Multi-Flash Hummingbird Setups
Part I
They arrive like sparks of light and fire in the shadows. Blink and they’re gone, a flash of iridescence darting through leaves or hovering midair with impossible control. But behind that shimmer is a story far deeper than beauty.
Found only in the Americas, hummingbirds have diversified into more than 360 species, from the humid Amazon lowlands to the frigid heights of the Andes, from the coast of Alaska to the tip of Argentina. But their story begins not in tropical abundance, as if often assumed, but in the thin, cold air of mountain cloud forests where traditional pollinators struggled, and a new kind of partnership took shape.
The ancestors of hummingbirds split from swift-like birds around 42 million years ago and began adapting to a life shaped by flowers. Their bills stretched into slender probes. Their tongues became marvels of engineering: forked, extendable, and so long they coil behind the skull when not in use. And it was flowers who were pulling the puppet strings of evolution, tweaking, molding, sculpting, and building a better pollinator for their needs.
If you have never been to the cloud forests of the tropics, the Cordillera de Talamanca of Costa Rica and Panama, for instance, or the high Andes of Ecuador and Peru, you can be forgiven for not associating cold temperatures with these latitudes. But such is the nature of mountains, especially those rising above 7,000 feet. Forget the Equator, the Tropic of Cancer, and the Tropic of Capricorn. Temperatures at these elevations typically begin only a few degrees above freezing each morning.
Consider Western Panama for a moment. Moisture laden air flowing in off the Caribbean or Pacific collides with the Talamanca Mountains and undergoes a process known as orographic lift. To surmount the mountains, air must rise, and in doing so, molecules expand with decreasing atmospheric pressure, release energy, and cool. Orographic lift is just a fancy term for air being forced up and over a mountain.
As this air cools, however, it begins to reach its so called "dew point," where water vapor condenses into clouds; clouds that cool the air even further, clouds that envelop everything in water, clouds that deliver upwards of 200 inches of precipitation a year. It's this orographic lift that helps fill the Amazon River Basin, dictated human settlement patters around the globe, and creates both cloud forests and hummingbirds.
At high elevations, traditional pollinators like bees hit a hard limit. Most are ectothermic, meaning “cold-blooded;" their activity tied directly to temperature. On chilly mornings in cloud forests, bees can’t fly. Sometimes they don’t move for hours after sunrise. And for plants that need reliable pollination, that’s a problem.
Enter the hummingbirds.
Warm-blooded, fast-burning, and unfazed by cold, birds navigate through fog and rain when insects can’t. So, plants coopted them as symbionts, evolving specialized flowers timed to bloom when birds were active. This in turn drove the evolution of hummingbirds. Hummingbirds adapted to match flowers with bill shapes, precision of flight, the ability to hover and drive in reverse.
Plants have been partnering up like this for eons; enlisting fungi, insects, even mammals to do their bidding. They offer rewards like nectar, but it’s rarely generosity. It’s strategy. Ultraviolet landing strips invisible to humans, floral shapes that guide movement, chemicals that target a pollinator’s brain - plants use them all.
This relationship between bird and flower turned the cloud forests into evolutionary pressure cookers. Small shifts in elevation brought new climates, new plant communities, new hummingbirds. The ebb and flow of continental ice sheets and the rise and fall of global temperatures all played their part, creating islands in the skies of the tropics where species diversified fast. And today, cloud forests continue to hold the world’s richest hummingbird diversity.
So, when we bring cameras into these places, we’re not just chasing the beauty of hummingbirds. We’re stepping into a 42 million year old story that is still unfolding. A story driven by cold, sculpted by plants, and played out in the thin air where only the strongest still fly.
Most of the photographs of hummingbirds that we’re accustomed to seeing—those that freeze the wings mid-beat while capturing the shimmering iridescence and explosive colors of the gorget, are almost always the result of multi-flash setups. While it may appear that these images were captured spontaneously in the wild, they are the product of meticulous planning and carefully controlled lighting using off-camera flash. This technique has become a mainstay in professional hummingbird photography for a very good reason: it offers an unparalleled level of creative and technical control that allows us to make images of these incredibly fast, elusive birds in ways that natural light photography simply cannot match.
