Costa's Hummingbird

[Ian Cassell]

I usually see Anna's Hummers, so this was a treat for me.

Canon 7D
Canon EF400mm f/5.6L
1/640 sec f/6.3 ISO 400 HH

Crop for composition, S/H, and sharpening in CS5
NR on BG in Noiseware Pro

[George Cottay]

Nice catch. We're eagerly awaiting our Costa's return from winter vacation.

It might be worth adding a small catch light to draw us into the eye.

[Gloria Archilla]

What a beautiful hummingbird! I love the colors and the texture. I think it would benefit from a little more sharpening. Those feathers in the neck are awesome :-)

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks. I tried a bit of both. This was my first attempt at adding a catch light. I used Artie's tutorial, but not sure how I feel about the result. I also sharpened a bit more. Thoughts?

[Allen Hirsch]

The catchlight in the eye is good, Ian.

There's something about the color of the top of his head that's too off-black and too gray for me. It makes it seem like maybe you shot through something close to the lens, which I don't think can be the case, because everything else is really sharp with lots of detail.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Allen. I think that the head was not true-black. In fact, if you look closely, it actually has a bit of blue in it. I'll go back to the original and play some more.

[Gloria Archilla]

Oh, that catchlight really added a touch to it!! I'll have to check out that tutorial.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Ian - added catchlight looks good, as does the extra sharpening.
Head looked a little soft compared to the rest of the body - which would indicate the point of focus was not on the head and not quite enough DOF.
Like the pose -might just try setting a black and white point in P.S..
Good show :)

[annmpacheco]

Read the tutorial too, like your image and the latter edits. TFS