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Thread: Visitor To A Day Lily

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    Default Visitor To A Day Lily

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Nikon D7000 w/Nikkor 80-400mm vr lens @ 370mm, tripod mounted
    ISO 640; matrix metering + 1.67; f/22, 1/320 sec
    foam board covered with light green fabric for background
    Illumination by SB-800 strobe on camera and four simultaneously triggered optical slave SB-26 strobes

    Post-processing: PS CS5 levels, curves, and cloning out of extra catch lights

    A little sugar water added to a day lily attracted this male ruby-throated hummingbird to a setup in our yard. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

    Norm

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    Nice sharpness for 1/320. The background is ok, I would prefer a more natural color. Great idea adding sugar water to the Lilly.

    Gary.

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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Norm:

    Very nicely captured, sharp, nice angle of hummer, neat to see the feet,appreciate the technical details.

    In regards to the background, I found that when I was doing butterflies, a little variation in the artificial background made it more interesting, natural looking. A friend of mine painted a soft green pattern on fabric, and we used that. It was dappled and looked quite natural.

    What slave system were you using on the SB-26s, since I don't think they will work with CLS?

    Cheers

    Randy
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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Like the pose and flower. Lighting looks even but it doesn't convey a sense of depth to the bird. Were your flashes set to manual power, and if so what power did you have them set to? I see some ghosting in the wings, and I'm not sure if that's from ambient light or from relatively higher flash power. Overall I think you could go a little brighter with this image. Agree with the others about the BG.
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    Thanks everyone for your comments!!

    I agree with Doug's ghosting comment and have cloned it out of my psd file. Maybe I can work more to reduce that in the future. And yes, the background could be more interesting or neutral. I'll see what I can do there also.

    To some extent I have not been too concerned about the background, because I am very interested in extracting hummingbirds that don't contact either a flower or feeder with PS onto a transparent background, and then positioning and sizing them in a flower garden background. Such extracted birds at flowers could of course also be placed over whatever background one wished. While purists might well object to such manipulations, I think that some artistic license should be available, as long as the artist fully discloses what he or she did.

    As for all of my settings, here they are:

    Camera: Manual, ISO 640, 1/320 sec, f/22, Matrix Metering + 1.67. Focus is also manual at f/22. So what I've done is to try to set up a zone of sharp focus in the plane of the flower, which I focus on.

    SB-800 strobe: TIL BL FP, -1 2/3, zoom 105mm, f/22.

    SB-26 optical slaves: Manual, ISO 100, zoom 50mm, f/5.6, power 1/16.

    I give you the foregoing information with some trepidation, because some of my settings might not make sense to the experts among you. If something doesn't compute and should be changed, please do let me know!

    The following comments are for Gary and Randy.

    Although my camera shutter speed was set to 1/320 sec, the action was in the shade and the strobes controlled, providing what was a much higher effective shutter speed.

    CLS compatibility of our slave strobes is not an issue, because they are really "dumb" agents, reacting very quickly to light from the SB-800.

    Finally, Linda and I arrived at our system settings through experimentation, and they work reasonably well for us. But please tell us how we can do better.

    Norm
    Last edited by Norm Dulak; 06-11-2011 at 10:48 AM.

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    I'm not a Nikon guy, but I think you are operating your SB 800 at a shutter speed faster than the sync speed of your D7000. If so your SB 800 may be strobing rather than emitting a single pulse of light. That may contribute to the ghosting.

    I don't think you need f/22 to get everything sharp. I'd open up a bit. I'd also drop the ISO to 400 or less. I do a lot of my hummingbirds at around f/16 and ISO 250-400. If you need more light, move your flashes closer to the feeder.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Brown View Post
    I'm not a Nikon guy, but I think you are operating your SB 800 at a shutter speed faster than the sync speed of your D7000. If so your SB 800 may be strobing rather than emitting a single pulse of light. That may contribute to the ghosting.

    I don't think you need f/22 to get everything sharp. I'd open up a bit. I'd also drop the ISO to 400 or less. I do a lot of my hummingbirds at around f/16 and ISO 250-400. If you need more light, move your flashes closer to the feeder.
    Thanks again Doug, this time for the ISO and aperture suggestions. But as for the sync speed, like the D300, the D7000 has a 1/320 (Auto FP) setting, so I think that's OK.

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    Further information from Doug has convinced me that 1/250 sec should be the camera shutter speed, to avoid undesirable strobing.

    Anyone else venturing into the fascinating world of multi-strobe hummingbird photography should also keep that in mind.
    Thanks Doug!

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    Nice photo, Norm
    I was going to also say I sync mine at 1/250 also.
    I can "freeze" the wings at times with that speed.
    Agree about the BG, though the effect is still very nice.

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    Thanks everyone! The feedback on this post has been excellent, and I really appreciate it!

    Norm

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