The beauty of this field studio approach is that it gives us the ability to create dramatic, high-quality images of birds that are otherwise notoriously difficult to find, let alone photograph. Whether in the dense lowland rainforest or the cloud forests of Central and South America, a hummingbird encounter in the wild—especially outside of landscaped gardens or lodges with feeders—is typically brief and unpredictable. A single bird might zip into a flowering vine high in the canopy, take a quick drink while pollinating the flower, and vanish before you can even raise your camera. Often, these fleeting interactions happen at such a distance and speed that identifying the species is a challenge, let alone photographing it.
That’s why most multi-flash hummingbird photography takes place in locations with a high density of feeders. Feeders concentrate bird activity and provide the predictability we need to set up our gear. Once the lighting, backgrounds, and camera settings are dialed in, a single flower—usually one that the birds already favor—is carefully fastened to a light stand using an articulating arm like a Wimberley Super Clamp. A syringe is then used to fill the flower with nectar or a sugar water solution identical to what’s in the feeders.
At this point, all the feeders are removed from view and stored. With no other nectar sources available in the immediate vicinity, the mounted flower becomes the only attractant in the area. The hummingbirds, already conditioned to frequent the spot, fly in to investigate and feed. This moment—when the bird hovers to feed from the single flower—is when the camera and flashes are triggered.
In terms of lighting, I generally use a minimum of four off-camera flashes for these sessions. Two are used for the key and fill lights, one for a backlight to create separation from the background and provide an additional measure of depth to the composition, and at least one flash to illuminate the background itself. Depending on the effect I’m after, I may increase the number of flashes to five or six.
While these setups may look complicated at first glance, they are in fact much simpler than most people assume. Once you understand what each component does—whether it’s the background, a softbox, a particular flash placement, or camera setting—the entire process becomes straightforward and repeatable. There’s a lot of mystique and gatekeeping around this style of photography, but the truth is, anyone with the right information, gear, and patience can do it.
Personally, I find this type of photography deeply rewarding—especially during workshops. It offers infinite creative possibilities and practically guarantees that participants will walk away with stunning images of one of the most extraordinary and specialized families of birds in the Americas. With their speed, color, and complexity, hummingbirds are perfectly suited to the artistry of multi-flash photography—and once you understand the process, the sky’s the limit.
Due to their rapid movements, photographing hummingbirds in flight without motion blur requires extremely fast shutter speeds—often 1/4000 second or faster. However, even at such speeds, ambient light alone is often insufficient to properly expose the image. This is where multi-flash setups become essential. By using high-speed flashes set to low power (typically 1/16 or lower), photographers can achieve burst durations as short as 1/20,000 second, effectively “freezing” the wings in midair. Unlike natural light, which requires trade-offs in ISO and aperture, flash allows for precise control over exposure, ensuring that every feather and iridescent detail is captured.
Multi-flash setups also help to illuminate hummingbirds in a way that showcases the vibrant colors they are so renowned for. The microscopic platelets in their feathers refract light at different angles, and on demand, producing shimmering colors that shift depending on the viewing angle. Without controlled lighting, these iridescent hues can be lost entirely. By carefully positioning flashes around a feeder or flower, photographers can create balanced lighting that enhances these optical effects while maintaining a natural look.
Most photographs of hummingbirds we’re accustomed to seeing—those that freeze the wings mid-beat while capturing the shimmering iridescence and explosive colors of the gorget, are almost always the result of multi-flash setups. While it may appear that these images were captured spontaneously in the wild, they are the product of meticulous planning and carefully controlled lighting using off-camera flash. This technique has become a mainstay in professional hummingbird photography for a very good reason: it offers an unparalleled level of creative and technical control that allows us to make images of these incredibly fast, elusive birds in ways that natural light photography simply cannot match.
The beauty of this field studio approach is that it gives us the ability to create dramatic, high-quality images of birds that are otherwise notoriously difficult to find, let alone photograph. Whether in the dense lowland rainforest or the cloud forests of Central and South America, a hummingbird encounter in the wild—especially outside of landscaped gardens or lodges with feeders—is typically brief and unpredictable. A single bird might zip into a flowering vine high in the canopy, take a quick drink while pollinating the flower, and vanish before you can even raise your camera. Often, these fleeting interactions happen at such a distance and speed that identifying the species is a challenge, let alone photographing it.
That’s why most multi-flash hummingbird photography takes place in locations with a high density of feeders. Feeders concentrate bird activity and provide the predictability we need to set up our gear. Once the lighting, backgrounds, and camera settings are dialed in, a single flower—usually one that the birds already favor—is carefully fastened to a light stand using an articulating arm like a Wimberley Super Clamp. A syringe is then used to fill the flower with nectar or a sugar water solution identical to what’s in the feeders.
