Hummingbird

[FJT]

Hummingbird 5.jpg

I took probably hundreds of photos of this little fellow and this is probably the best - it's not very sharp though. How can I take better photos of hummingbirds? They move so fast!

200mm (handheld - didn't have time to fetch my tripod!)
f/7
1/20
Manual mode

[BryanPanting]

Nice try, I really want to get a good hummingbird shot myself. Looking at the info you posted I would say your biggest problem is your shutter speed. 1/20 is way to slow for a bird like that with a 200mm lens. Not sure if your lens has IS or not but even 1/20 with IS is to slow for a hummingbird. Try cranking you shutter speed way up and open up you aperture more and that should help. Hope that helps some, good luck.

[Laurenbiz]

What was your ISO here? I don't see that listed in your EXIF data.

1/20 is way too slow for a photo of, really, anything, if you are holding the camera. At 1/20, you would definitely need a tripod.

I suggest cranking the ISO way up and using a super-fast shutter speed (maybe a combination of ISO 800 with at least a 1/320 exposure to capture the quickness of the bird,) to be able to see the hummingbird in focus!

Use the 'Continuous Shooting' option on your EOS, too. You can simply keep your finger pressed down on the shutter button, and it will continue to snap photo after photo. I think that will be very helpful with hummingbird shots!

[photog1107]

Agree with previous two comments and will just add that, if you got this close a shot at 1/20, you should get some fabulous shots at say, 1/500 or 1/1000. All you need is light. You did not say what the shooting conditions were at this location, but some off camera flash might work well to enhance your shutter capabilities--if this is a location where you can plan to capture these little critters again. Good luck!

[FJT]

Sorry - ISO was 200. This was one of those occasions where I picked my camera up and just started shooting when the hummingbird appeared.

Thanks for all your tips - I'll try to think a bit faster next time and check my settings! I'm not used to shooting things that move - let alone move faster than I can think!!