Ruby Throat on Althea

[jack williamson]

Nikon D800, 300mm, tripod, two flashes. 1/125, f7.1, ISO 400. I set this Althea branch up and poured sugar water in the flower, took down the feeders and waited. The perch may overpower the HB but they are so tiny! This is full frame.

[John Rowell]

Nice capture. I agree that the perch is overpowering. A crop to remove most of the stem and leaves would help a lot and with the D800 file the crop shouldn't present any problem. Also maybe tone down the flower and lower left background to add focus to the hummer?

[dankearl]

Jack,
Hope you don't mind my tweaking this,
Cropped a bit an blurred the BG highlights.
Good to see you shooting hummers, with your skill you will be killing them...
There is a some posterization in working with the small file and this was quick.

_DSC5054dk.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=132137&stc=1&d=1378165100)

[jack williamson]

Thanks guys. Dan your crop looks much better than mine, for some reason I wanted to keep that flower bud in the LRC. What exactly did you do with the BG? I was to lazy to mess with it.

Jack

[dankearl]

Jack,
I used Gaussion Blur which I only use on BG's like this.
If you apply it carefully, it does not completely bland out the BG.
It looks even smoother when used on a regular sized file. I can see why you wanted
the bud in the photo, but just too much flower for me.
The Hummer is perfect for my tastes, I really don't like frozen wings that much, yours is sharp where it needs to be
and a perfect wing blur for my taste. It makes them look real to me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the repost crop by Dan, it's what I had in mind when first opening the image. I understand why you wanted to inclde the bud, but a better comp trumps the need for it in. Nice HB pose and I too like to see the motion blur in the wings too (although I like fully frozen ones too). Nice flower, and your technique worked well...thanks for describing it.

[vishaljadhav]

I like both the version even the OP looks nice and i feel the bud can surely make part of the frame as it is one more component in the frame since the bird is small more components balancing it out makes it interesting to my eye. the flower is sharp so i like it
interesting flash work

[gail bisson]

I definitely prefer the crop in the repost.
The amount of wing blur is just right.Lovely flower with a diagonal line which is very pleasing.
I might be tempted to clone out one of the double catchlights.
Great clean BG and I like the water on the leaves,
Gail

[David Salem]

Nice shot of this hummer and I like the crop on the repost. Good looking detail, color and I like the wing blur. I agree with Gail about the double catchlights. Nice work.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I do like the repost a lot. Very nice hummer and clean BG.