Ruby throated Hummingbird

[Mike Lentz]

BAITED :p I get my fair share of these guys in the spring through late summer and do backyard setups that enable me to get the shot. I do however reward my feathered friends with plenty of sugar water.

http://www.pbase.com/mike_lentz/image/84055039.jpg

F/9 ~ ISO 320 ~ - 1/3 EV taken at the end of the day.

[David Hemmings]

Smashing image Mike, I just showed my girlfriend because she loves hummingbirds so much and she drooled over it:D

[Jim Poor]

Nice compositon and BG. I do see the tiniest halo around the bird though.

[Nikolay Staykov - shotlandetsa]

A spectacular image.!
I wish ony some more speed to freeze the wings.

[Ed Miller]

Wonderful colors and bg! Agree about the slight halo.

[Glenn Bartley]

Very nice. My only nit would be the flower seems a bit dominant. Is this a flower they feed at naturally?

[c.w. moynihan]

Lovely colors...might perfer more wing freeze by use of flash at max sync speed of the camera. This looks to be with no flash ? Nice image in any event.

[Dobromir Dobrinov]

Beautiful colors and BG,good composition!!

[Linda Robbins]

Nice pose captured, and sharp on the eye, and a good composition. I wish for all the techs!

___________________

Linda

[RoxanaRosell]

Sweet! I love the way the red in the flower and the bird balance out.

[Mike Lentz]

Thanks guys! I always like when I see the words "a slight halo" it means somebody has to be looking pretty hard at the image. :D I used Smart sharpen in CS3 and don't recall the amount I used, but am positive the radius was 0.2 for fine feather detail w/lens blur.

Glenn, I've seen them feed on every flower in my yard and thats a fair amount. I wonder if there are flowers that they don't feed on? Now I'm curious, anybody know the answer?

I was at 1/320 sec on this shot with no flash. I set it up so that the BG colors and flower colors would coordinate with the male HB. I do however use flash fairly frequently but don't yet have one of the elaborate flash setups... maybe this summer.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it. ;)

[Jim Poor]

I'll admit to being over sensitive on halos as I've been nailed on a couple lately ;)

[Mike Lentz]

Whats the trick in sharpening as I see the halo as well. I want it to look as nice as possible. :o

[hugh robateau]

Beautiful shot, Mike! The colors are stunning and the background very pleasing.

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

mike - there was a post by one of the expert moderators ( maybe Fabs Forns) yesterday
before you sharpen - contract the image
Select Modify Contract by 1-2 pixels

i'd never tried it before - - seems to work

[Jacqui Hendry]

I wish we had these birds where I live,

They are just so stunning,

Beautiful :-)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

mike - there was a post by one of the expert moderators ( maybe Fabs Forns) yesterday
before you sharpen - contract the image
Select Modify Contract by 1-2 pixels

i'd never tried it before - - seems to work

Exactly right and in this case it would be even easier. You could use the magic wand tool on the BG which should give you a border right around the bird, inverse and contract 1 or 2 pixels before sharpening.

[Jim Poor]

I have found that when I use a small radius (even .1) and still get a halo, it is usually because I did something with the BG like blur it. I think shrinking the selection might just be the trick. I'll have to go back and try it on a couple of my problem images.

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice, Mike, specially without a flash.

Agree with Axel in the flower being dominating, maybe you could select that part of the image and go back on the red saturation a bit?

There's an active thread on sharpening for avian in the Digital Workflow Forum.

Personally, I rather err on the soft side than the frozen look, but it is very personal preference, within limits, or course :)

Wish I had your backyard!

[Mike Lentz]

Awesome! Thanks guys and Fabs! I'll go check out that forum and see what I can pick up, appreciate your help! :D
Fabs, I'm a bit jealous of all the closeups you Floridians get ;)... I used to live in Tallahassee as a child... maybe someday I'll return.

[James Salywoda]

Sweet shot Mike such a beautiful image....

[Fabs Forns]

Awesome! Thanks guys and Fabs! I'll go check out that forum and see what I can pick up, appreciate your help! :D
Fabs, I'm a bit jealous of all the closeups you Floridians get ;)... I used to live in Tallahassee as a child... maybe someday I'll return.

We'll be here waiting :D