Trogon Photo Tours

December 2016 - This month's newsletter discusses when to use flash photographing hummingbirds under mostly natural conditions (as opposed to setups) the images were taken on our Peru photo tour in November. 

Sparkling Violetear photographed November 2016, Huembo Lodge, Peru.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/200 F6.3, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering -1.3, 580ex flash at -0.3 ETTL, Better Beamer, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  When the light is low and I want to stop a hummingbird in flight, this is typically the method that I use, I underexpose compared to what the camera is metering and then I use the flash on fairly high power.  This way  you get a blending of exposures  - the flash duration being pretty fast helps freeze the body  of the bird., In this case I got a bit lucky and the wings are pretty well frozen also, typically with this method they would be a bit blurred.  This is one of the few setups that I tried on our Peru tour, this particular one was at the feeder that the Marvelous Spatuletails frequented.  We only got a couple of birds into the setup and the hummingbirds in Peru didn't seem to want to come in to setups much so we concentrated on photographing them either at the feeders or especially feeding on natural flowers.  Due to the high amount of flash used with this technique, the images look a bit overflashed but to get a sharp image of a flying hummingbird at a reasonable iso in low light, this is the only way to do it with just one flash.  I wrote more about this technique of underexposing on the camera to freeze the body of a hummingbird in a previous newsletter that you can read here. 

Andean Emerald photographed at Huembo Lodge, Peru, November 2016.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4, 1/160 F6.3, Av mode, evaluative metering at -1.3, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This is a comparison image with the previous image showing a shot at about the same shutter speed with no flash, on the plus side the image looks more natural but the sharpness is just not there. 

Marvelous Spatuletail photographed November 2016 at Huembo Lodge, Canon 1DX II, 500F4, 1/500 F6.3, iso 1600 Av mode, evaluative metering at -1.0, 580ex fill flash ETTL at -1.7, Better Beamer, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This amazing bird was the highest on our target list, we were able to photograph it feeding at feeders, perching near the feeders (very busy and dark), on it's lek and for a brief moment feeding on natural flowers as here near the feeders.  The birds were moving in and out of shade and sun and the lighting was quite contrasty so my settings here were kind of a best guess as to what would work out.  When the bird started feeding on flowers I just started firing away and got off about 35 shots, about 25 of which were reasonably sharp.  This was one of the best images despite the fairly slow shutter speed.  The lower amount of flash used here (-1.7) gives the image a more natural look than the Sparkling Violetear above.  With contrasty light like this the flash is necessary to fill in shadows and even out the light, the -1.0 on the camera helped to both reduce the brightness of the background where the sun was shining and to help the flash impact the image more.

Marvelous Spatuletail photographed November 2016, Huembo Lodge, Peru.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4, iso 1600, 1/4000 F6.3, Av mode, evaluative metering at -1.0, 580ex fill flash ETTL at -1.7, Better Beamer, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This was taken about 15 frames (just a few seconds) after the previous image.  At this point the bird had moved out into the sun so the shutter speed was much higher.  I didn't have time to drop the iso but I wished I had stopped down a bit more at this point to get more of the tail in focus (although this would have made the foreground out of focus branch even more troublesome).  This is cropped in a fair bit from the original.  With the shutter speed so high the flash influences the image less as the flash duration is very fast but it still makes a big difference.

Marvelous Spatuletail, Canon 1DX II, 500F4, 1/3200 F6.3, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering at -1.0, 580ex fill flash ETTL at -1.7, Better Beamer, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  Another view of the Spatuletail, this time from head on.  There are very few images of this rare endemic feeding naturally on flowers so we were thrilled to get this series.  Next I will show an image where the flash didn't recycle so you can compare them.

Marvelous Spatuletail, Canon 1DX II, 500F4, 1/3200 F6.3, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering at -1.0, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  In this image the flash didn't recycle, you can see the harsh shadows from branches due to shooting this about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I also brightened this image a fair bit in post processing due to the lack of flash.  Some may wonder what we were doing photographing in those conditions, but we only had 2 days at Huembo, this was the only series of it feeding from flowers and this was taken just before we were scheduled to head off to the next lodge.  So if someone has the view that, "I will only shoot in good lighting" you will miss some great opportunities that can be salvaged with skillful use of your flash. 

Long-tailed Sylph photographed November 2016 at Owlet Lodge, Peru.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/2000 F5.6, iso 1250, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, 580ex fill flash ETTL at -1.3, Better Beamer, handheld.  I took this image of the sylph backing up away from the feeder and cropped out the feeder.  For this image I am not convinced flash was absolutely necessary as it was in the previous two situations, the lighting was even and there was enough to make a decent image without it.  But I do think it helped the shot, with the flash I could use a little bit lower iso and it probably helped some with the sharpness especially considering it was handheld. 

Bearded Mountaineer photographed November 2016 in Ollantaytambo, Peru.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/1600 F5.6, iso 800, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld.  With early morning sun at our backs and no trees throwing shadows there was no need to use flash in this situation.  This is a large hummingbird which flies fairly slowly for a hummingbird.  Our hotel garden was excellent for this species as well as several others which would feed on these large flowers. 

Giant Hummingbird photographed November 2016 in Ollantaytambo, Peru.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4, 1/2500 F5.6, iso 800, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld.  One more from the hotel garden, again no need for flash with morning sun at my back and no shadows.  On this shot and the previous one, the one reason for using flash would be if you wanted a darker background to make the bird stand out more.  But I prefer to use natural light when the results will be good.