different settings or distance

[Diane]

in my album, incase I can't upload the picture is a hummingbird I was trying to capture for closeup. settings were on auto with panasonic fz100 digital.the feeder is clear . Should I have stood farther away? I focused on the feeder as I knew the hummer would come to feed. but the bird wasn't clear at all. Hand held not on tripod.
any tips welcome.
thanx
diane

[Mike Buckley]

It could be that the bird was not in focus (not within the depth of field), that your shutter speed was too slow to stop the action of the bird's flight, or both. We can't tell until you upload the image. It would also be helpful to provide the EXIF information. Also provide whether you had a zoom lens on your camera.

[JPS]

Hi Diane,
I notice your picture had the following information:
Exposure 1/160....I think for these fast little hummingbirds you should have increased this to something like 1/1000 or 1/1250. Hopefully that would have helped to freeze this little fellow.

You used F3.6, perhaps F5.6 to F8 would have been better in this situation. (lets see what others suggest here)

ISO 1600....It looked like you were outside in daylight, if possible you should have reduced the ISO to ISO100, if light was an issue perhaps increasing upto a maximum of ISO800.

You focus does look out and I fully understand why to focused on the feeded, I don't suppose he gave you much time to set thing up before moving on.

If you can try and post directly into this thread I think you will get some good advice from the members who manage to get some great shots of this type of subject.
Well done on giving it a go.

Diane, hope you don't mind I have placed your picture here so the guys can see it and give you feed-back.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Diane!

I'm not seeing your shot.

But The Master Hummingbird Shootist (Steve- dude could shoot for National Geographic) discusses his technique a bit here, and there are a couple of things I (who couldn't even shoot for County Geographic!) have tried here if you are interested.

[Diane]

Thanks so much , I seem to have trouble uploading pictures on the threads. It may have something to do with still being on dialup.

Diane

Hi Diane,
I notice your picture had the following information:
Exposure 1/160....I think for these fast little hummingbirds you should have increased this to something like 1/1000 or 1/1250. Hopefully that would have helped to freeze this little fellow.

You used F3.6, perhaps F5.6 to F8 would have been better in this situation. (lets see what others suggest here)

ISO 1600....It looked like you were outside in daylight, if possible you should have reduced the ISO to ISO100, if light was an issue perhaps increasing upto a maximum of ISO800.

You focus does look out and I fully understand why to focused on the feeded, I don't suppose he gave you much time to set thing up before moving on.

If you can try and post directly into this thread I think you will get some good advice from the members who manage to get some great shots of this type of subject.
Well done on giving it a go.

Diane, hope you don't mind I have placed your picture here so the guys can see it and give you feed-back.