At this point, all the feeders are removed from view and stored. With no other nectar sources available in the immediate vicinity, the mounted flower becomes the only attractant in the area. The hummingbirds, already conditioned to frequent the spot, fly in to investigate and feed. This moment—when the bird hovers to feed from the single flower—is when the camera and flashes are triggered.
In terms of lighting, I generally use a minimum of four off-camera flashes for these sessions. Two are used for the key and fill lights, one for a backlight to create separation from the background and provide an additional measure of depth to the composition, and at least one flash to illuminate the background itself. Depending on the effect I’m after, I may increase the number of flashes to five or six.
While these setups may look complicated at first glance, they are in fact much simpler than most people assume. Once you understand what each component does—whether it’s the background, a softbox, a particular flash placement, or camera setting—the entire process becomes straightforward and repeatable. There’s a lot of mystique and gatekeeping around this style of photography, but the truth is, anyone with the right information, gear, and patience can do it.
A photo of yours truly hard at work in the cloud forests of Panama when an endemic Talamanca hummingbird decided to post up on the lens foot of my 100-400mm lens. © Nick Michie.
A photo of yours truly hard at work in the cloud forests of Panama when an endemic Talamanca hummingbird decided to post up on the lens foot of my 100-400mm lens. © Nick Michie.
Personally, I find this type of photography deeply rewarding—especially during workshops. It offers infinite creative possibilities and practically guarantees that participants will walk away with stunning images of one of the most extraordinary and specialized families of birds in the Americas. With their speed, color, and complexity, hummingbirds are perfectly suited to the artistry of multi-flash photography—and once you understand the process, the sky’s the limit.
Due to their rapid movements, photographing hummingbirds in flight without motion blur requires extremely fast shutter speeds—often 1/4000 second or faster. However, even at such speeds, ambient light alone is often insufficient to properly expose the image. This is where multi-flash setups become essential. By using high-speed flashes set to low power (typically 1/16 or lower), photographers can achieve burst durations as short as 1/20,000 second, effectively “freezing” the wings in midair. Unlike natural light, which requires trade-offs in ISO and aperture, flash allows for precise control over exposure, ensuring that every feather and iridescent detail is captured.
Multi-flash setups also help to illuminate hummingbirds in a way that showcases the vibrant colors they are so renowned for. The microscopic platelets in their feathers refract light at different angles, and on demand, producing shimmering colors that shift depending on the viewing angle. Without controlled lighting, these iridescent hues can be lost entirely. By carefully positioning flashes around a feeder or flower, photographers can create balanced lighting that enhances these optical effects while maintaining a natural look.
Four Flashes
In multi-flash hummingbird photography, understanding the different types of lighting—key light, fill light, backlight, and background lighting—is essential for achieving natural-looking images. Each light serves a specific purpose, contributing to the overall balance of the photograph. When used correctly, these lighting techniques can highlight intricate feather details, enhance iridescence, and create depth in an image. But we must first understand the why of the thing.
Each flashes has a name in this type of setup. I didn’t make this stuff up. It’s all adopted from portrait photographers working in studios. Wildlife photographers simply modify these concepts to their needs in the field.
Key Light. The key light is the primary and most powerful light source in a multi-flash setup. It is responsible for illuminating the hummingbird’s body and providing the main exposure. Typically positioned at a slight angle in front of the bird, the key light ensures that the face and plumage are well-lit while maintaining a natural look. In hummingbird photography, the key light is often diffused to soften harsh highlights and prevent blown-out areas, especially on bright iridescent feathers. Since hummingbirds can change color based on the angle of light due to their structural feather composition, careful key light placement is crucial to capturing their most vibrant hues.
Fill Light. The fill light serves to reduce shadows created by the key light, ensuring that details in shaded areas—such as the underside of the wings or belly—are visible. In a multi-flash setup, fill lights are typically placed on the opposite side of the key light at lower power. Their role is not to overpower the key light but rather to balance it, preventing harsh contrasts. Without fill light, areas of the bird’s body might be lost in deep shadow, especially when photographing against bright backgrounds. Fill lights can also help soften the transition between highlights and shadows, creating a more even exposure while maintaining a three-dimensional look.
