what went wrong?

I'm trying to shoot this humming bird in my yard but I can't seem to get the settings right. Shooting Nikon D7000 with a Tamron 70-200mm

Try changing the metering mode to 'spot'. By default, Nikon's matrix metering tries to balance the whole frame, often leaving your subject in the dark. I would also suggest using a bit longer focal length so that your subject fills a bit more of the frame (although you could always crop I suppose).

Also you could investigate the use of "flash" to light up your subject... keep trying, you'll get there, it's a steep learning curve but well worth the results.
cheers

Backgrounds that are significantly brighter than the intended subject will just about always result in the camera under exposing the subject. In the matrix metering mode, the camera is programmed to make sure (or to do it's best) that whites aren't burnt out and blacks aren't clipped too much - so to get the sky looking awesome, the darker subject is almost black.

Try swapping to spot metering. Get your subject in the center of your frame. Look at the settings the camera uses to expose correctly for the spot. When you move your camera to compose the image, depending on what 'mode' you have your camera in, those settings will likely change. Learn about the AE/L and AF/L buttons on the back of your camera to lock the settings. Failing that, if you are in Manual Mode, the settings are always what you set them to.

The important thing is to KEEP PRACTICING.

This is probably a RTFM moment but I'll ask anyhow.... I use back button focus, is there a way to ALSO get it to exposure lock at the same time? When I recompose and then shoot, currently it exposes for wherever the focus point is, instead of where I had focused.

10 Gauge said:

This is probably a RTFM moment but I'll ask anyhow.... I use back button focus, is there a way to ALSO get it to exposure lock at the same time? When I recompose and then shoot, currently it exposes for wherever the focus point is, instead of where I had focused.

Click to expand...

Yeah... You can set the shutter release for ae lock in buttons setup.

Bada bing! Thank you @ScottinPollock!

10 Gauge said:

This is probably a RTFM moment but I'll ask anyhow.... I use back button focus, is there a way to ALSO get it to exposure lock at the same time? When I recompose and then shoot, currently it exposes for wherever the focus point is, instead of where I had focused.

Click to expand...

Assign the FN button to "AE Lock Only". f2 in the Custom Setting menu...
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What's the difference between f2-4 and g1-3??? They are to assign the same buttons?

Ok found c1 for shutter release AE lock, gonna give that a shot, thank you!

Hate to thread jack, but one last question.... When playing back images or reviewing images on the screen, what button do I press or is there a setting to display the shot details like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and/or a histogram?

10 Gauge said:

Hate to thread jack, but one last question.... When playing back images or reviewing images on the screen, what button do I press or is there a setting to display the shot details like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and/or a histogram?

Click to expand...

Playback menu/display options... Then you can cycle thru them with up/down joystick.

10 Gauge said:

What's the difference between f2-4 and g1-3??? They are to assign the same buttons?

Click to expand...

It appears that "f" is for shooting stills, while "g" is related to movie mode... but I don't think I've ever shot a movie with my DSLR so I'm totally speculating when I say that.

10 Gauge said:

Ok found c1 for shutter release AE lock, gonna give that a shot, thank you!

Click to expand...

Well I think the answer to your question lies in the Custom Setting menu... Somewhere. Good luck!
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To the OP. Like the others said, try spot metering and try to get closer or zoom in more. As also mentioned, flash is something to play with too. On-board might be a little weak for the job, but if you have something more powerful, you can have some fun.
I probably have a hundred shots invested in this hummingbird, its a wonder the poor thing is not blind. I think they are actually getting used to the flash, it really doesn't scare them anymore.
Here's one of my better ones, original size and final crop. This was daytime, but stopped down quite a bit. Heavy tree cover behind. I've got a few more pixels to work with on the d7100, but you could still get a decent shot not cropping so tight. I'm finding the hummingbirds harder to flash than other birds. I guess they are iridescent. If the angle is just right, they glow like a road sign and look really bad. Still learning.

One of the easier and fastest ways to overcome the bright background dark subject problems is to just use the Exposure Compensation dial to overexpose the shot. probably by at least 2 stops to start with, Shoot and then look at the shot and see if there is detail in the bird if it is still dark the go more This is fast and effective. It would be very difficult to use spot metering on a humming bird since they more so much. Center weighted would be a little easier than matrix though and would give you a little better starting point. I shoot Bird in Flight often and I have a User setting set for it and it starts with a +2 exposure to start with.

Here's one from a few years back with remote flash, shot at dusk. I've shot them in daylight as well and it takes patience and practice.