Rufous-tailed hummingbird

[Greg Basco]

Hi to all. I've been enjoying the site for a few months now, but this is my first image post. With a tropical depression hammering us with wind and rain, today seemed like a good day to stay in the office and work on some images. This is a rufous-tailed hummingbird, a regular visitor to my feeders, taken with my custom flash setup on my front porch a couple of weeks ago. A note: this obviously is not the classic multi-flash hummingbird look, as I've been working toward a setup that mimics the darkish backrounds and diffused light typical of Costa Rican cloud forests, at least to my eye. I've also been going for a combination of sharpness and wing blur for a natural but somewhat artistic look. I'll be interested to see what people think.

http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/forums/rufoustail1.jpg

Canon 40D, 300 mm f2.8 L IS, 25 mm extension tube, f14, 1/160, ISO 250, 6 strobes

Cheers from Costa Rica,

[Doug Brown]

Congrats Greg on your first photo post on BPN! It's a stunner to be sure! Great eye contact and wing position; I like the wing blur. I think you've succeeded in creating a natural look here with your multiflash setup too.

[Stephen Stephen]

Lovely first post Greg. The nicely fanned tail catches my eye.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Greg,
Big welcome from the UK!
What a stunner - I love the colours and the BG and it is so sharp where you want it to be. Very artistic- well done!
Regards,
Nicki

[Arthur Morris]

I like the colors and the idea of the blurred wings, but the blur of the near wing is excessive. What is yoyur BKGR? What is causing the blurred wing(s)? Most of all, I wish that the bird's head were angled towards us rather than away. Welcome!

[Julie Kenward]

Welcome Greg! I really like this - especially the way the bird is curving his body towards the curve of the flower...what a wonderful composition!

[Glenda Simmons]

Hi Greg...and Welcome! I'm not advanced enough to offer much technical advice, but Hummingbirds are my passion and this is a beauty. The contrasting colors of the bird and flower are very nice. I hope to make it to Costa Rica in a couple of years.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Muy buena Greg!
Very nice image of this little fellow! the heliconia also deserves some credit! Very good job.

[Greg Basco]

Hi, and thanks for everyone's comments. Arthur, the wing blur is caused (I believe) by setting the strobes to a higher power/longer duration, enough to get the body/head sharp but leave the wings blurred. There is some diffusing then involved to get the exposure right. The background is painted fabric. What I was most happy about in this picture was the composition and color combo, which seemed to work well.

Cheers,
Greg

[Glenn Bartley]

Nice one Greg!

I definitely do not think the wing blur is excessive. In fact I think it adds to this image. Very natural looking BG. Well done!

[Ondrej Prosicky]

Hi Greg!
Me gusta Costa Rica.

Ondrej Prosicky | NaturePhoto.cz (http://www.naturephoto.cz/)

[Sudhir Shivaram]

The wing blurr actually adds to the image and looks nice. Would have liked to see a uniform background behind the bird, especially that green patch behind the blurred wings is a bit distracting. The sharpness and exposure looks fine.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi, and thanks for everyone's comments. Arthur, the wing blur is caused (I believe) by setting the strobes to a higher power/longer duration, enough to get the body/head sharp but leave the wings blurred. There is some diffusing then involved to get the exposure right. The background is painted fabric. What I was most happy about in this picture was the composition and color combo, which seemed to work well. Cheers, Greg

Thanks Greg. Were all the flashes set to something like 1/4 or 1/8th? You might wish to re-do your BKGR as the very darkest areas are distracting.

[Greg Basco]

Arthur, they actually were set to 1/2 power. It's strange but you don't always get this much wing blur at 1/2. I think it depends on the size of the hummingbird species and the point in the wingstroke at the moment of capture. I'd have to do a lot more shooting to confirm these little hypotheses, however.

On the background, it's tricky to achieve a balance. I have some solid color backgrounds that are actually quite similar to what one can achieve with a long lens and a wide aperture but for some reason shots taken with these backgrounds tend to look artificial for hummingbirds, even where they would be natural for other species shot with ambient and fill. Nevertheless, the areas you and Sudhir mentioned certainly are worth some consideration for this image.

Thanks for the ideas!

Cheers,
Greg

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the info Greg. I am not a big fan of single-colored BKGRs either but in the image above the dark areas are too dark and in addition or unfortunately juxtaposed with the bird.