violet sabrewing at heliconia

[Greg Basco]

Hi to all. I hope people aren't tired of the hummingbird images, but as Linda pointed out in the thread to her woodnymph image, photographing them really is addictive! This is a young male violet sabrewing visiting Heliconia rostrata, which is actually native to Brazil but widely planted in Costa Rican gardens and forest edges, where it is visited by many native hummingbirds with curved beaks. I struggled with the composition on this one but decided that I really wanted to include the whole inflorescence. So, the hummingbird is really more of an element than the focus on this shot, and I was happy to get him in a third and just at the point where his beak is about to enter. I'll be interested to read people's comments.

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

Tech: Canon 20D, Canon 75-300 mm IS lens, f16, 1/160, ISO 200, custom multi-strobe setup w/6 strobes, a slight crop, and the usual tweaking in Lightroom

[Joanna Trescott]

That is wonderful. I love the vibrant colors and the composition is perfect and the pose is spectacular. Very unusual. I love it. The BG could be cleaned up a tad.

[Sid Garige]

Well captured image. Really like the vibrant colors of heliconia added a lot. Wish there was little more space on the top.

[Linda Robbins]

Lovely image of a beautiful species. Your flash set-up is lighting the bird and flower just right. The large flower emphasizes how small these birds really are and adds wonderful color. I like the bird's head angle but wish the far wing were more visible. I don't care for this artificial background as much as your green cloth one, as it appears a bit blotchy and the color isn't as attractive. Well done!

[Greg Basco]

Thanks very much for the comments so far. Joanna, I agree about the blotches on this BG. They actually go nicely OOF when I'm tighter, which I would normally be for these hummingbird images, but to fit the big Heliconia, I zoomed out. Linda, I also agree about the color of this BG the way it's lighted here. I was just setting things up when I got this shot and was still adjusting the BG. Afterward, I moved my BG flash closer to lighten the cloth BG, and it worked quite well (it's based on a natural background from a toucan shot), though I never got another hummingbird quite in as good a position as this one.

This was a pretty difficult shot to set up, and I was really happy to get good light and a decent composition with this flower/bird combo, so I took the time to work on the background in PS.

Linda, I assume it's OK to post an edited version here. If not, my apologies. I think the repost, based on the suggestions in this thread, really did improve the picture, so gracias!

http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/forums/sabrewingheliconia2.jpg

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Ramon M. Casares]

I like the original post better, I love this shot, the composition is just terrific and the Humingbird pose is great, detail and colours are outstanding and light is very nice as well as BG, I would just work on the reds to get a bit more detail in them, other than than I love this shot and I think it would look just SUPERB in paper! Congratulaitons!

[Linda Robbins]

I have to disagree with Ramon...I like the repost better. The background is much improved. Lovely image.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Hi Linda, I like the original better as it doesn't look so bright and regarding the BG, I just like the origianl very much and I didn't think it needs any improvement :)

[Keith Bauer]

Hi Greg: Lovely image. I'll cast my vote for the repost. For me, the background was a bit distracting in the original. Love the light on the bird and the pose. The reds are pretty bright on the flower, but I don't know what they really look like. This is a great image. Congrats.

[Glenn Bartley]

Really nice stuff Greg. Greta lighting. I like the repost better :)

[Greg Basco]

Thanks to all for your comments on this one. Ramon, thanks for sticking up for the original! I too thought the original worked but, as much as it pains me to say because I'm not a big fan of doing much Photoshop to nature images, I think the repost is an improvement.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Doug Brown]

Here's my version of this photo. I tried to preserve the hue/ saturation of the BG while at the same time smoothing it out. I also did some selective desaturation and sharpening of the Heliconia. The last thing I did was selectively sharpen the iridescent feathers a little.

[Greg Basco]

Hi, Doug. Thanks very much for working on this image. I like the background and bird a lot in your repost. Looks like that new tablet is working well! The only thing I don't like so much is the desaturation of the Heliconia bract. It really is wildly saturated in nature.

Cheers,
Greg Basco