GH4 Hummingbirds In A Sanctuary...1st GH4 Project

Bruce Foreman

Bruce Foreman

Veteran
First project shot with my GH4. Visited a small ranch in Christoval TX where the owner has established a hummingbird and other migratory bird sanctuary. Sitting inside the "observation building" I set up a tripod with the GH4 and a 45-200mm lens (90-400mm equiv). I had the camera set to record in Cinema 4K 24p mode and used the "Natural" color profile with all parameters set to "0".

No color correction or grading was used, colors and look seemed just right to me.

Edited in Corel Pinnacle Studio 17.5 on a 4K timeline then exported to a 1080p MP4 file.

Music is SmartSound, from the album "Cinematic Excellence", track was "Country Rain".

Here's the link: https://vimeo.com/98865311

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Nice.
Did you also try faster shutter speeds to see how well the GH4 can record fast movements (the wingbeats of the hummingbirds) without blur?
And I think the 96fps slow mo would be interesting to see as well, since the hummingbirds beat their wings 15-80 strokes per second so the 96fps would capture it good I think.
If you have videos of the birds with higher shutter speed or even in slow-mo would be great to see them, since its not everyday that there is an opportunity to film hummingbirds.
 
I actually did shoot some with faster shutter speed (by accident). I was pulling the camera off the tripod to do stills and for those I had to use 1/500th to get decent shots. Then in putting the camera back on the tripod I sometimes forgot to reset the shutter speed to 1/60th for video. If you look at it again you should be able to see the difference, in the "takes" shot at 1/60th the wings are a blur like we are used to seeing. Where you can see the wings look "stroboscopic" or "stuttery" that's where I forgot to take it from 1/500th back to 1/60th. I much prefer the look at 1/60th.
 
Ah I see, that is cool that you changed it by accident :) Though 1/500 may not be enough for such speed.
I found one link where a photographer has taken pictures of birds with 1/8000. There is a hummingbird in one of the examples as well. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nd-amateur-British-wildlife-photographer.html
I know its a matter of taste, but I think that the ability to shoot wildlife the way we can´t see it with our own eyes makes it compelling.
 
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