This is a follow-up to an earlier post,  A Hummingbird Story.  I purchased an LED panel and used it instead of an off-camera flash.  The set up being very similar to the one mentioned in that post, replacing the flash with the LED panel.

The verdict?

Not to shabby!  I like how continuous light of the LED panel doesn’t scare the hummingbirds.  My one complaint, though,  is that the light from the LED panel isn’t as powerful as the flash… but I’m not sure that is true… let me explain.

The LED panel takes 6 AA batteries… so I scrounged around for some rechargeable batteries.  The battery capacity test button indicated low battery… so I recharged all my batteries overnight… the next day I checked the battery capacity and it indicated fully charged… or so I thought… a few minutes later (less than 30 min) I checked again and it indicated low battery.

I am actually hoping that it is the old batteries because that means that the light I’m getting is possibly only 1/4 the power.  I’m going to get some new batteries and test that theory.

Photo shoot

In the mean time… I thought I’d show you the photos I was able to capture with a low battery LED panel. 🙂

I took these during the day… unfortunately the sunlight is blowing out the background at this angle.  My best option for the future is to shoot a bit later when the sun has dipped down farther.

I also want to note that all the daylight photos had to have some post-manipulation to bring up the shadows (ie. the hummingbird), due to the adjustments made keeping the background in check (preventing the background from blowing out completely) during the photo shoot.

Comparison

I took this one a bit later, but unfortunately too late… this was the only shot I was able to get before the hummingbirds went to bed. 😦

It is interesting to note that he is in pretty much the same place as a flash photo I took… so it is a great comparison shot! 🙂

The obvious difference is the white balance… the top photo is a bit warmer (yellower).

They look really close.  I mean I had to put them side by side in Lightroom and compare them zoomed in.  His body is ever soooo slightly different… in the bottom photo his feathers are a little ruffled near his feet… you probably can’t tell at this resolution, but trust me it is a different picture.

Oh, heh… if you look at the feeder you can tell for sure that it is a different photo.

So my assessment is that the LED panel will work nicely… I just hope that I can get a little more light from it once I get a new set of batteries. 🙂

Feedback

Did you like this post?  Would you like similar posts in the future?  Please let me know in the comment section below, I’d love to hear from you! 🙂

Until next time…
~nic