D600 Hummingbird pics

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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
These were shot with a D600 and a Sigma zoom lens that has a macro feature. The camera was on a tripod inside the house, shooting through a tinted window at the hummingbird feeder. The wings are blurry in the first pic, so I really upped the ISO to get a fast shutter speed in an attempt to freeze the wings. I used a pretty high aperture to get a good depth of field. You can really see the noise in the high ISO pic. This is a young scrawny bird. Unfortunately, the prettier ruby throats seemed scared by my close presence on the other side of the glass.

1/800th, F13, ISO 1600
Hbird1.JPG
1/2000th, F11, ISO 6400
Hbird2.JPG

I did not use a flash. The catchlight in the eye was added in Photoshop because those black eyes just looked so dead without it.
 
K

Kodiak

Senior Member
•

Hi Blade, ever thought to shoot HS-C on these little fellows? I'd be curious…

The dark eyes are part of the mystique of those birds, I think (very personal!)
that that the catchlight was not your better decision.
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Kodiak said:
•

Hi Blade, ever thought to shoot HS-C on these little fellows? I'd be curious…

The dark eyes are part of the mystique of those birds, I think (very personal!)
that that the catchlight was not your better decision.
Click to expand...

I think I was shooting high speed-continuous on these, though I was mixing it up due to the exposure adjustments. When I get home, maybe I will post a five shot series.

Hey, if you don't like the catchlights, you can touch a black sharpie to your screen and get rid of them. :)
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
The small aperture was to get a bigger depth of field, which still seems like only a few inches when the lens is in Macro mode.

For Kodiak, here's a series of five that I'm pretty sure was shot on high speed -continuous mode while still on the slower shutter speed. (And no catchlights added!)

Hseries.jpg
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
I was interested to see your shots, but my eyes aren't very good. So I can't hardly see them. I think it would be cool seeing the humming bird coming to a landing in series. I've never shot a humming bird and I'm fascinated by their wing speed. :)
Blade Canyon said:
The small aperture was to get a bigger depth of field, which still seemed like only a few inches when the lens is in Macro mode.

For Kodiak, here's a series of five that I'm pretty sure was shot on high speed -continuous mode while still on the slower shutter speed. (And no catchlights added!)

View attachment 45807
Click to expand...
 
P

PapaST

Senior Member
That's a great exercise with shutterspeed... freezing a hummingbird's wings. Maybe you can freeze a bullet mid-flight too. lol ;)

Very nice work Blade.
 
B

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
PapaST said:
That's a great exercise with shutterspeed... freezing a hummingbird's wings. Maybe you can freeze a bullet mid-flight too. lol ;)
Click to expand...

The story behind the first bullet-in-flight photo is very interesting. The man was stumped about how to operate the shutter fast enough and how to stop the film for each shot in a rapid series. In other words, he wanted a super-fast movie camera.

He finally realized that if the flash was short enough to freeze the bullet in flight, then he didn't even need a shutter, and the film could move continuously as the strobe flashed repeatedly for 1/20,000th of a second, because each flash also "froze" a single image onto the moving film stock.
 
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PapaST

Senior Member
Blade Canyon said:
The story behind the first bullet-in-flight photo is very interesting. The man was stumped about how to operate the shutter fast enough and how to stop the film for each shot in a rapid series. In other words, he wanted a super-fast movie camera.

He finally realized that if the flash was short enough to freeze the bullet in flight, then he didn't even need a shutter, and the film could move continuously as the strobe flashed repeatedly for 1/20,000th of a second, because each flash also "froze" a single image onto the moving film stock.
Click to expand...

Simple yet ingenious.
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Blade Canyon said:
These were shot with a D600 and a Sigma zoom lens that has a macro feature. The camera was on a tripod inside the house, shooting through a tinted window at the hummingbird feeder. The wings are blurry in the first pic, so I really upped the ISO to get a fast shutter speed in an attempt to freeze the wings. I used a pretty high aperture to get a good depth of field. You can really see the noise in the high ISO pic. This is a young scrawny bird. Unfortunately, the prettier ruby throats seemed scared by my close presence on the other side of the glass.

1/800th, F13, ISO 1600
View attachment 45797
1/2000th, F11, ISO 6400
View attachment 45798

I did not use a flash. The catchlight in the eye was added in Photoshop because those black eyes just looked so dead without it.
Click to expand...

Actually I like the first pic with blurry wings. IMHO photos that freeze the wings' action reminds me of photos of helicopters and airplanes where photographers completely freeze the propellers. Those photos just don't look quite natural. Nice job though! What Sigma zoom macro lens did you use?
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
The lens is a Sigma 70-300mm which has a Macro switch/lock for the 200-300mm range.

Okay, Bill16, here goes nothing. It should be a lot bigger.

Hseries1.jpg
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Well, the pictures won't display large on the forum if it's one big file, so here are all five as separate files. Hope you can see these all right, Bill.

hb1.jpghb2.jpghb3.jpghb4.jpghb5.jpg


Kodiak, the catchlights in the bottom three pics are from the reflection on the feeder... not from me!
 
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hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Blade Canyon said:
I think I was shooting high speed-continuous on these, though I was mixing it up due to the exposure adjustments. When I get home, maybe I will post a five shot series.

Hey, if you don't like the catchlights, you can touch a black sharpie to your screen and get rid of them. :)
Click to expand...

Touché! ;)
 
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