Backlight. The backlight (or rim light) is used to separate the hummingbird from the background and add a sense of depth. Positioned behind and slightly to the side of the bird, this light outlines the subject with a subtle glow, enhancing the edges of feathers and adding a luminous effect. In hummingbird photography, backlight is particularly useful for highlighting wing edges and creating a subtle halo effect. It can also emphasize the fine details of tiny, translucent feathers that may otherwise blend into the background. However, backlight must be carefully controlled to avoid lens flare, which could distract from the subject.
Some photographers choose not to use backlights all together. Placement can be finicky and can quickly create an unnatural look to the image. Light on planet Earth comes from above. When we suddenly have a distinct light source coming from another direction, it can create a very unnatural look and feel to the subject and composition. Whether or not to use a backlight will fall to you and your tastes, however. If your goal is to create as natural a lighting scenario as possible in your composition, then you may choose to forgo adding a backlight to the scene. If you want to experiment and explore new and dynamic ways of showcasing these birds, then backlights can be just another artistic tool for you to wield. I decide if I am going to add a backlight on a case-by-case basis.
Background lighting. This is, of course, different from back lighting and it’s the only flash that’s independent of the bird itself. But make no mistake, this flash plays a critical role in the overall composition. Without proper background illumination, the background will simply appear black. Perhaps this is what you want. However, a flash aimed at the background, whether that’s the natural foliage of the forest or an artificial background, adds so much more to the composition.
By mastering the balance between these four flashes, photographers can create stunning hummingbird images that are sharp, vibrant, and visually dynamic. Each flash in the setup plays a critical role in shaping the final photograph, ensuring that the bird is properly exposed while maintaining a natural, well-lit scene.
Softboxes
Softboxes are an essential tool for me in multi-flash hummingbird setups. Used to diffuse the harsh light emitted by speedlights or strobes, a softbox is essentially a white fabric that fits over a flash, spreading and softening the light to create a more even and natural illumination. Without diffusion, direct flash produces hard shadows and strong highlights, which can result in unnatural-looking images, especially when photographing iridescent subjects like hummingbirds. When we look at hummingbird photography and the images appear to be “overly flashed,” it’s usually because the photographer neglected to use softboxes. There is a reason these tools are always on set for studio and portrait photographers alike.
Think of a flash as something of a blunt instrument. It’s a bit like a battering ram but with light. Softboxes, and other light modifiers, are used to soften the blow, and allow photographers to shape and control the lighting. There is not a single situation I can think of in which I would use a bare flash without some type of diffusion. Even when toting a softbox around in the moment is not practical, such as with photojournalism, I am still going to attempt to “bounce” the flash off a ceiling or wall or something to help diffuse and soften the light before it hits the subject.
One of the most important factors in softbox selection is its size. The size of a softbox directly affects how the light wraps around the subject and influences the hardness of transition between light and shadows. Larger softboxes create softer, more gradual transitions between light and shadow, reducing contrast and producing a more natural look. Smaller softboxes, on the other hand, generate more defined shadows with sharper edges, which may be useful for emphasizing texture but can also make the lighting appear more artificial.
The shape of the softbox also plays a role in how the light is distributed. Octagonal and round softboxes are particularly beneficial when working with animals because they create more natural, circular catchlights in the subject’s eyes, mimicking the effect of natural sunlight. Square or rectangular softboxes, while still effective for diffusion, can sometimes produce unnatural reflections that look less appealing in wildlife images. So important is the natural look to the catchlight in the eye of an animal, that I very rarely use rectangular or square softboxes. And even then, this is only when using sizes that I cannot find a round softbox in.
Another advantage of softboxes in hummingbird photography is their ability to reduce specular highlights—bright, concentrated reflections that can occur on iridescent feathers. Since hummingbirds rely on structural coloration rather than pigment to produce their vibrant hues, the angle and quality of light greatly influence how their colors appear. A well-placed softbox ensures even illumination across the bird’s body, preventing distracting glare and allowing the camera to capture the full range of color shifts that occur with changes in light and perspective.
While 8 to 12-inch softboxes are commonly used in multi-flash hummingbird photography due to their portability and ease of setup, I prefer to use a 36-inch softbox for my key light and a 24-inch softbox for my fill light. The reason for this choice is the soft natural looking light it creates and how it wraps around my subject. I obsess over this stuff, and have spent years working out these little details for myself to create the look and feel I want in my photographs. A larger softbox spreads light over a broader area, creating more gradual transitions between highlights and shadows, resulting in a more natural look.
