Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Another incredible hummer - excellent shot!

I really like the variation of the background against the blue sky. Very nice Alan.

Awesome Alan!

Great shot. I love all the details you captured.

Your background works very well. I honestly can't tell it's artificial. The bird and flower are beautiful.

Excellent job, Alan!!

Alan,
You could have fooled me with that BG. It really looks realistic. This type of shooting must be tough with film. With digital one could tell immediately whether or not the exposure was OK.

Very nice job.

Alan,

Outstanding work! Everything works together beautifully!

Wow!

Alan:

You and Juan are really intriguing me with these multiflash hummer setups. I am most interested in seeing how well the technique can capture a true, natural feel.
You've done really well with your background, here. I have always thought that a sprayed board in a mottled pattern would give good results, and this certainly proves the point.
How are the two lights on the bird deployed? Do you plan one as the "main" light and one as the fill? If so, is there a way you could cut back on the power of the "fill" unit, so that the undersides of the leaves would be a little darker? If you did that, I think this image would be close to perfect.
Interesting trick with the sugar water! Insteresting Salvia, too. My wife tells me it's "Strata".

aj

Alan,

The pose and action are great! The BG color and brightness is perfect. The foreground lighting however looks artificial to my eye. Perhaps reducing the output or angle of one of the foreground flashes would help.

Alan,

Great shot. The hummer is sharp and in a nice pose. The background looks very natural.

[quote="ajhand"]Alan:

You and Juan are really intriguing me with these multiflash hummer setups. I am most interested in seeing how well the technique can capture a true, natural feel.
You've done really well with your background, here. I have always thought that a sprayed board in a mottled pattern would give good results, and this certainly proves the point.
How are the two lights on the bird deployed? Do you plan one as the "main" light and one as the fill? If so, is there a way you could cut back on the power of the "fill" unit, so that the undersides of the leaves would be a little darker? If you did that, I think this image would be close to perfect.
Interesting trick with the sugar water! Insteresting Salvia, too. My wife tells me it's "Strata".[quote]

A.J. and Bruce:

The camera and flashes are set to manual at pre-determined settings, so its the distance of the flash to subject that determins the exposure. To use one of the flashes as fill, you would need to pull the flash back, not change the power on the flash. The lower the power setting on the flash, the shorter the duration of light, which is what freezes the wing motion. All flashes must be set to the same duration to avoid ghosting.

As for shooting with film and not knowing the results. I did some testing first and use the exact same setting every time I do a setup, knowing that it will be exposed correctly everytime. Here's how I do it.

I set the camera to 1/250 shutter speed and the apature to F13. I place two flashes at 45 degrees to the bird. The flashes are placed exactly 12 inches to the subject. To get the BG to expose like the bird you have to set the flash double the distance from the BG. 24 inches in this case. The settings on the flash are: Manual, 70MM zoom and 1/32 power. Once this is all set up, I take a meter reading from a handheld meter and record the F-stop. I then take a reading on the BG and move the flash in or out untill I get the same reading. (usually the flash is double the distance that the bird flashes are) as the flashes on the bird. Depending on the color of the BG, depends on distance of the flash. In this photo, the BG is very light, so more distance with the flash was needed. I have determined that a 1/32 pwr or less is needed to freeze the wings and at least F13 to get the whole bird in focus. With my recorded settings, I do the same setup wether I'm in Arizona or my backyard knowing that I have control over exposure and DOF. All I'm left with is just to be creative. Shooting Hummers and doing the setups is a lot of fun and can be very addictive. Sorry for rambling.

Alan:

That wasn't rambling at all, it was very instructive. Thanks

aj

Thanks for a lesson from the master of the setup. This is a gorgeous shot of the hummer.

jn

Very well done. This is something I've been wanting to try and just haven't got around to it.

Thanks for sharing!

You're getting me very upset, Alan.

Alan, This is drop dead gorgeous.

Bill Keown

Alan:

I love it a lot, very artistic.

AJ: For Canon digital shoters I am working on an article that I am going to submit to NSN. For a draft e mail me at jbahamon@aol.com