Humming Bird

[Jay Sheinfield]

I snapped this image this morning at my favorite gardens. Small crop. Reduced saturation and light of flower. Not sure the best SS to shot these birds..........

Nikon DS3
550mm
1/1000 sec @ f/6.3
ISO 1600

Hand held

Comments, please..................

[Harold Davis]

fantastic light and detail and compostion! i really like this. i think you nailed it in camera. only thing is just a slight color cast. i guess you could go in several different directions as far as personal taste, but i went this way with it. hope you like it.

[kostas nianiopoulos]

i dont know a lot about those images , but with simply words i like what i see , for my taste is a good image , eye contact , color , and lovley motion on wings . well done Jay

[David Stephens]

Great eye and focus. I like the wings unfrozen like this, but also like them when they're frozen in action. Either works for me. I think your colors might be slightly over saturated (particularly the flower), but it's only slight, if at all.

Great shot.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Jay - Nailed it - sweet!!
Harolds repost does improve and puts it over the top.
Love the action - nice detail and great timing.
Big Congrats :)

[Ray Rozema]

Great detail and composition and agree the repost helps.
Harold what did you do?

Thanks
Ray Rozema

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks everyone............

I appreciate the feedback, although I will have to be an outlier here. I did do an auto tone during PP, and saw the color shift. This mornings sun light was veiled by thin clouds, enough to cast a bit of warmth on the surroundings. For this shot I wanted to preserve that light and that feeling. No offense to Harold, please. His repost looks great........but I'm not getting that sense of diffused light and warmth that I remember.

Thanks again...........Jay

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jay Auto anything in PS is the kiss of death !!! No good !!!

As presented would desaturate the reds then the greens a little more Shutter speed wise you can not stop the wing action except with multiple flash setup but I sort of like this look, does seem more natural.
Just take a few so there is something to chose from wing wise !!!

hugs
al

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Alfred,

Thanks...........I agree about PS auto anything. However I convert my RAW files including WB adjustments with Capture NX2. I find "auto Levels" in NX2 to generally be good as a starting point for WB correction. I'm far from an expert here. I may check this out in one of the other forums............

Here is a repost with the desaturation you suggested. The colors feel more natural. Great feedback.


Jay

[Sandra K. Mathews-Benham]

I love this repost--how absolutely delightful. Do you know they're coming to this particular flower and just camp out there, or what ! :-) The colors really pop out, and I also love the sharpness of the body and the movement in the wings. It is true to life! Thanks for posting!

[pat lillich]

beautiful! like everyone else has said - wonderful sharpness and colors - especially the reflection of the flower on his chin. gorgeous....

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for the kind words. There is a bird garden at the local Botanical Gardens here in St Louis. I just hang out there when the light is good and wait, then I try to follow them without frightening them away. All hand held........... Getting the focus is toughest. Occasionally, they hover for bit and that's the payoff. I just started doing this and love it! Others may have much better experience in shooting these little birds. The keeper rate can be quite low!

Jay

[Sandra K. Mathews-Benham]

Jay
Thanks for reminding me that the keeper rate can be low--sometimes I think I'm the only one that throws hundreds of images away. What a great thing to do. . . Thanks for sharing!
Sandra

[Paul Taylor]

The desaturated version does make a significant difference - very nice indeed got even better.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks, Paul.

Jay