Creating a pleasing vertical composition of a hummingbird is tougher than the more traditional landscape orientation. This flower caused me to think more about a vertical composition with the hope of a hummer coming in to the lower flower and doing their amazing thing. I set up for that with 3 flashes. None on the background as the light from the flash setup provided enough spill to adequately light the background.
After a couple of hours, I managed to get a couple of rewarding frames of this little female Black Chinned Hummingbird.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Olympus EM1-X, 300mm
1/250, f/16, ISO 320
3 off camera flashes at 1/16 power, radio triggered
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Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen many vertical shots of hummers. Verticals often have more punch than a static horizontal shot. It’s a very nice image and thank you for sharing it.
The vertical definitely works with the subject being vertical itself. Nice thought. The hummer seems a tad soft, but if others don’t notice that, might be just me, and being VERY picky at that.
Hmm… Not sure what you are looking at. Since I can count feathers, seems dead sharp to me. I don’t keep any of these images that are not dead sharp. If you downloaded and enlarged it to look at it, if you go beyond 100% you’ll certainly lose detail. The uploaded image was 1350 pixels on the long edge. Anything beyond that size is subject to software interpolation.
This is beautiful, Keith! The vertical format is excellent for this shot. The hanging flowers cause the humming birds to approach from underneath so you planned it perfectly. The exposure and colors are perfect and the shot is very crisp with fine details. This flash photography is a very technical process and it appears that you have mastered it
It certainly takes some thought and a LOT of practice. I continue to refine my process each year to work on things I would like to improve. It is a lot of fun with some nice rewards.
I really love this shot, Keith. I think the vertical is really nice. I hadn’t given it a thought before, but now that you mention it, most hummingbird shots are horizonal. The flower hanging down into the image, and the hummer going up into the flower really makes the composition very pleasing. You really have mastered the flash setup. Well done!
Wow! Vertical worked nicely in this comp. I’m looking at this with my phone and with one bad eye, I can count distinct feathers so it has plenty of sharpness. Most of our flowers are visited laterally or from above by hummers so this one is quite unique. Thank you for the inspiration with this one…Jim
Sorry must be my eyes. I do have a cataract issue in one. Maybe that’s why I seem to keep over-sharpening my shots. When I zoom in a little more, it’s just fine.
