Lisa Flanagan Photography
Hummingbird Photography: What I have Learned
August 10, 2025
Hummingbird photography is fun, but also full of challenges as these little birds are small and fast. Like all birds and wildlife, the most important thing you can do is observe them and learn their behaviors. You can also train them. Well, you can at least train them to go where the nectar is.
You can take photos of hummingbirds showing the motion of their wings or you can try to "freeze" the wings. Since hummingbird wings beat approximately 75 beats per second, it is next to impossible to "freeze" them using shutter speed. To capture the hummingbird in flight and have sharp wings you will need to use speedlights, the more the better!
I have 4 speedlights I use for hummingbird shots. I wish I had a 5th one, but you use what you have! I also use softboxes on a couple of the speedlights. My typical set up is one speedlight on a boom stand directly above the shooting location, two speedlights at about 45 degree angles in front of the shooting location anad at different heights. The last speedlight is on the background. This has worked pretty well for me. I have found aperture of between F13 and F16, a shutter speed of 1/200, ISO 400 and flash set to highspeed sync 1/250th of a second at 1/16th power is a good starting point and then I tweak as necessary to get the exposure correct.
For the background, I use boards I have printed with out of focus greenery or flowers. I think it is better to use simple backgrounds so that they do not compete with the subject. Experiment!
To attract the hummingbirds, I put the nectar in place before I plan on shooting so that they are used to going to that spot to sip (this is their training). When I get ready to shoot, after setting up, I take down all other nectar feeders so that there is only one choice. If you are using a feeder with multiple ports, you may want to put a piece of tape over all of the ports except the one you want to use. Typically I use a test tube feeder hidden in flowers or a plant. However, even if the tube is showing, new AI removal tools make it possible to eliminate the feeding tube in post processing.
Another option is to composite your shot. Just leave your camera in place and take some shots with a flower in it and then when you get a nice shot of the hummingbird you can use a layer mask in photoshop to put the two together. I find this is usually the easiest!
Some tips:
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Make sure you are not getting any ambient light, which could cause ghosting in the wings.
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Think about where your hummingbird is most likely to be and angle your speedlights to that place. Consider anything between the flash and the hummingbird so that you can prevent shadows from falling on the bird.
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For the ruby throated hummingbird--(the one I shoot)--consider positioning lighting to light up the red neck. I am still struggling with this because a lot of that is just luck!
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Be patient and know you will probably need to do multiple sessions!
Black & White Photography
3/30/2022
Black & White Photography has been the thing I have been working on the most in the last couple years. I always feel like B&W is more challenging because the absence of color increases the importance of compositional elements. Often the colors of an image can carry a less than perfect composition. Not so with B&W.
I guess I group B&W into a few categories. The first category is high contrast images with very black blacks and bright whites. The second category is low contrast. An example of low contrast would be foggy day images. The third and fourth category would consist of low-key images and high-key images respectively.
One of the biggest tips I could give anyone trying to improve their own B&W skills would be to keep the image simple and clutter-free. I often see images that just have too much going on. In B&W, less is more. A very strong subject and few supporting accents make the most compelling B&W.