Think of it this way: that thin veil of clouds overhead that produces such soft and beautiful light in wildlife photography is nothing more than a VERY big softbox in front of the sun. And the larger it is, the more beautiful the light.
The 24-inch softbox on my fill light helps maintain this soft, natural look. The combination of these two larger softboxes creates a lighting setup that is both flattering and technically effective for capturing hummingbirds in flight.
Of course, traveling with 36-inch and 24-inch softboxes comes with challenges. These modifiers take up significantly more space compared to smaller ones, and they require additional setup time in the field. When shooting in remote locations or dense cloud forests, carrying and assembling these larger softboxes can be cumbersome, especially when factoring in other gear like multiple flashes, tripods, and backgrounds. However, the benefits outweigh the inconvenience—by sacrificing some portability, I gain a higher level of control over my lighting, ensuring that every frame is evenly exposed and rich in detail.
I manage to keep all of this stuff together and semi-portable by using a ThinkTank Production Manager 50 V2.0. This holds all of my lights, stands, softboxes, backdrops, etc. While they are neither cheap nor small, the ability to keep all of my gear together, organized, and guaranteed to be in one place is simply invaluable to me. There is a lot of moving parts to these field studio setups. And if one single component gets left behind, it can shut down the entire shoot.
Ultimately, my choice to use larger softboxes is about prioritizing quality over convenience. While smaller softboxes are more practical for quick setups, they cannot match the smooth, natural lighting that larger modifiers provide. Despite the added effort required to transport and set up these larger modifiers, the results speak for themselves—beautifully illuminated hummingbird images that showcase these incredible birds at their best.
This setup involved 4 flashes using a 26" soft box with both the Key Light and Fill Light
This setup involved 4 flashes using a 26" soft box with both the Key Light and Fill Light
This setup used 3 flashes with a 36" soft box over the Key Light and a 26" soft box over the Fill Light.
This setup used 3 flashes with a 36" soft box over the Key Light and a 26" soft box over the Fill Light.
Field Notes
Consider the two photographs above for a moment. The setups were very similar. Flash settings were the same. Flash distances were the same. The same background was used. And while different flowers were in place, they are both the same species of heliconia.
But there are a few key differences here that are worth nothing.
In the first photograph, a back light was used and both the key light and fill flash had matching 26" octagonal shaped soft boxes in place.
In the second photograph, no back light was used and the key light had a 36" octagonal shaped soft box while the fill light had one of the same 26" soft boxes from the first photo.
The results are dramatically different if you know what to look for.
For starters, we are always looking to create the most natural and realistic lighting possible when using flash like this. When we compare the two photos, you will see that the second image with a larger soft box in place, and without the use of the backlight, creates softer transitions between light and shadow. You will also notice the lack of bright spectral highlights on both the hummingbird and flower in the second image as opposed to the first one.
For me, the second photo has a more natural look to it and is why I have begun leaving the backlight out of my setups more and more, and prefer to work with 36" soft boxes when possible.
The above diagram is a traditional multi-flash arrangement for hummingbird photography. Note that the Key Light is the closest flash to the flower / hummingbird in this setup. The Fill Flash, on the other hand, is typically set twice the distance or more from the subject as that of the Key Light.
Flash Placement
One of the most important principles to understand when arranging flashes for hummingbird photography is the inverse square law of light, which explains how light intensity decreases with distance. While there is a lot of complicated math involved here, for our use it’s pretty simple and doesn’t require us to do much other than understand what’s going on. This law states that when you double the distance between a flash and the subject, the light intensity is reduced to one-fourth of its original strength instead of one half. Conversely, moving the flash closer does the same thing but in reverse. This principle is critical in multi-flash setups because the way we adjust light levels affects not just the exposure but also the flash duration, which plays a major role in freezing a hummingbird’s rapidly moving wings.
Placing the Key Light to Mimic Natural Light
The key light is the main flash in the setup, responsible for defining the subject’s overall exposure. It is positioned above the flower at a 45-degree angle or less, angled downward to replicate the direction of natural sunlight. This placement ensures that the hummingbird is illuminated in a natural and aesthetically pleasing way, as birds are accustomed to light coming from above rather than from the side or below.
