The Truth Be Told...

[Arthur Morris]

About two years ago I thought that I would likely go to my grave without ever photographing hummingbirds with a high speed flash set-up. My friend and student, the lovely Ms. Linda Robbins, changed that line of thinking. Linda learned the techniques from her friend Rich and from some stuff on line by John Gerlach and by Ralph Paonessa. Ralph was a student of mine aboout 15 years ago and worked for me for about a year in 1995 after I had lost my wife Elaine to breast cancer. He is one of the best hummingbird photographers around. Funny how things come full circle.

Anyway, here's the truth: Linda taught me everything that I know about high speed flash hummingbird photography.

This White-necked Jacobin was photographed on a five flash setup at Canopy Tower, Panama with the Canon 500mm f/4 L IS lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS 1D MIII. ISO 400. Manual Mode: 1/300 sec. at f/18. Exposure determined by histogram check.

Don't be shy; all comments are welcome. Later and love, artie

ps: Linda is currently working hard on a Guide to High Speed Flash Hummingbird Photography

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Beautiful bird. I really like the pose and BG. There is a very slight sharpening halo and the whites look very bright on my monitor.

Kudos to Ms. Robbins! :)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Alex. I have taken to lightening the J-PEGS a tad since the shadows tend to go dark during J-PEG creation. The whites are fine on the optimized TIFF. Where do you see the sharpening halos? I do not have a very good eye for detail--honest. IAC, I made a new (generic) action for 800 pixel J-PEGs and may have increased the sharpening a bit too much. Your help as always is greatly appreciated.

later and love, artie

ps: BPN is lucky to have you!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks Alex. I have taken to lightening the J-PEGS a tad since the shadows tend to go dark during J-PEG creation. The whites are fine on the optimized TIFF. Where do you see the sharpening halos? I do not have a very good eye for detail--honest. IAC, I made a new (generic) action for 800 pixel J-PEGs and may have increased the sharpening a bit too much. Your help as always is greatly appreciated.

later and love, artie

ps: BPN is lucky to have you!

Thanks, Artie. :) I see the halo around neck, head and bill. I think it would look great with a bit less sharpening, too.

[Gary Dumer]

Beautiful Shot Artie!!! Crisp Detail, Light and Eye contact

[Dick Boone]

Artie, I just have a question or two... You created this image at 1/300th of a second @ f18. One thing I see is softness in the bird's right wing, even at this extreme depth of focus. Was this blur the result of insufficient DOF, which doesn't seem plausible to me, or slowness of the shutter? I haven't tried hummingbirds yet, but would like to. BTW - killer image!

God bless.....Dick

[Terry Olmsted]

Thanks for sharing this, Artie! I am most interested in the technique.

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, I just have a question or two... You created this image at 1/300th of a second @ f18. One thing I see is softness in the bird's right wing, even at this extreme depth of focus. Was this blur the result of insufficient DOF, which doesn't seem plausible to me, or slowness of the shutter? I haven't tried hummingbirds yet, but would like to. BTW - killer image!

God bless.....Dick

Hi Dick, Glad that you liked. The blur is not the result of insufficent DOF nor the result of the shutter speed. It is the fast short flash duration that freezes the wings. With all of the flashes at 1/16 power the effective shutter speed is something like 1/4000 sec. And strangely enough that was not enoough to freeze the near-wing which was beating faster than we can imagine...

later and love, artie

[John Cooper]

Everything looks spot on at my end Art - Simply a superb image of this hummer - inspires me to get over to Canopy Tower!!

[Raymond Barlow]

very captivating image Artie, the bird is beautiful, action very well captured. The wing position is excellent, I like the bg tones and colours., I do see the small sharpening halo around the dark tones of the bird., slightly less sharpening in the websized image would really help the image imo.

one question... would you consider this set up a near studio situation?? I personally have never been involved in anything like this, and I do find it interesting., in fact, I never used any kind of flash for my imaging, let alone 5!! It is a new skill, worth studying, and learning., and I look forward to Linda's guide.

Also, I do like this forum, and find the reading and viewing very informative, and enjoyable.

