I continue to shoot hummingbirds at my set up. I’ve only been able to attract them to honeysuckle and salvia. They refused to come to a coneflower soaked in sugar water - that surprised me as coneflowers are a source of nectar. Here is a male hitting on salvia dipped in sugar water. I guess they need a flower they traditionally consistently feed on.
Canon 7D2, 400mm DO II, 1.4x TC III, tripod, five speedlites @ 1/8th power
ISO 200, f20, 1/250s
Any comments appreciated.
Beautiful shot, Allen. I’m thinking that they need an open flower, like the salvia or honeysuckle, where they can stick their beaks in to feed. The coneflower wouldn’t give them that (cup shape) to stick the beak in. I could be wrong on that. We will see if anyone else has a thought on that. I’m sure the bees and butterflies didn’t mind finding the sugar water on the coneflower though, so it probably didn’t go to waste. 
Excellent, Allen. This is looking better to my eye than the first hummer you posted. There seems to still be just a hint of flash showing to me-maybe back off on the subject flash just a tiny bit more, but this is a very good image.
This certainly looks a lot better than my five flash setups. I agree with Dennis that this one looks a little better than the first image you posted.
Allen, this is beautiful. I have zero experience with flash setup so I won’t pretend that I know anything about it but I think processing wise, it looks a little flat. Actually lifting up the midtone a little bit (I use a luminosity mask M3) can make the image more dynamic (at least to me). Let me know what you think:
Hi Adhika, thanks for the rework. My desktop computer crashed and I am viewing this on my laptop. Honestly, the rework looks a little washed out to me on the laptop anyway. Hopefully I can view on my repaired desktop computer soon.
Hi Allen:
I like this image and think your original was pretty nice. Maybe a touch flat. I grabbed your original an did some processing to work it just a bit. See if you think this is better. I think the one that @Adhika_Lie did pushes the image even flatter. Guess it all a matter of personal taste.
Thanks Keith. This looks good to me. And actually my post was processed a bit brighter thinking I would use the version for a print which would be darker than this version online. I guess I should have two versions - one for print and one for online. I think you nailed it here.