This flash is placed very close to the subject—often within one to two feet—because a closer light source creates a softer, more natural transition between highlights and shadows. The inverse square law ensures that light falls off more gradually when the flash is close, preventing harsh contrast and giving the bird a more three-dimensional appearance. Since the key light provides the main exposure for the hummingbird, its placement is critical in determining the overall look of the image. If it is too far away, the light will become harder, creating sharp, unnatural-looking shadows. By keeping the key light close, we ensure that the subject is evenly illuminated with a natural, wraparound effect.
Placing the Fill Light to Maintain Softness and Depth
The fill light is responsible for reducing shadows caused by the key light. However, it should not be as strong as the key light; otherwise, the image will look flat. Instead of lowering the flash power to reduce its impact, the fill light is placed about twice the distance of the key light from the subject. This increases the ratio between the two lights while keeping the flash duration consistent.
Placing the fill light farther away ensures that the shadows remain soft and natural without overpowering the primary exposure from the key light. Since we are not adjusting flash power, but only modifying distance, we maintain the same flash duration across all lights, preventing unwanted motion blur. If the fill light were placed too close, it would reduce the natural shadow depth and make the bird look unnaturally lit.
Placing the Backlight for Separation and Feather Detail
The backlight, also known as the rim light, is positioned behind and slightly to the side of the hummingbird to create a glowing outline around the bird. This helps separate it from the background while adding depth and enhancing feather details, particularly around the edges of the wings.
To keep the backlight subtle and prevent it from overpowering the subject, it should be placed about two to three times the distance of the key light while remaining at the same power level. This ensures that the rim light is soft enough to highlight the bird’s contours without creating unnatural halos or excessive contrast. More importantly, by keeping the flash at the same power level and only adjusting the distance, we prevent mismatched flash durations that could lead to ghosting effects on the moving wings.
Placing the Background Light for a Natural, Even Backdrop
The background light is used to illuminate the backdrop and prevent it from becoming too dark or flat. If no background light is used, the background may appear completely black, making the image look unnatural. The goal is to create soft, even lighting that mimics a real environment.
To achieve this, the background light is placed farther from the background than any other flash in the setup—typically at least three to four times the distance of the key light. Since all flashes remain at the same power, increasing this distance ensures that the background is illuminated without being overly bright or competing with the subject. By diffusing the background light and ensuring it has the same flash duration as the other flashes, we maintain consistency across the image and avoid any motion blur artifacts.
Bringing It All Together
By following this setup—placing the key light close at a natural angle, the fill light farther back for balance, the backlight at a moderate distance for feather detail, and the background light positioned for soft backdrop illumination—we create a controlled, natural-looking lighting environment. Most importantly, by keeping all flashes at the same power level and adjusting exposure only by changing distance, we maintain a consistent flash duration across all light sources. This eliminates the risk of ghosting in the wings, ensuring that every frame captures the full speed and beauty of a hummingbird’s motion with perfect clarity.
More and more, I find myself opting for simplified flash setups with hummingbirds as I strive to create the most realistic lighting possible. One of the inherent challenges with using fewer flashes, however, is overcoming ambient light. I manage this by using pocket strobes as opposed to traditional speed lights. With more power than a traditional hotshoe mounted flash, these flashes are beginning to allow me to work with less equipment in the field.
Settings
One of the most important steps in setting up a multi-flash hummingbird photography session is ensuring that the ambient light does not contribute to the exposure. The goal is to create an exposure that is completely black without flash, meaning that when you take a test shot with your chosen camera settings and no flash, the result should be a completely dark frame. This approach ensures that all of the light in the final image comes from the flashes, giving you full control over how the subject is illuminated.
If ambient light is allowed to enter the exposure, it can introduce motion blur or ghosting, particularly around the wings of the hummingbird. Since ambient light has a much longer duration than flash (it's the same as a continuous light), any movement occurring during the exposure can create unwanted secondary images or blurring. This effect is similar to what happens when using different power levels for each flash—if some parts of the image are illuminated by a longer-duration light source, they can appear smeared or doubled. By eliminating ambient light, we ensure that the flash is the only light source freezing the motion, allowing for perfectly sharp images of even the fastest wingbeats.
