Hummer portrait

[nancy hazen]

I've been trying to get closer to the hummers, but they are still a challenge. The rest of the body was blurred, so crop, crop,crop:bg3:
Thanks for looking
Nancy

[nancy hazen]

This pic is bigger than I expected. I hope it isn't too large.

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr class="lookatme"><th>Exposure</th> <td>1/2500 sec</td> </tr> <tr class="lookatme"> <th>Aperture</th> <td>f/10.0</td> </tr> <tr class="lookatme"> <th>Focal Length</th> <td>400 mm</td> </tr> <tr> <th>ISO Speed</th> <td>1600</td></tr></tbody></table>

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Nancy, no worries about the size of the image - it can be up to 1024x800.

You made a nice capture here with the only problem being the large shadow of the near wing, which covers quite a bit of the hummer. The head angle and pose are great and the eye is very sharp. I see what you were doing with the crop, but I would prefer to see the full wing that is clipped. What do you think is the cause of the blurred body? It would seem that you would have plenty of DOF. Are you using the image stabilization on your 100-400mm?

[nancy hazen]

I'm not sure what was causing the blur other than body motion. That shadow is a problem. I had better luck with another set of hummer images, but I used a white background that was way too stark. I'll have to look at the full image again to see if I could add more of the clipped wing.

BTW Kerry, the birding seems a bit quiet down here. Have you found any great sites lately?
Thanks for the suggestions and comments.
Nancy

[Kerry Perkins]

Nancy, go to Bolsa Chica. Early morning (dawn) or late afternoon (dusk) are the best times. There are thousands of birds there right now, mostly terns. Very hard to capture in flight, but excellent practice and there are ponds where you will find birds at rest also. I just posted an image from there in out of the box, a black-necked stilt. I was there on the 4th.

[Tom Redd]

Nancy, you got it sharp where it matters. Very nice detail on the head and neck feathers. I would like to see the whole image.

[nancy hazen]

Kerry, I've heard wonderful things about Bolsa Chica. I hope to get there. We have a small RV so maybe we could camp at the state park so we could be there early. Thanks for the suggestions.

Tom thank you for your kind words. Here is the full version, feeder and all.
Nancy:e3

[Tom Redd]

I prefer the full body shot. I cloned out the feeder and did some dodging of the shadow under the wing. I should have lightened the shadow on the left wing as well. Just another version to consider, but you definitely have some wonderful detail in your cropped version that isn't as apparent in the full shot repost.

[Rachel Hollander]

Nancy - very nice detail and head and eye are sharp. I like what Tom has done with the full image.

TFS,
Rachel

[nancy hazen]

I prefer the full body shot. I cloned out the feeder and did some dodging of the shadow under the wing. I should have lightened the shadow on the left wing as well. Just another version to consider, but you definitely have some wonderful detail in your cropped version that isn't as apparent in the full shot repost.

Thanks for working on that Tom. You did a fantastic job of cloning out the feeder. I see what you mean about the shadow. Often when I try to do that kind of PP (shadow) it looks worse than having the shadow. I will work on it though and see if I can do that.

The only reason I cropped it was the feeder and I didn't think the body was sharp enough, but now that the feeder is gone, I like it better too. Thank you so much.
Nancy

[nancy hazen]

Nancy - very nice detail and head and eye are sharp. I like what Tom has done with the full image.

TFS,
Rachel


Thank you Rachel. I like what Tom did too. Having that feeder out of the picture really makes a difference.
Thanks for looking.
Nancy

[Bob Miller]

Nancy...nice capture of a difficult subject!.......like Tom's repost....OP seems to have too much noise

[John Chardine]

I like it Nancy, and good discussion. If you went with the original I would lighten things up a little to open up the face. I would also add back anything you cropped from the top so the bird doesn't look like he's in a room with low ceilings.

[nancy hazen]

Nancy...nice capture of a difficult subject!.......like Tom's repost....OP seems to have too much noise


Thanks Bob. Noise is a problem, because of the higher iso. I am still working to find a balance of post processing. Also, cropping it so tight really brings out the noise. Ahhh, the learning curve:S3:
Thanks for looking.
Nancy

[nancy hazen]

I like it Nancy, and good discussion. If you went with the original I would lighten things up a little to open up the face. I would also add back anything you cropped from the top so the bird doesn't look like he's in a room with low ceilings.


Thanks John. I think lightening it overall would also help. There isn't more room at the top unfortunately. I was probably sitting too low taking these. Next time I will lower the feeder and that may help. Now, if I could just get them to fly in the "shooting zone".:S3::S3:
Thanks for your suggestions.
Nancy