Best lunch in Costa Rica

[laurie golden]

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had a narrow walkway to a viewing platform. The walkway was surrounded by hummingbird feeders. These fiery-throated hummingbirds were everywhere. The males defend their territory ( a feeder) from other males from a nearby perch. The area was so small that a tripod was useless but the birds were so close and not afraid of people. My favorite photos of this bird are over the shoulder shot or a profile but they did not show the multi-colored throat so I have selected a front view to share.

Nikon D800 with 1.2 in-camera crop, 70-200 f2.8 lens
ISO 640, f6.3, 1/500 sec, hand held
Manual exposure


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[dankearl]

Beautiful perch, hummingbird and BG to go with it.
Very nice DOF to get the perch sharp.
Is there a specific reason you are using the in camera crops rather than FF and cropping yourself?

[PhilCook]

Loving that mossy perch, seems to suit such a colorful bird nicely, background is lovely and smooth

[laurie golden]

Dan,

I am using the in camera crop because it helps me compose the photo. Also trying to decrease the big file size.

[dankearl]

Thanks for the explanation Laurie.
I hear you about the file size, but I just deal with it.
I do need a new computer though, my 5 year old Mac does fine with the photo's, but nothing else works very well.
It slows my Internet to a crawl every time I process some photo's.
The D800 seems to be working well for you now. Your photo's look terrific.

[Peter Dexter]

Great hummer photo in which you caught what you were after. What species?

[laurie golden]

This is a Fiery-throated hummingbird, only found in Costa Rica and Panama.

[Nick Palmieri]

Really cool looking bird. Great perch and nice BG. TFS

[Nancy Bell]

You captured the great colors of this male! I have been to this place and only had time for a coffee and a few quick shots. Really nice perch. I don't remember these.

[John Cooper]

You've captured those iridescent colours very well Laurie - killer perch and BG. What an interesting location to visit..!!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Laurie, love the colourful iridescence on this guy, and lots to look at on the perch. Placement works well, and both HB and perch pop so well from the BG. No one else has mentioned it, but I feel the sharpening on the HB is on the edge.

[Satish Ranadive]

Laurie:
Magnificent image.Great colors,composition,beautiful background and interesting perch. Love the frame.

Regards,
Satish.

[Karl Egressy]

The colours and the perch are fantastic, Laurie.

[laurie golden]

Stuart,

When you say the sharpening on the bird is on the edge do you mean that it is over-sharpened? I used the same sharpening on the bird and perch and the same that I use on most photos. One of the reasons that I do not like the birds with a front view is that all of this iridescence looks fake to me. Should I reprocess without sharpening the bird or would that help.

The background is a distant valley, we were on an elevated platform on the side of a hill.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Laurie, I dont think it is oversharpened as such, but maybe its the high contrast that makes it appear on the edge of over sharpening. Your other images are never oversharpened, so if you are using the same process, then you arent doing anything wrong.
:w3
If you dont mind, I would like to see a version with 'less sharpening'

[laurie golden]

Stuart,

I usually mask the bird and perch and reduce the noise on the background more than the bird and perch. To save time I just used Denoise at the lowest level on the whole photo but it does need more on the background. Then I did nothing to the photo except sharpen for the web after it was reduced. It probably needs to be some place in between but I just did not know where.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Laurie, thanks for posting the unsharpened image. The HB as presented is quite sharp as is, so maybe a touch more in between would do it. In the version above, I can clearly see that the perch would need sharpening which you have showed in your repost.

Of course, this is how I have seen the image, and others may differ. :w3

[laurie golden]

Thanks Stuart, I agree.

[Gary Hamilton]

Absolutely beautiful image, Laurie. With all that action, did you even get a chance to eat lunch :w3