Using 1/200th of a Second for Flash Sync
A shutter speed of 1/200th of a second is used because it falls within the maximum sync speed of most cameras when working with flash. This is the fastest shutter speed at which the camera can properly sync with the flash without requiring high-speed sync. When exceeding this sync speed, the camera’s shutter starts to partially block the sensor during exposure, leading to uneven lighting or black bars across the frame. Since the actual duration of light from a flash (when set to low power) is much shorter than 1/200th—often around 1/10,000 to 1/20,000 of a second—the flash itself is what freezes the action, not the shutter speed.
Keeping the shutter speed at 1/200th also helps ensure that no unintended ambient light leaks into the exposure. If a slower shutter speed were used, there would be a greater chance that surrounding natural light could affect the final image, increasing the risk of ghosting.
Using f/8 for Depth of Field
An aperture of f/8 is selected to provide a balance between sharpness and depth of field. Hummingbirds move rapidly in and out of a flower, often shifting forward and backward as they feed. Using a wider aperture, such as f/4, would result in a very shallow depth of field, making it more difficult to ensure that both the bird and the flower remain in focus.
With f/8, there is enough depth of field to keep the bird’s head and much of its body sharp, even if it is slightly forward or backward from the initial focus point. While smaller apertures like f/11 or f/16 would provide even greater depth of field, they also reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor, potentially requiring a higher ISO. F/8 strikes the best balance between keeping the bird sharp while allowing for sufficient light transmission.
Starting with ISO 200 and Adjusting as Needed
The starting ISO is set to 200, which provides a good balance between sensitivity and image quality. Since the goal is to eliminate ambient light while ensuring the flashes provide proper exposure, ISO 200 is a good baseline that keeps noise levels low while still allowing for slight adjustments if necessary.
If too much ambient light is affecting the scene—causing parts of the image to be visible before the flashes fire—the ISO may need to be lowered to 100 to further darken the background in a test exposure. Conversely, if the scene is too dark even with the flashes at the desired power, ISO can be increased slightly to 400 or higher, though this is usually unnecessary unless shooting in heavily shaded conditions.
By setting the shutter speed to 1/200th, the aperture to f/8, and ISO to 200, and ensuring that the pre-flash exposure is completely black, we create the perfect conditions for full lighting control. This setup eliminates ambient light contamination, prevents ghosting, and allows the flashes to freeze the hummingbird’s movement with perfect clarity, ensuring every image is sharp, well-exposed, and free from motion blur.
The dreaded "ghosting" on full display.
You can get everything perfect, but let a little too much ambient light creep in (which is what happened here), or set your flashes at different power settings, and ghosting can destroy a photograph or an entire morning of photography.
This is why it's of upmost importance to work with the same flashes for key and fill lights and make sure you control the ambient light by shooting in the deepest and darkest shade available. In fact, many photographers prefer to create these setups under covered porches that remain in full shade all day for this very reason.
Understanding Flash Settings
Different flashes have different intensities of light. The big strobes we see in productions and studios are significantly more powerful than the little compact “speedlights” most nature photographers have in their camera bags. However, the power of the light itself on the subject is controlled the same way across all types of flash: flash duration.
When we dial in a flash exposure of 1/1 versus 1/16, we aren’t making the light brighter. Instead, we are only telling the flash to illuminate the subject longer. Flash duration. Brighter lights only come for bigger more robust flash units.
With multi-flash hummingbird setups, we only work with manual flash exposure and never with TTL (Through the Lens). TTL is like auto exposure for flash and requires flash exposure compensation for each individual flash unit. When working with subjects that are moving through the forest, for instance, TTL is great because the flash unit is making calculations for us based on distance and the inverse square law. But in static setups, where everything is controlled, manual flash exposure is the simplest way of handling the situation.
Regardless of what type of flash we are using for hummingbirds, we want to work with flash exposures of 1/16 or smaller. Since we are setting our camera’s exposure (different from flash exposure) to create a completely dark frame before flash is added, the flash duration itself is what takes the place of a camera’s shutter speed.
Trying to get the exact flash durations from flash manufacturers can a lesson in futility. But typically, larger studio lights are slower while the smaller hot shoe mountain flashes are faster – which is where the name “speedlight” comes from.
I use both speedlights and hybrid type flashes called pocket strobes that blend the power of studio lights with the speed and portability of speedlights. And with both styles of flashes, the flash durations range from around 1/250th of a second to 1/20,000th of a second.
Given that hummingbirds beat their wings upwards of 100 beats per second, it’s simply not necessary to work with speeds of 1/20,000th of a second. While this will certainly stop all the action, you run into the problem with the flash exposure not properly lighting the scenario for you. This means we are always looking for a happy medium if you will, a sweet spot that provides the flash duration we need and the amount of light we need for a proper exposure at the same time.
