I have a number of shots like this where the combination of shallow depth of field and wing blur means that almost half the bird is unsharp. I think it gives the image a kind of 3D effect, but I wonder what others think.
D500. Sigma 300mm. 1/1500 @ f/6.7
It does provide a 3-D effect, Michael. About the only way to avoid it with hummingbirds is to shoot in very harsh light or use a multi-flash setup where you can stop way down and often use a much shorter focal length if you can predict where the hummingbird will be. To my eye, this seems to have been taken in pretty harsh light. I’d recommend trying morning or evening for more pleasing tones, if you have the right light direction. Both times of the day can be very productive for these since they need to stoke up for the night and they’re very hungry in the morning.
A very nice body angle! Shallow DOF is just a fact with hummingbirds, unless, as @Dennis_Plank said, you blast it with flash to allow a small aperture and an effective very high SS, and use several flashes at different angles to soften shadows. In that case, you need either a very dark BG or an artificial BG that is also flashed to remove the ghost image from the ambient light exposure from the actual SS, which will be longer than the flash duration.
Hi Michael, nice selective focus on the head of the bird and I like being able to see the feet even with the depth of field drop off. I could see a crop from the left and a tad more space on the right so the bird is not centered. For hummingbirds in natural light, I often try for more of a profile view to counter the DOF issues ( usually shoot ISO 800, f6.3, 1/3200s if in full sun) but I still find this to be a pleasing image.
