Me Being Brave, Interesting Hummer

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Okay I'm being brave posting in this forum, but here goes.

I just loved this shot and so does my family so figured why not, take a chance and post it.

Taken under a canopy tree in Arizona last year.

Camera Sony DSC HX 100 V

EXIF

Exp 1/640 at f/5.6
ISO 100
slow synchro flash
hand held, about 3 feet away

New to post processing programs, but I did very little here.

Full Frame, contrast, sharpening, brightened highlight in the eye, blurred the background a bit more than it was with a median filter of 5.

[Iain Barker]

Nice image Linz. I like the fact you managed to get the beak in-front of the perch.
I don't know how I to go about it but wonder if something extra could be done with the eye maybe just a little more sharpening there.

Quite daunting posting in the avian thread rather than ETL so well done for that.

[Karl Egressy]

I kike the beautiful background and the fine feather detail. The perch crossing the beak even behind is somewhat distracting. Otherwise it is a fine image.

[Dan Busby]

Lots to like here. Nice detail and good head angle and I really like the natural background. The pov looks a bit steep to me and I would prefer less room on left and more room on right. The eye shows the effect of flash but I think some "eye doctor" work on it could improve it.

[Marina Scarr]

This is a fine image full of wonderful feather details!!! I love your BG and this bird really pops against it. The eye isn't ideal b/c of the location being so low, but at least you have a catch light and it definitely enhances the image. Your vertical presentation works well. I would rather have seen the bird looking the other way for this particular crop, but all in all, well done and congrats to you for posting in Avian!!!!!!!!!!!!

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice light and BG. details loom sharp. no one mentioned the steep shooting angle, ideally you want the bird to be level with the viewer, esoterically for perched shots. I wish the beak had not intersected with the branch

[Lyle Gruby]

Agree with all the positives, the beak crossing the perch doesn't bother me as much as the others. A better head angle--with the bird looking at you perhaps would improve the image more than the beak looking the other direction IMO. That and as Arash mentioned, a less steep angle. Good job.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I think that the top of the head being tilted back is what causes the appearance of being steep...had it been cocked forward this would have helped with that. I love the details you got and you have a fabulous studio-like BG. Awesome perch too:S3:

[Sandy Witvoet]

WELL DONE LINZ! :S3: What do you think about a little less room on the left and a bit more to the right? Superb BG and good pose.
Congrats on making the "Leap" to Avian.... some great comments over here!

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Well you all have just made my day, got a grin on my face and doing the happy dance, I needed that.

I will be going back to ETL for most of my posts for a while but thought I would take a chance with this one.

Though you gave me more to learn, this is full frame, how do I go about adding to the right, I can add canvas but can you add the BG in??? I agree, now that's its mentioned that I did like the right side more and it would balance out.

And for you gurus please tell me how to eye doctor this a bit more???

I will admit, I hate flashes, because I don't use them properly, so my few images with them, the eyes are never quite right.

I did a bit on the eye with the brush in LR, but think it needs a bit more.

I was at a bit of an odd angle which is why I titled this "interesting" a different perspective to me, I loved the detail in the breast feathers.

This was a juvenile and very cooperative subject, spent an hour or so sitting with him and he was oh so curious, he kept looking down at me which I think the flash took away. I sat still and he kept coming and going so I got many different angles.

I have so many photos of this guy, a lot with his beak behind the branch.... LOL

This is the first time I left the sharpening alone, and just hit the output sharpen button on LR export, looks pretty good.

Do most of you who use LR allow for the export output sharpening to be checked to on??? This was set on Low.

[Diane Miller]

A very nice image, and lovely BG. I don't mind the beak being in front of the perch because it is so much darker. I agree you could remove some on the left and add canvas on the right. Content-Aware Fill should do a good job to fill it in -- better than cloning, but you can't do that in LR. It's a PS thing. I don't remember what you have for PS, if any -- Elements might do it. I think you could also crop some from the top.

I export from LR with sharpen set to Screen, and Standard, but if the exported image looks too soft at 100%, I'll either re-try it set to High, or, better, open the exported JPEG in PS and use Smart Sharpen at a very small radius, with Remove set to Lens Blur and More Accurate checked. Important to view it at 100% as you sharpen to avoid over-doing it.

I never had been in the habit of tweaking a JPEG after export, but people here suggested to me enough times that I should do it that I finally tried it, and it really does make a difference for the fine detail in avian images.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

thank you again Diane for the help, really appreciate the tip on smart sharpen.

I have a habit that one of the first 5 things I do is sharpen, called my LR friend who said its a hard habit to break but wait it out and do sharpening last.... I shall try

For PS, I actually had an elements trial and had ordered 11 for the new computer, then got an email saying Elements 12 was out, so Best Buy gladly exchanged them today, so I will be uploading the bran new Elements 12, then I have LR5.

And I purchased Topaz Adjust 5 when it was on sale a couple of weeks ago. That's it for now and will be enough for a while, must learn PS. I tried getting the CC deal but never owned CS3 so don't qualify for the 9.99