Anna's Hummingbird

[Bernie Howe]

I accidently posted this on the other forum by mistake. I'm not sure what happened to our sunny days but seems these past few weekends we have been real cloudy and rainy. But I did manage to get a shot of this little bird while it liked to show off its colours.

http://members.cox.net/bphowe/Anna.jpg

I need to get a flash bracket so I can use my flash and not get that steely eye..


Model - Canon EOS 50D
Lens - Canon 400mm 5.6L
ExposureTime - 1/640 seconds
FNumber - 5.60
ExposureProgram - Aperture priority
ISOSpeedRatings - 800
ExposureBiasValue - -0.33
SubjectDistance - 4.23 m
MeteringMode - Partial
Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 400 mm

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bernie You can do well cloudy days !! If you check your histogram it should be underexposed by close to two stops !! Normal compensation pointing your camera up as in this case should have been close to two over or more !! Will give you some nice detail ... but the bg will be blown out or nearly so... just go with the flow and will look good.

Flash fill will be helpful with a BB for reaching and also making sure your shutter speed is not very high, 1/640 is fine, you are only loosing half of the power (aprox)

Do like the pose and placement in frame !!! Hope he poses for you again !!!

... btw check your metering selection, not sure why you have it on "partial" very little use for it, would go with matrix.

[Mark Young]

Beautiful colours of the head and facial feathers. They look like they would have a nice irredescent sheen on them in the sunlight, which I imagine in strong light this would be all too easily overexposed, but not done here in the poorer light conditions.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Beautiful, nice find. As Al noted, looks underexposed. If you are using partial or spot, IMO find a reference point of mid gray (null out the meter) and enter into Manual mode, matrix is a good option here as well; as Al said more EV needed to compensate the bright sky. I agree with fill flash and BB if over 20 feet away IMO. Maybe ETTL -2 to start with or Manual flash set with distance bar. Remember, BB adds 2 stops of light so watch the flash overexposure too - great species and love the pose - I hope the Ruby's will be in TN soon.

[Desmond Chan]

It could have looked something like the attached

Added 1.45 exposure to the original in Camera Raw. Selected the background, then inverted to limit the exposure correction to the bird alone. Applied a bit more sharpening.

In situation like this, with no fill light available, correct exposure of the main subject is the goal.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Bernie - all points covered above - Desmond's repost is closer to what you should have been seeing out of the camera.
Like the colours -shooting angle a little steep - hope you get some more chances with this one.
TFS

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Bernie

Underexposed as they say, however, Desmond's repost is something I would get the left one for. Seeing and taking tons of Hummer photos around Arizona, you captured the gorget to die for. Sure I'm drooling, jealous too.

That guy on a Notecard at Madera Kubo B&B, Madera Canyon, AZ would be the number 1 seller. Check out my Note Card tutorial http://unclegus.150m.com/Notecards/DisNDat.htm

Thanks for sharing it and thanks to Desmond for his great repost

Looking for many more from you

Uncle Gus