Anna's hummingbird

[Kapil Kapre]

Gear: 6DM2 w/ Sigma 150-600 @ f/6.3 1/160s ISO 400.
PP: Basic Tweaks in LR

(A feeder was used to attract the bird)

[Paul Burdett]

Hi Kapil: Always nice to see a Hummingbird. I like the BG, colours and the wing blur. The head looks a little soft to me. TFS

[gail bisson]

The yellow BG is certainly unique but I would tone it down a bit by going to either saturation or selective coloring in PS and adjusting the yellows.
Hummingbird is a bit soft and I think it is because your SS was low. I like a bit of wing blur but this is too much for my taste,
Gail

[Ivan Sjogren]

Unique image with that yellow BG! I too think the hummer itself looks a bit soft due to slow shutter speed. It is a bit dark as well. I think the composition would be stronger with the bird positioned more to the bottom right.

[Kapil Kapre]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! :S3:

[Isaac Grant]

Background is insane man. Wow. What is it? I agree the bird is bit dark and soft. Also very much like Ivan's suggestion of where to place the bird in the frame. I assume you also shot this with flash right? If so what were your settings?

[John Mack]

Love the colors in this image. The background is excellent. Agree with Gail's comments.

[Kapil Kapre]

Background is insane man. Wow. What is it? I agree the bird is bit dark and soft. Also very much like Ivan's suggestion of where to place the bird in the frame. I assume you also shot this with flash right? If so what were your settings?

Thanks! BG is fall colours being lit by the setting sun. I haven't made use of flash for bird photography yet, so maybe it would have helped here, I don't really know. The BG can go through a wide range of colours.. This is just a day apart.. (SOOC JPEG)

[Isaac Grant]

If you are not shooting flash then you have to shoot a much higher shutter speed to freeze hummingbirds. It is pretty miraculous that the bird is as sharp as it is at such a low shutter speed. But you were shooting a full frame camera and could have pushed the ISO much more than 400 to get more shutter speed. You should have been in the ISO 1600 range or more to get much more shutter speed. Those little things make the difference between getting a tack sharp shot and one that is close. I have not shot them much. We have some guys that shoot hummingbirds often. Hopefully they can see this and chime in with some optimal settings to get these guys nice and sharp. At least a good starting point. I would say you need at least 1/1600 shutter speed or more of the bird while it is hovering. That should give you a nice and sharp body and maybe some wing blur. Might need even more speed though.