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The Green-crowned Brilliant (Heliodoxa jacula) is a common hummingbird found in humid montane and submontane forests in Costa Rica, Panama, northern Colombia, and western Ecuador. The species comes readily to feeders, making a frequent photographic subject. While taking photos a hummingbirds at a multi-flash set up, I thought I might try to take some photos with a short lens, rather than the usual 500 to 600mm lenses that I use in these set ups. This image is really about the lens used, not about the multi flash set up. Because the hummingbirds are quite habituated in the region of the feeders, I was able to get much closer to them feeding than I expected. In fact, I was able to fill the frame with a 24 mm lens! To get full frame images, I was less than 12 inched from the hummer. I was amazed at the sharpness and the detail I obtained under these conditions. The photo is only slightly cropped, and no post-processing sharpness enhancement was used. Thus, if you think the image is over-sharpened, the image is really just as it came out to the camera. Because I was so close, the depth of field was quite thin, so the wing tips are a bit blurred.
As an aside, for those of you not familiar with hummingbird multi-flash set ups, the photos are taken in a place where hummingbird feeders are always available. For the set up, a flower is placed in a clamp on a tripod. A number of flashes are placed around the flower, usually one in the front, one on each side, and one above the flower. A background cloth of blurred shades of green is hung behind the flower with a flash pointed at it. The feeders are taken down, and artificial nectar or sugar water is placed into the flower. One focuses one's camera on the flower. All of the flashes are set to fire when the camera takes a shot. The photographer watches the flower, not even looking through the viewfinder, and activates the camera and flashes with a remote trigger when a hummer comes in to feed. The advantage of such a set up is that the flashes freeze the hummingbirds wings, so the resulting image shows sharp detail throughout, with no blur on the rapidly moving wings. The disadvantage is that the set up is really quite artificial, and the appearance of the hummingbird, while sometimes quite spectacular, does not look like the way our eyes see the hummingbirds. The multi-
Hopefully, this image is of interest just because of the sharpness that I was able to get by being so close.
As an aside, for those of you not familiar with hummingbird multi-flash set ups, the photos are taken in a place where hummingbird feeders are always available. For the set up, a flower is placed in a clamp on a tripod. A number of flashes are placed around the flower, usually one in the front, one on each side, and one above the flower. A background cloth of blurred shades of green is hung behind the flower with a flash pointed at it. The feeders are taken down, and artificial nectar or sugar water is placed into the flower. One focuses one's camera on the flower. All of the flashes are set to fire when the camera takes a shot. The photographer watches the flower, not even looking through the viewfinder, and activates the camera and flashes with a remote trigger when a hummer comes in to feed. The advantage of such a set up is that the flashes freeze the hummingbirds wings, so the resulting image shows sharp detail throughout, with no blur on the rapidly moving wings. The disadvantage is that the set up is really quite artificial, and the appearance of the hummingbird, while sometimes quite spectacular, does not look like the way our eyes see the hummingbirds. The multi-
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flash images are instantly recognizable, so one can either think they are beautiful or they are too artificial.Hopefully, this image is of interest just because of the sharpness that I was able to get by being so close.
