Green-crowned brilliant hummingbird [Archive] - BirdPhotographers.net

Greg Basco

08-31-2010, 12:11 PM

Hi, this is a new image I took recently. I was going for a kind of high-key, painterly look with a nice flower and the hummingbird as an element in, rather than the main focus of, the image. It's different for hummingbirds but I was pleased. I'll be interested to read what people think. I appreciate any comments.

This is a female green-crowned brilliant hummingbird visiting a Cavendishia flower, which is in the Ericaceae (blueberry/cranberry) family. These are common epiphytes and shrubs in the Costa Rican cloud forest near where I live.

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Tech specs: Canon 5D, Canon 300 mm f2.8 lens, 25 mm ext. tube, cable release, tripod, 3 Canon 430 EX flashes (2 on the bird, one on the BG), Canon 550 EX as master in hotshoe, manual mode, f14, 1/25 (though this is a multi-flash setup I actually wanted just a touch of natural light to influence the exposure), ISO 200

Full-frame image, post-processing consisted of removal of one faint catchlight in the hummingbird's eye (stupid 550 master! I usually use the Canon transmitter but the battery died, and they're hard to get here in Costa Rica), cloning of some sensor dust spots, and a bit of underexposure via the selective brush in Lightroom on the lower leaf

This was taken near a feeder, and the flower was baited with sugar water. The background is a print of a picture of out of focus cloud forest taken with the same 300 mm lens.

I did a blog post on this and a few other images from the series if anyone's interested: http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/blog/?p=579 (I hope linking to the blog post is OK. If not, I ask the moderators to accept my apology in advance.)

Cheers,
Greg Basco

Kaustubh Deshpande

08-31-2010, 12:58 PM

Greg, I like this a lot. Design is quite original and well balanced. One suggestion is to crop that leaf at the very bottom. Very inspiring shot. TFS.

Daniel Cadieux

08-31-2010, 02:01 PM

Very artistic, and I like it alot. The careful placement of the leaves in URC is well thought out. I know it is full-frame, but I would have liked to see a bit more of the bottom leaf. No biggie though, as this is quite pleasing to the eyes.

Greg Basco

08-31-2010, 04:26 PM

Thanks for the comments, guys. Glad you liked it; I know it's different from the hummingbird norm. Peter, I did intentionally go for wing blur as I thought that would be more in line with the feel of the photo than frozen wings would have been.

I agree about that bottom leaf. I too want to see less of it, as Kaustubh and Peter mentioned, or more of it, as Daniel mentioned. I had to set this up quickly, and I knew it would be an issue but couldn't really do anything about it. Since I can't put more in, I've cropped a bit to get rid of it. I knew I'd have to do it:( but wanted to present the full-frame to start. Here's the cropped version.

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Cheers,
Greg Basco

Bill Holsten

08-31-2010, 06:46 PM

Hi Greg,

I love the image, particularly the composition and the high key effect. The element I find distracting, particularly for a painterly image, is the quality of the leaves. I don't think a painter would ever intentionally paint in that insect damage. I know you are opposed to gross post processing in Photoshop, but a bit more effort to select a prop with fresh-looking leaves would have put this image over the top for me. You still get an "A" for concept.

Greg Basco

08-31-2010, 07:24 PM

Hi, Bill. Thanks very much for your comment. I agree that a painter probably would have made everything absolutely perfect. Believe me, though, this wasn't for lack of effort. I scoured the grounds, and this was by far the best branch available and the only one that offered the composition I wanted. It's pretty tough to find a plant without some insect damage and/or moss/rust/fungus on it down here; man, you are a hard taskmaster :)

Cheers,
Greg

Arthur Morris

08-31-2010, 08:03 PM

Love the look and everything including the repost but that single scraggly leaf is brutal :)

Phil Seu

08-31-2010, 09:54 PM

I wasn't that impressed with the thumbnail, but the image is brilliant. it is original and well balanced. I like the similar color and size between the leaves and the bird. background color also works well and i like the slightly blurred wings

Raymond Barlow

09-01-2010, 07:26 AM

Greg Basco

09-01-2010, 08:22 AM

Thanks again for the comments. Arthur, I don't know. While that leaf is not in the condition the others are, I thought it was necessary as a compositional element. Perhaps because I'm so used to tropical forest vegetation, I've become desensitized to disrepair:)

Phil, glad you liked the image. I've been enjoying your latest hummingbird images too. I was curious why you didn't like the thumbnail. I always look at thumbnails as a way of judging an image because I try to look for compositions as, to me, the graphic design elements of an image will stand out in the thumbnail. Just curious, so I'd be interested to read your thoughts.

Ray, thanks for commenting on the spirit of what I was going for. On the flash, I think there are two elements to over-flashed. There's flash quality, which I think of as the direction and placement of the lights. In that regard, I obtained what I thought worked for this shot. The other aspect would be flash quantity. If your thought was more in line with this second aspect, I would say that yes, I definitely exposed the image (through the quantity of flash mostly) more brightly than my standard hummingbird images. But in this case that was intentional as the brighter, slightly overexposed (though the highlights are actually in check) look was what I wanted. I'm interested to read what you think about this.

Thanks!
Greg Basco

denise ippolito

09-01-2010, 08:55 AM

Greg, I like the higher key look of this image. Sounds like that was your intent. I also like the composition- even though it goes against the grain (placing the weighted area at the top). But this image keeps me engaged and I have come back to it several times to enjoy it. Well done and well presented.:)

Juan Aragonés

09-02-2010, 10:54 AM

Greg I love this one. It looks like one of those XIX century plates illustrating classic books.

Ofer Levy

09-02-2010, 05:43 PM

Composition in the repost is fantastic IMO ! The image is a bit bright and colours are a bit washed out - very easy to fix. The only thing that really weakens this otherwise awesome image is the plant which looks sick with all the brown spots on the leaves. Since I assume it's a setup - I would choose a healthier plant.

Bill Holsten

09-02-2010, 06:20 PM

Greg,

There is safety in numbers (see previous reply).

Pura vida,

Greg Basco

09-03-2010, 08:53 AM

Hi, and thanks again for the comments. Ofer, I wanted the high-key type of look to this shot so that's why I set up the flashes in this way. This is different from how I would approach a more standard hummingbird shot but I think it works for what I wanted in this image. And on the plant, believe me, I looked for the absolute healthiest prop I could find and this was by far the best. You should have seen the other branches on this bush:)

Juan, thanks very much for your comment. This was exactly the kind of look I was going for so I'm glad you noticed.

Cheers,
Greg Basco