Hummingbird photography with a Nikon D5300

One of our local photography club members specializes in Hummmingbird shots. I'll explain his approach as best I can.

First and foremost, he achieves gorgous stop-action of the wings with partial power electronic flash, not with camera shutter speed.

He has an array of flashes and cameras setup around his feeder. Sometimes he triggers them remotely himself, and sometimes he uses auto-triggers based upon the hummingbirds flying through a trigger laser detector.

Another thing he does is he has his own pre-printed "Boca" backgrounds. He has large(ish) blurry scenery and floral prints set on stands to act as a backdrop for photos of the birds.

Good luck!

You are wanting to freeze the motion of the wings which move extremely fast... That's typically going to require shutter speeds around 1/2000 or faster; which means you need strong light or higher ISO settings.

The other option is to freeze the motion with flash, but that is more problematic. In order to freeze motion with flash the flash has to be the only light source the camera sees/records. And in order for the flash to be fast enough the average flash will need to be set to about 1/4 power; which means it is too weak to be the only light source at typical distances. So you end up needing multiple flashes on stands placed closer to the hummingbird.

A third option is something of a compromise... you can use flash as partial lighting (fill flash) which can give you a frozen wing position overlaying the wing's motion blur. Whichever exposure is brighter/stronger will dictate what is more visible/on top. Similarly you can use the flash as partial/fill in high speed sync to enable higher shutter speeds.

You can also combine these things with a little luck and a high frame rate... the wing's speed slows down as it changes direction, so it is easier to freeze at the top/bottom of the beat.

Personally, I prefer images where the wing is not completely frozen and tend to use either fill flash, or no flash and shutter speeds around 1/500-1/1000. I also think these types of images tend to look more natural than ones where all of the light is from flash.