Friday, October 2, 2009

Nikon D90 and Photographing Hummingbirds!


See Larger Photo Here

I got a few questions from people asking how i got this photo, so i thought I'd explain my set up!

I picked up a hummingbird feeder at the store and set it up in a tree in my backyard so it was hanging just off my deck behind our BBQ. I used the big BBQ as a kind of blind I could sit behind.

I set up the tripod and placed the d90 on it and focused on the hummimgbird feeder so I would be close to focus when the hummer arrived to feed. I set my camera to shutter speed and dialed in 1/2500 exposure. Aperture was set on F5.6. Focal length with the nikon 70-300mm vr lens was 250mm with VR off.

I set my metering to center-weighted average and auto-focus to Dynamic Area. ISO was at 800 so I could get the faster shutter speed without the picture being to dark. Even at ISO 800 I still had to bump up the exposure compensation to +2 to get more light. That seemed to work best.

My white balance was set manual to sunny but I'm sure auto would have worked fine.
For over 3 days I played with different setting and my speedflash (SB600) trying to find what worked best for me and these setting I used for this photo seemed to be the best.

It was fun capturing these little guys coming into feed i hope you give it a try and post your best shot so we can all see.

12 comments:

S..... said...

Nice to see someone using skill and knowledge to get great pictures with reasonable gear.

Scbbbc said...

Thanks Steve!

Mei said...

impressive

Dan Patterson said...

Very nice. Thanks for the tips too. I'm just beginning and is great to see how the more experienced photographers get it done.

Scbbbc said...

Thanks DBS, Have Fun!

Palaspandiras said...

Nice work!. Thanks for sharing.

Venkat said...

The picture was very impressive. Btw, how did you manage to set the shutter speed to 1/25000, while the max limit for a D90 is only 1/4000?
Can you please help me with this?

Scbbbc said...

Venkat, you found a typo! that should be 2500. thanks

test said...

What a great shot! Why did you turn off the VR? (I am only just getting to know my 70-300 VR). Cheers!

Scbbbc said...

Joep, using VR on a tripod can actually cause camera shake. The VR mechanism engaging can cause this when the camera is held still on your tripod. Have fun with your new 70-300vr!

Unknown said...

Hi, are you using the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR Zoom?? awesome pic and tutorials - thanks!

Scbbbc said...

Marsbar, yes i used the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR Zoom with the VR function turned off since i was using a tripod...