With my pocket strobes, which are larger and more powerful than the speedlights, a flash exposure setting of 1/16 power comes in at around 1/5,360th of a second. With a traditional speedlight, this is going to be somewhere between 1/7,000 – 1/10,000th of a second at the same flash exposure.
For me, 1/16th power is that sweet spot in most situations and what I always start out with for multi-flash hummingbird setups.
Whether I’m using a pocket strobe or a speedlight, these speeds are more than enough to stop the action while also safeguarding against underexposing the scene.
To ensure that all flashes fire with the same flash duration, it is important to keep all flashes set to the same power level and adjust their intensity by changing their distance rather than their power setting. The reason for this is that flash duration varies depending on power output. If one flash is set at 1/16 power while another is set at 1/32 power, the duration of the flash bursts will differ, and this mismatch can lead to ghosting artifacts, particularly around the wings. Ghosting occurs when multiple flashes with different durations capture slightly different wing positions within the same exposure, creating a blurry or double-image effect. By keeping all flashes at the same power and modifying only their distance, we maintain consistent flash durations across all light sources.
One of the most overlooked yet crucial aspects of multi-flash hummingbird photography is ensuring that both the key and fill lights are the same type of flash. Even when set to the same power level, different flashes can have slightly different flash durations, which can introduce inconsistencies in freezing motion. Even when two different flashes are set to the same power, their flash durations can vary slightly due to differences in their internal capacitors and circuitry. If one flash emits light for 1/6,000th of a second while another emits light for 1/8,000th of a second, ghosting will occur. By using identical flashes for the key and fill light, we ensure that their flash durations match exactly, eliminating the risk of inconsistencies.
For this reason, I prefer to use pocket strobes instead of speedlights for both my key and fill lights. Pocket strobes offer several advantages over speedlights in this type of setup. First, they are far more powerful, allowing me to easily overpower ambient light if necessary. The extra power of pocket strobes provides more flexibility in all situations.
Additionally, pocket strobes are designed specifically for off-camera flash use, making them much easier to work with when using radio transmitters or flash triggers. Speedlights often require digging through complex menu systems to adjust wireless settings, whereas pocket strobes are built for external triggering, simplifying the process of dialing in the right exposure. Their dedicated controls and straightforward interface mean I can make quick adjustments without having to navigate multiple layers of settings.
By ensuring that my key and fill lights are the same type of flash I eliminate potential variations in flash duration, maintain precise lighting control, and have the flexibility to adapt my exposure as needed. This consistency is key to success with multi-flash setups for hummingbirds.
Flash power should remain the same across all units. With multi-flash hummingbird setups, flash duration is of upmost importance. A flash exposure setting of 1/16 power will provide you with between 1/6000th - 1/10,000th of a second flash duration which is perfect for freezing the action. If a light appears to be too bright or to weak, we move the flash closer or further away from the flower instead of adjusting the exposure setting.
Heavy clouds drift low through the forest canopy, threading moisture through moss and lichen, softening the edges of everything. Around me, the forest pulses with motion—small, sudden, electric. A dozen hummingbirds flicker between branches, their wingbeats too fast to follow, their colors igniting like sparks in the mist. Among them, the molten green of a fiery-throated hummingbird catches the light, then vanishes. A white-throated mountaingem hovers, flashes its brilliant gorget, then slips back into the shadows.
These aren’t casual sightings. These birds are specialists—high-elevation endemics found only in this range, in this climate, under these exacting conditions. Photographing them here, in the cool folds of the Talamanca, is not just a technical challenge—it’s a privilege. It requires patience, precision, and an understanding of how light interacts with movement on a scale almost too fast for perception.
The gear helps. The technique matters. But at some point, the flashes fire, the frame freezes, and you get something more than just an image. You catch a moment that would otherwise go unseen—a wing suspended mid-beat, a tongue coiled around a beak, a feather catching a sliver of cloud-filtered light. And in that fraction of a second, you witness something elemental: a collision of biology and physics, instinct and atmosphere.
Out here, where the air is thin and the canopy closes tight, photography becomes more than documentation. It becomes translation. A way of slowing down the impossible, one frame at a time. Without the use of multi-flash setups, the magic would be lost entirely.
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