Greg Basco
05-10-2010, 10:20 AM
Hi, I thought I would share another hummingbird image (hopefully people aren't getting bored as there have been a number of nice ones posted recently). This is a species I'd wanted to photograph for a while, the black-bellied hummingbird hummingbird. I set up and baited (with sugar water) this native Hibiscus and designed the lighting to mimic a nice sunny day at the cloud forest edge, typical habitat for both the flower and the bird. The bird is tough to light but I was happy to get some good detail in the black feathers without blowing out other parts of the scene. BTW, this is how the flower is; it never fully opens as do many of the cultivated hibiscus varieties.
I am very happy with the composition but would be interested to read what others think. Oh, this was taken at a little restaurant near where I live in Costa Rica.
http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/blog/imagesMay2010/blackbellied2.jpg
Tech info: Canon 1D Mark IV (I was working with Doug Brown this day so we used his new camera), 70-200 mm f4L IS zoom, 1.4x TC, f14, 1/200, ISO 250, three flashes on the bird, one flash on the background (which is a print of out of focus cloud forest vegetation)
Post-processing: full-frame, a bit of noise reduction on the BG, cloned out one extra catchlight in the eye, and desaturated the red in the flower a few points
Cheers,
Greg Basco
I am very happy with the composition but would be interested to read what others think. Oh, this was taken at a little restaurant near where I live in Costa Rica.
http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/blog/imagesMay2010/blackbellied2.jpg
Tech info: Canon 1D Mark IV (I was working with Doug Brown this day so we used his new camera), 70-200 mm f4L IS zoom, 1.4x TC, f14, 1/200, ISO 250, three flashes on the bird, one flash on the background (which is a print of out of focus cloud forest vegetation)
Post-processing: full-frame, a bit of noise reduction on the BG, cloned out one extra catchlight in the eye, and desaturated the red in the flower a few points
Cheers,
Greg Basco