Or, How To Spend Money Without Trying!
It really IS worth it though!
Over the years I have refined my own personal approach to photographing Hummingbirds. While this type of photography is VERY difficult, rest assured that you can master it as long as you build a bag of photographic equipment that will allow you to overcome these problems!
Green Violet-ear Hummingbird
But…. when most people think about Hummingbird photography the first thing that usually comes to mind are the beautiful colors of these small birds and how to take out their camera and record them for later enjoyment! But really we should be thinking about only 1 thing……
SPEED & MOTION. These 2 issues are the most difficult problems that you will have to overcome unless you are aiming for the standard “bird on a stick image”!. Take a look at the 2 images shown here. Both are nice, pleasing images, but which one really grabs you by the shoulders and screams “HUMMINGBIRD!”? Like I said, both are great images, and even the Green to the left is stunning in its color and pose. But ACTION that has been captured by the camera goes way beyond the image of the bird,
it tells a story!
Adult Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird In Flight
Getting Started
I shoot Canon equipment, so everything described here is aligned with that in mind. There are two types of images that you can take of hummingbirds, at rest and in flight. Each type of image requires a different approach.
By far, at rest is the easiest and will require no special equipment except for a lens in the 300 to 400mm range and an extension tube at 25mm to modify its minimum focus point. You will also need a means of providing extra light on the bird to overcome high contrast in the shadow areas.
Flight photography is a different issue. Due to the high frequency of wing movement there is NO way to stop the wing motion with shutter speed. For this you MUST use high speed flash units to “freeze” the wings mid stroke. It is here that I will spend most of my time talking about the necessary equipment to do just this.
Some background:
Most Hummingbirds move their wings up to 90 beats per second. Sounds fast but we have cameras capable of 1/8000 second shutter and that should stop that motion right? WRONG! If you were able to shoot at 1/8000 s with bright enough natural light for a good exposure then you stand a slight chance of actually stopping the wing motion!
Note on LUCK:
As a Hummingbird reverses its wing stroke from up to down and back you can get lucky and capture the image just at that moment with standard equipment. There is a slight pause at the reversal when a normal camera (even without a flash) will stop all of the motion! Whatever technique you use, get out there and shoot!
Canon 1DMK3
I use a Canon 1DMK3 DSLR body for all of my bird photography. The reason for this is the high speed image capture, about 9 frames/second. I also like the mode controls and the 45 focus points as well as the advanced multi-processors to split the various camera functions.
Canon 400DO
Now, while you can use ANY DSLR camera body to photograph Hummingbirds, your choice of lenses is a different matter. Hummingbirds a brave little gladiators and once they get used to you around the yard, will pay you little attention. Nevertheless you will want to fill the frame with your birds! This requires a high quality lens at least 300mm but 400mm would be much better. Your lens choice is where you should be throwing your money, after all, you will likely replace your DSLR every few years but keep your lenses for at least a decade! I use the Canon 400 DO/IS lens, but you would be just as happy with the Canon 400 L 5.6 lens as well. A lot of photographers have the Canon 100-400 L/IS in their bag but as a rule they just don’t produce sharp images!
Canon 400 DO & 100-400L
In order to fill the frame with these small birds, a lens in the 400mm range just makes more sense. As I said before, the 100-400 L/IS is a widely owned lens but in my experience it is just not sharp enough. If you do own one of these, try it for a few months locked at 400mm to see if you have better luck with it than I did. Here you can see the difference (at least on the outside) between these two lenses. I want you to take note of the size difference between these two lenses, the DO is much larger than the 100-400, but it is a little lighter. Another thing to remember is that the 100-400 is a push pull zoom which forces outside air in and out of the lens along with dust! You can pick up the 100-400 for about $1200 on the web and the 400 DO for about $5500!
Canon 400mm L f\5.6
This is a big difference and is the main reason that most photographers look at the 3rd alternative, the Canon 400 L f/5.6 which can be picked up for about $1200. The f/5.6 is a VERY sharp lens (Canon states it is their sharpest lens) and a good choice for all birds including Hummingbirds!
Canon 70-200 f/4
You do not have to have a 300mm or 400mm lens for FLIGHT shots though, a GOOD 200mm lens like the Canon 70-200 f/4 (600.00 new) will generate VERY SHARP images. But since it is so short you have to move the camera/tripod closer to the feeder stage. The birds don’t care and will adapt to this intrusion into their personal space just fine. You cannot do this with perch shots, the birds will not allow it at all! But if you decide to go this route you will have a SUPER SHARP lens that will last a lifetime!
Now, these longer lenses have an issue that must be overcome in order to get close enough to your subject to fill the frame. They all have a minimum focus distance around 3 meters which is much too far away. You can overcome this in 2 ways or a combination of them both.There are two ways to increase the subject size with you existing lens. The first is to decrease the minimum focus that the lens can normally use allowing you to move physically closer to your subject. The second is to leave the minimum focus alone and physically increase the length of the lens in MM by adding an extender between you lens and camera which will multiply the effective lens length.
Canon 25mm Extension Tube
Pictured to the left is a Canon 25mm extension tube. This device goes between the lens and camera and has the same effect as moving a projector further away from its screen, it makes the image larger! On a camera it has a 2nd effect in that it also reduces the minimum focus distance! You can purchase these in different sizes for different minimum focus control! This is my main tool that I use to modify my long lens to get physically closer to my subject! You can purchase them individually or in sets of 3 different sizes.
Kenko Extension Tubes
Kenko makes the set on the right for Canon EF lenses which will pass the computer control signals back and forth between the lens and the camera and costs much less than the Canon ones.
1.4 Teleconverter
To the left is a Canon 1.4 extender. It is attached between the lens and the camera and will multiply the focal length of whatever lens it is attached to by 1.4. This has no effect on the minimum focus distance but will enlarge the subject.
You can combine both the extension tubes and the tele-converter for increase effect.
Light Control Through High Speed Flash
OK, the hardest issue in Hummingbird photography is stopping its wing motion using high speed flash. You could purchase a set of expensive height speed flash units to attach to your camera, but they really are single trick ponies! Wouldn’t you really like to have a flash system that you could use for both Hummingbird photography and normal photography?
ST-E2 Remote Flash Controller
Canon 580 EX2 Flash Units
What I use is a set of Canon 580 EX2 flash units set in manual mode to control their pulse width. Then I control them with a wireless Canon STE-2 mounted on the camera. This system allows you to control any number of remote flash units which is perfect for Hummingbird photography.
OK, enough of this for today. next I will talk about how to put this all together and to actually use it all!
Lowcountry Hummingbirds & High Speed Photography 