Canon 20D focus problem

[Fluffo]

In attempting to freeze the wings of a hummingbird in flight, I put the
creative focus in Tv mode. All of my shots were very dark to black. I
thought I could dial up the shutter speed and the aperture would
compensate. It appears the the Tv mode when set to a slower shutter
speed provides a shot that is about the same as the P mode. I was
hoping for better freeze capture.
Can anyone provide some good feedback on what I'm not doing properly?

[Eddy]

2 thoughts come to mind:

1. ISO is set too low to allow you to use the shutter speed you want in Tv
mode.
2. The lens you are using is not fast enough to allow the amount of light
needed to keep it from going into the shadows.

As you were shooting, did you notice what the aperature and shutter settings
were and at what ISO you were shooting? Also the lens info can be of help
as well to determine if you were pushing it to the limits of what it can do.

In some cases, in order to get the shutter speed I needed (1/8000) I either
had to change the ISO to 1600 or change out the lens to one that at least
could do f2.8

You also need to monitor the exposure meter to see if its on 0 or has dipped
down to -2 or is even flashing. Flahsing tells you, you are outside the
range or exposure that will produce a decent photo.

In some cases, using Adbobe, you can recover the exposure and brightness as
long as they are not too far down in the shadows. In that case if you try to
bring up the brightness or exposure you risk bringing in more noise
(luminance and color)

[Tony]

Read manual. Some can't be adjusted while in TV mode.

[Wilt]

If you use Tv, you must set the shutter speed to what you want to use,
then the camera automatically sets the lens aperture to suit -- IF it
can! Perhaps you used too high of a shutter speed for the ISO which
was set, and the amount of ambient light was too little for the maximum
f/stop which is available on the lens in use. So the camera opens the
lens all the way, but that is still TOO LITTLE light for a proper
exposure to have been made.

Solution...verify for the shutter speed selected that the camera's
choice of aperture is large enough. And if it isn't, try A) setting to
a high ISO, or B) resort to the use of flash, or C) use a slower
shutter speed.

[Eric]

Get a flash. You need more light. BTW, the highest shutter speed on the
camera will not do a consistently good job of freezing a hummingbird's
wings, even if there is enough light available to properly expose at the
selected shutter speed. You can solve this by using a flash duration of less
than 1/10,000 of a second by using multiple flashes on low power. If you
don't mind a little blur in the wings, get a flash extender, like a Better
Beamer, and use a Canon 580ex on the high speed sync setting with a shutter
speed of 1/1000 or 1/1600.