. I set my camera up on a tripod and take pictures of the birds at the various feeders while Karen my wife reads. The time would bave been about 08:00AM.Lighting
The lighting was simple in that we just allow the low morning sun to light up the yard.Equipment
Camera: Nikon D800E, Lens: Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, Manfroto Tripod equipped with a Benro Ball Head. The camera is set at 600mm focal length, f/5, and aperature priority. Shutterspeeds are usually in the 200 - 400 range and I try to shoot at 100 ISO because I am expecting to crop the image and I want the best quality I can get.Inspiration
I like the challenge of trying to get these birds at rest. They almost never sit still but they do have favorite places to perch briefly between chasing each other off the feeders. I find these places often with the lens as they are not obvious with the naked eye. Once I find a place I focus the camera on that spot and wait. The wait is usually short and I will take between 200 and 300 images over the course of an hour while eating breakfast. Most of the images are junk and get thrown out but there is the occasional gem that I like to keep.Editing
The shoot is imported into Lightroom and I look carefully at each image throwing out any that are not focused and sharp. Then I use a basic Lightroom work flow to adjust white balance, shadows, light, exposure, cropping, etc and send that to Photoshop. In Photoshop I remove any distracting elements and I usually apply mild sharpening using the "Smart Sharpen" function. I then zoom into the image and go over it with a fine tooth comb removing any dust spots or other problems.In my camera bag
Nikon D800E, Olympus TG-4 Tough, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8, Nikkor 16mm Fisheye, Nikkor 85mm F/1.8, Nikkor 28-300mm F/3.5-5.6, Nikkor 105mm F/2.8 Micro and the Sigma 150- 600mm Zoom. There is a variety of filters along with Remote Releases and a Speedlight SB500 with a long cable for off camera use.Feedback
Practice and patience are both necessary for all wildlife however Hummingbirds don't require the extremes that you might have to go to for images of some animals and birds. Put up feeders and/or flowers the Hummers like to feed on, determine where they are likely to either hover or perch and get ready to take a picture at that spot. Take lots of images. If you are in their space often they will soon get used to you and if you stay still you can very close in some cases feeding out of your hand if you have a small hand feeder. (http://www.hummingbirdsplus.org/feeders/hand-held/) I like to use a very narrow depth of field to keep the background essentially a blur. It's best if the light from the morning sun isn't lighting up the understory of the trees at the back of the yard. This allows for a dark green backdrop to this outdoor hummingbird studio. I set up the camera on a Tripod with the largest aperature the lens will give me and set the ISO to 100 allowing the shutterspeed to be determined by the software. I use a single focal point focusing as much as possible on the eye of the bird and I use that single point to determine exposure as well. The friction on the ball head is loose allowing me to move the lens and camera easily but the tripod gives me enough support to avoid serious problems with Camera Shake.
