I have been working to get some ideal hummingbird photos before they move South for the Winter and I am failing miserably at achieving perfection. I cannot freeze the wings and hope to get better shading with my flash setup. One success is the background which is a trumpet vine plant and I like how it looks. The lighting for the hummingbird is provided with 3 flashes. The SB-800 is slightly above and to the front right of the bird by about 16 inches. 2 SB-26 flashes, one positioned below center about 36 inches away and one laterally and front at about 38 inches away were used for shadow fill. I may have to ditch one of those as the bird appears too flat. And the wings were not frozen at 1/32 power. Perhaps I caught the hummingbird at full torque during the flight sequence. I expected the wings to have more definition. Ambient light was cloudy morning sun.
Specific Feedback Requested: I need assistance at flash placement and flash power to freeze the wings and make the image less flashy. Thank you for your help.
Pertinent technical details or techniques: D850 600mm f4 + 1.4 TC =850mm (1/250 sec. at f22, ISO 320, 4 flashes set at 1/32 power (manual settings set by Godox transmitter). Crop for comp, Levels, Topaz DeNoise, Rubber stamp tool. I dropped brightness down a bit after applying levels.
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites) No.
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I think the image is lovely and the blur is very nice, but obviously you are looking for frozen wings. And the BG is gorgeous!! But if the light on the BG is ambient, it may be that there is enough ambient exposure on the hummer from the ss that you are getting some blur from that. I would expect more of a ghost image look in that case, but worth checking. The ambient exposure on the subject needs to be about 3 stops under, or more, for all the light to be from the flashes. At 1/32 most flashes would give a duration of about 1/10,000 sec, but I’ve seen differing numbers for duration vs. power setting.
My cribsheet says to use 1/64 power, for which mine claim a duration of 1/11,520. I use 2 flashes on the bird and one on an artificial BG. Three on the bird would be better but I just have 3 flashes and no more than I use them, that will have to do. I shoot them in pretty deep shade with the ambient exposure at -3.
Thank you @Diane_Miller. There was not enough ambient light to cause ghosting. But your post got me thinking about the number of flashes and guide numbers. I may have to swap the SB-800 with one of the SB-26’s to the BG as it is a very strong flash compared to the SB-26’s. There might be too much of a difference between those two flash models to be on the bird at the same time. …Jim
Jim
All of my hummingbird work is done at 1/16 power with the flashes. I think your flashes are too far away from the bird, especially the ones at 36 and 38 inches. It is possible to get some blurring based on wing position no matter what you do, but your image looks like it is blurred from ambient light. Set up everything as you have it, turn off the transmitter, take a picture. If you see anything other than black, you have too much ambient light.
You said the ambient was cloudy morning sun. That is too much light, needs to be in deep shade. The other settings seem reasonable with the exception of your iso is pretty high for a pure flash image with the goal you’re trying to get. If you try to drop your flashes down to 1/64 power it won’t work because you’ll have to have the flashes so close to the bird that it won’t be feasible.
Flash position: you mentioned below center and laterally. Why, the sun is above us for all natural pictures. Don’t try to fill in the shadows. That is a mistake trying to make the light fill in all shadows, natural ambient pictures of hummingbirds from the sun have shadows.
Thank you @peter and @Keith_Bauer. I had one chance tonight and was able to get a shot off of one RTHB in almost pure darkness. I placed the flashes up fairly high, but they can be higherup for sure. They were a lot closer too which helped with the ISO. I tested the exposure with transmitter off and it was a pure black exposure. However, I still captured some ghosting in the wings and tail. The hummingbird’s body looks better and the wings are much closer to what I would like to get. I’ll be up at sunup tomorrow and will try again.
