Eastern Spinebill hovering on banksia flower spike II
Thanks everyone for your helpful feedback on the first post in this series taken using the high-speed flash set-up described earlier. In this capture the spinebill has a more favourable head angle than in the previous post.
Canon 5DIII + 600 mm f/4L II, 600EX-RT flash + Better Beamer, 430EX II flash + Better Beamer, RS-80N3 remote shutter release, Gitzo 3532LS tripod, Kirkphoto King Cobra gimbal.
Manual, f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO 400, 1/8 flash power both units.
Spectacular capture, Ian. Your flash setup has worked perfectly, catching the detail where needed. Great we can see the eye and the entire beak. The wing position and slight blur work well. Beautiful bird.
Nice flash work Ian, Shame the bird is not facing towards you but a great capture all the same, the colours are spot on, detail is great, these guys are little speedsters you did well to capture it at all.
Great flash work and capture. I'm surprised that you stopped the action that well at 1/200, I would have expected the wings to blur more. I like the action and also you did capture some eye in the shot which is a plus.
What a beautiful hummer. Nice pose and colours. Have you ever thought of adding 2 more flashes? It would become a better image IMO if you could point a flash on the BG. It would look more natural and less flashy. I think that these multi flash images are at it's best when you can hardly see that a flash has been used.
I like it, Ian. I like the fact that the bird's body is facing in our direction; the lack of direct eye contact is not an issue for me since he is focused on his flower. And I like the flower not dominating the frame here. Well done.
Amazing .... This is my fave one Ian. I like how you cropped most of the food source from the image, just left enough to show how nice it is. The bird looks splendid. You can almost feel the movement of the wings. The head angle dont bother me, the eye is perfect. Well done
Wonderful capture -- I love the lighting on the bird. I have two regular flash units that I aim at the birds and a macro ring-light flash that I use for light on an artificial BG. It's an adequate budget rig.
Thanks everyone for your generous comments and helpful advice.
Steve, the success of this technique is based on arranging for the flash to provide the main light. It works best in shade, overcast conditions, early or late in the day when the ambient light is low. In these situations, the flash light is the main source contributing to the exposure even if the shutter is open for 1/200 sec. I use this shutter speed because it is the fastest flash sync speed available on my camera; some cameras have a faster sync speed and this is an advantage. The flash pulse width at full output power is typically 1/750 sec which is still not fast enough to 'freeze' the action. However, if the flash output power is turned down to say 1/8 full power, then the pulse width is about 1/5000 sec, enough to capture most bird action. Small humming birds require an even shorter effective exposure time which can be achieved using 1/16 flash power (pulse width about 1/8000 sec).
Tom, you are quite correct in suggesting that more flash units are an advantage. When I took this series in June last year I only had my 600EX-RT and my wife's 430EX II flash units. The resulting images encouraged me to buy two more flashes so that I now have three 600EX-RT and one 430EX II available for this kind of set-up. The background is dark in these images because the target was 4 m above ground and it was difficult enough arranging for the slave flash to be mounted near the bird at this height. You will find a picture of my set-up on the second pane of my post on 28 August 2014. The background was bushland about 15 m away and is way under-exposed in the images. To get a brighter background I would need to put an artificial background close to the target area which was too difficult in this case.
Hi Ian, I really like the angle of the spinebill in this, and a bonus that we can still see that beautiful red eye. Nice and sharp, and the colours pop nicely against the darker BG. Once again, great flashwork.
This is quite a dynamic image, and I like the unique angle. The bird's feathers simply glisten against that black BG and the flower matches your bird so well. Well planned and executed.
Eastern Spinebill hovering on banksia flower spike II
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The bird looks splendid. You can almost feel the movement of the wings. The head angle dont bother me, the eye is perfect. Well done 
