
Originally Posted by
Doug Brown
Multiple flash hummingbird photogrpahy uses flash as main light to freeze the wings of a hummingbird. All that is required of your shutter speed is that it's set slower than your camera's sync speed. You underexpose in camera by at least 3 stops and let your flashes do all the work. The flashes are set in manual mode and the power is set to a fraction of full power (in this case 1/16 power). The flash duration at 1/16 power is around 1/10,000 of a second. Because your camera settings produce a dark frame in the absence of flash, the flash duration becomes your effective shutter speed. That's how you can freeze a hummingbird's wings at 1/160.