Setting for moving subject

[Brian4all]

I was looking at a hummingbird photo on here yesterday and decided to try it just fun since I have a hummingbird feeder outside my window where the bird has to feed while in motion. I used auto macro and thought the images would be blurry which they were because the bird as well as the wings are in constant motion. I'm very knew to all of this and need some advice on which setting to use. Looking in my book, I see an automatic mode to set the shutter speed (S Shutter Priority AE) which freezes a moving subject. Not sure what shutter speed to use to freeze the wings. The bird feeder is about 2 feet from my window, so I was wonder about using the macro setting also. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[CameronSmith]

I would set your lens to auto focus and focus on the distance to where your feeder is.

I would also try to get your shutter speed up to about 500 (I think that would catch it?) If not just keep raising it up (The higher your Shutter speed the wider your F/ must be so that you expose it correctly, If your shooting in Shutter priority it will automatically do this. each time you Raise your SS and Lower your f/ You will loose DOF, meaning your subject should be in focus, But the background/foreground may be blurry.) Here is a cool site for that kinda stuff.

http://dryreading.com/camera/index.html

 

[Big Mike]

You can't just choose the shutter speed that will work...there are other things in the equation.

Shutter speed, lens aperture and ISO all work together to give you an exposure. The camera uses a light meter to determine how much exposure you need for the light that you are shooting in. There are, of course, limits to each setting.

For example, in your situation, you will probably want the highest shutter speed possible, in order to freeze the movement. However, the less time the shutter is open, the light you are getting for the exposure...so either the aperture has to be open wider or the ISO has to be turned up. You will quickly reach the limit of your aperture (lowest F number)...so if that doesn't give you a fast enough shutter speed, then you need to raise the ISO...but that will give you more and more digital noise.
Another option would be add more light, so that you could get enough for the exposure at higher shutter speeds.

Another technique would be to use flash. The burst of light from a flash is usually a lot faster than the shutter speed so you can freeze movement...but you may also get blur from ambient light.

Experiment and try different settings and see what you can come up with.