[Dave Mellenbruch]

Great shot Artie! The whites do seem a bit blown on my monitor but love the colors and the pose. I saw your Panama bulletin and all I can say is WOW!!!!! I'm going to try your setup this spring. Dave.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Artie I love the pose in this image and the fact that the hummingbird seems to be looking directly at you. Beautiful colors and detail and a killer BG. Thanks for sharing this beauty !!!

[Glenn Bartley]

The bird is absolutely gorgeous. But you already know I am not crazy about this BG.

[Arthur Morris]

Raymond wrote: "One question... would you consider this set up a near-studio situation?? "

No. I would consider it a total studio situation. You build a set. The birds come onto the set. You try to focus and hope to get lucky. It was all new to me, but I am warning everyone, it is addictive...

Glenn wrote: "The bird is absolutely gorgeous. But you already know I am not crazy about this BG."

Linda and I are anxiously waiting to see your improved background(s).

later and love to all, artie

ps to John et al: If you make the trip to Panama, be sure to get to both Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge. Both were amazing. Everyone can see the Panama images and learn about the two lodges here: http://birdsasart.com/bn250.htm

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi Artie,
This is an excellent shot IMO, and I personally don't really see what is wrong with the BG, but that could be just me.

Great sharpness, wing postition, eye contact and colours.

I do miss an anchor point, a flower, for the bird. Maybe not in this particular crop but I think zooming out on the subject including a flower would make for a stronger shot.

I am sure you got those as well. Otherwise a perfect shot!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie,
This is an excellent shot IMO, and I personally don't really see what is wrong with the BG, but that could be just me.

Great sharpness, wing postition, eye contact and colours.

I do miss an anchor point, a flower, for the bird. Maybe not in this particular crop but I think zooming out on the subject including a flower would make for a stronger shot.

I am sure you got those as well. Otherwise a perfect shot!

Hi Krijn,

I love the background. Not much room for a flower with the bird facing-a-bit-toward-me pose... Sometimes we set up to have the birds come to flowers, usually not--we most often work with the feeders. The tighter you work, the more of the beautiful detail you get. I love 'em both with and without flowers.

later and love, artie

ps: Have never gotten this species coming to a flower...

[Blake Shadle]

Beautiful image, Artie. I like the background. This image is something that you created, from background to exposure. This is a bird, as art ;) Noticable sharpening halo already mentioned.


Anyway, here's the truth: Linda taught me everything that I know about high speed flash hummingbird photography.

Way to go, Linda!

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

Artie
very nicely done - no nits
agree that some HB's just won't come to flowers - your BG complements the bird perfectly
i assume this was manual focus - did you ever have luck with auto focus or will Linda explain in the manual
suspect this explains blur on left wing tip (DOF effect) because if it was a flash effect, would expect the blur across both wings as they should move more or less in synchrony

[Arthur Morris]

Artie
very nicely done - no nits
agree that some HB's just won't come to flowers - your BG complements the bird perfectly
i assume this was manual focus - did you ever have luck with auto focus or will Linda explain in the manual
suspect this explains blur on left wing tip (DOF effect) because if it was a flash effect, would expect the blur across both wings as they should move more or less in synchrony

#1: Glad that you liked the backgrond. Most folks do and so do I.

#2: The only time that I use MF with the hummers is when they are coming to a flower... All the rest are AF (which is the norm). Not sure where you got the idea that I was not using AF...

#3: If I had been using manual focus it would have nothing at all to do with the blurred near wing tip. It is my belief that in many instances a hummer's wings do not move synchronously.

#4: While I agree that some hummers will not come onto a set for flowers I did not say that about this species (though it may be true). I did say this: "Sometimes we set up to have the birds come to flowers, usually not--we most often work with the feeders."

later and love, artie

[Thonnaksar NOP]

Hi Artie,
Very impressive set-up and stunning capture !
I've never tried multiple-flash shooting and can't imagine how hard the technique is. However, I have a few questions to ask you :
#1 : Why f/18 ? At this extreme aperture, the image quality must suffert from diffraction ?
#2 : Did you have enough time to set the right exposure by histogramme check with the bird in your "studio" or did you do it before ?
#3 : Were all the flash set manually to 1/16 power ? If yes, how do you know when to release the shutter ? You might have an anchor point where the exposure will be perfect...In this shot, the bird must be too close to one of the flash (the white bellie area).

I'm just trying to understand your technique...