Getting great photos of hummingbirds can be a challenge, especially in-flight photos.
I've been a serious photographer for more than 40 years, but have only been taking hummingbird photos for less than 10 years. I'm still learning and getting better at capturing these tiny, fast-moving birds. Here are my basic tips and techniques for shooting hummingbirds in natural light.
Aim and Wait
Hopefully you have feeders or flowers that regularly attract hummingbirds. The best approach is to sit or stand far enough away that you don't scare the birds, but close enough to get a tight shot with your lens. The more time you spend outside with them, the more comfortable they'll be with you around.
I like to pre-focus on a feeder or flower the birds visit regularly, then shift my aim slightly toward the side I expect them to approach from. Quite often they hover close to the feeder before moving in to feed — that's the best moment to capture the shot. You may have to stand very still holding your camera for a long time before they visit. Patience is key.
My camera and zoom lens can get heavy to hold, so I'll often lower it after I've framed and pre-focused, then slowly raise it into position when I hear a hummingbird approaching — I usually hear them before I see them. Sometimes they still startle when I point the big lens at them, but most birds that visit regularly are used to me and my gear. If you've pre-focused on the feeder, the camera shouldn't need to shift focus much for a bird hovering a foot or two away.
Focus Settings
Getting a fast-moving hummingbird in focus is difficult unless it's sitting still. To capture birds in flight, even while hovering, you need a focusing system that can track subjects. On a DSLR or quality mirrorless camera, set your focus mode to AI Servo (Canon) or its equivalent, and enable subject tracking or eye detection if your camera supports it.
The Canon R5 Mark II that I use has excellent Animal tracking mode that works great for birds, including eye detection that can lock onto the tiny eyes of a hummingbird. You may need to dig into the focus tracking settings to find what works best for your specific camera — I spent time searching how professional bird photographers set up their cameras and then experimented until I found what worked for me.
If you're shooting with a phone, many will let you tap an object on screen to track it, but most phones struggle to track small fast-moving birds reliably. You may get a usable shot if the bird is hovering in place.
Shutter Speed
The higher the shutter speed the better when shooting hummingbirds in flight. Anything under 1/1000 won't cut it, and I aim for at least 1/2000. Even at 1/2000 the wings will usually be blurry — their wings move incredibly fast. The closest you get to unblurred wings without flash is during that tiny fraction of a second when the wings change direction. There's no way to see that and time your shot, so it comes down to luck and volume.
High shutter speeds require a lot of light, so you'll usually be shooting at your widest aperture. In shade or overcast conditions you'll need to push your ISO higher, which introduces noise and costs you some sharpness. Our backyard garden is shaded most of the day — the only window for bright natural light is when the sun is directly overhead, which is also the worst possible light for photography. See The Secret to High ISO Photography for how I deal with this.
If you're not familiar with terms like shutter speed, aperture, or ISO, search for "photography basics" tutorials — these are second nature to me after 40+ years but I know they can make eyes glaze over quickly.
High Speed Drive
Most DSLRs and prosumer mirrorless cameras have high-speed drive modes that fire multiple frames per second when you hold the shutter. Even some phones have burst or action modes that do something similar.
When shooting in natural light, using high-speed drive is essential. Since you can't time the exact moment the wings change direction, your best option is to fire off as many shots as possible in a burst and hope to get one or two keepers. The Canon R5 Mark II can shoot up to 30 frames per second in electronic shutter mode. One caution: electronic shutter can produce a rolling shutter effect on fast-moving subjects, and hummingbird wings can look oddly deformed in many of those frames. The mechanical shutter rate is lower but avoids this.
I can easily fire 40–50 shots in a single burst, usually stopping myself before the camera hits its buffer limit. The combination of high-speed drive with animal tracking and eye detection gives me far more keepers than I got with older cameras.
Aperture, Focal Length, and Depth of Field
Aperture determines how much light reaches the sensor and also controls depth of field, together with focal length. To get higher shutter speeds in lower light, you'll generally be shooting at your widest aperture (lowest f-stop number). The trade-off is that longer focal lengths come with narrower maximum apertures — my Canon RF 100-500mm opens to f/4.5 at 100mm and f/7.1 at 500mm, which doesn't let in a lot of light, but anything bigger and heavier would be difficult to hand-hold for extended periods.
Depth of field is the range of distance that appears in focus. With a long telephoto lens on a full-frame camera at wide aperture, that range can be razor thin — sometimes a fraction of an inch. When eye tracking nails focus on the bird's eye at 500mm and f/7.1, other parts of the bird may already be outside the focal plane. If there's enough light I'll bump to f/8 or f/11 for more coverage, but I'm usually wide open simply because of the limited natural light in our yard. I'm typically 5–20 feet from the birds; the closer I get, the shallower the depth of field.
The upside of a shallow depth of field is bokeh — that smooth, pleasing blur in the out-of-focus background. Good lenses render bokeh beautifully; cheaper optics less so. Our garden's greenery makes for a nice natural backdrop when it blurs out cleanly.
What About Phone Cameras?
Most of what's above assumes you're shooting with a dedicated camera and telephoto lens. Phones are a different story — small sensors, short focal lengths, and fixed apertures mean depth of field and low-light performance work very differently. But many phones now have impressive zoom and burst modes, and if a bird is hovering close enough, you can get a decent shot.
Switch to Pro mode if your phone has one and experiment with shutter speed and ISO. Some phones have an action or sport mode that fires a rapid burst. Results will vary a lot by phone and situation — you'll only find out by trying.
I'm planning a dedicated post on hummingbird photography with phones and budget cameras. In the meantime, the most important tip applies to any camera: get the birds comfortable with your presence first, and let them come to you.
Practice
It really comes down to practicing with your camera, taking lots of photos, and finding what works best for your gear. I've been taking photos for over 40 years and I still get far more missed shots than keepers with hummingbirds. With fast-moving, unpredictable subjects you have to take hundreds of photos — often thousands — and hope to walk away with a handful of really good ones. The more you shoot, the better your eye gets for anticipating the moments worth capturing.