An Interesting Pose Makes All the Difference

[Doug Brown]

When photographing hummingbirds at a multiple flash setup, especially one at a feeder, cool poses are what sets images apart. Here's a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird with a nice wings-down pose and a hint of tail feathers.



Canon 1D Mark IV, 400mm, f/13, 1/160, ISO 400, manual exposure, 4 flashes, hand held

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

It is a nice pose for sure, with full extension, hint of feet showing, spread tail, head up.

Sharp, well exposed,not overly flashed looking.

Perhaps a sliver more room above.

I tend to like slightly more texture/detail in the BG when possible.

Cheers

Randy

[Ofer Levy]

I like the pose, sharpness and detail. However, I agree with Randy that the plain BG is not great especially since there is no flower in the frame. I also find the bird a bit too big in the frame. It should be very easy to use a more interesting BG with pattern of OOF vegetation and it is usually nicer to see the flower in hummingbird images IMHO.
Here is a repost with some boost in colours and reduced brightness.

[Giuseppe Varano]

Really a very nice shot. I agree with Randy about the background. The reduced brightness in Ofer's repost looks very fine. Indeed a gorgeous image Doug.

[Doug Brown]

I tend to like slightly more texture/detail in the BG when possible.

This was my first time printing my own backgrounds at 24x36. Backgrounds that appear to have a fair amount of patterning on a 30" monitor tend to lose it when enlarged to 24x36. I used large prints because I was co-leading a workshop with several participants photographing on a single setup at the same time. Live and learn.

[Doug Brown]

Here's the full BG scaled down to 1024 pixels.

[Dan Brown]

Great capture, Doug. The repost really doesn't add anything for me

[Marina Scarr]

Thank you for sharing your BG, Doug. This is a very interesting thread. While I love the bird, all of its colors and details, as well as the terrific pose, this capture doesn't work for me as a hole b/c the BG is simply too stark. I do feel as though Ofer's repost is a slight improvement on an already great photo of this HB. I wouldn't have noticed it was a tad too bright unless I had seen the repost.

[Satish Ranadive]

I could only say that,It is "Masterpiece"..

Regards,
Satish.

[Nancy Bell]

Interesting discussion on the bkgd. Back to the hummer. I have been trying to photograph Broad-tailed Hummingbirds coming to my feeders for the past several weeks and I really appreciate the colors and details in this image plus the terrific pose!

[Markus Jais]

Fantastic shot with great wing pose. You hit the button at exactly the right moment. I wish there were hummingbirds in Germany :-) Markus

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, I really like the different coloured iridescence from the different species of HB's, and well timed to get this pose. You seem to have the multiple flashes sorted, as the overall image doesnt look flashed at all, but have to admit that Ofer's 'darkened' repost does look a bit better.

[Matt Tucker]

Your background appears to be painted the way you want it to look in the final shot but when placed away from the setup goes out of focus and looses it's texture. I think if the transitions in your painting were more distinct it would look better in the photo.

[arash_hazeghi]

sweet dynamic pose and nice detail plus flash work! just need to add some flowers to take it to the top!

[PhilCook]

Flowers or no flowers this is a wondrous shot, amazing timing with the down swept wings, the flash set up seems to of worked perfectly. I think Ofer's slight tweak has improved slightly, but to my eye the original was much the same.
I admit to being somewhat confused over the discussion of backgrounds, really comes down to personal tastes doesn't it ?

[dankearl]

I don't really understand some of the critiques of this photo.
I think the flight pose is killer, it looks like any other really good BIF photo.
No one comments that a hawk or an eagle "needs" a flower or something in the photo.
I think it is really good, a very nice BIF photo.

[Ofer Levy]

I don't really understand some of the critiques of this photo.
I think the flight pose is killer, it looks like any other really good BIF photo.
No one comments that a hawk or an eagle "needs" a flower or something in the photo.
I think it is really good, a very nice BIF photo.

Hi Dan, since I've mentioned the flower in my critique - please let me try to explain this to you. We all know that all those hummingbird images are taken near feeders or flowers and they are not just BIF shots like that of raptors for example. The most beautiful images I have seen of hummers were taken with flowers in them. This is a nice image but it could have been even nicer with the flower in it. Having the flower could also allow to have the bird a bit smaller in the frame and a more interesting composition.
I hope you got my point.
Cheers,
Ofer

[arash_hazeghi]

Yup when you do setups, the setup itself is a part of the critique, including BG, flowers etc. because these are choices that are made by the photographer.

[Frank Schauf]

Perfect in every way.

[Greg Basco]

Doug, the flash work looks great, and it's a cool pose. I mentioned to you that for me the catchlight really should appear higher in accord with the direction of the light. That would be my critique on this photo.

Regarding the BG, this is of course one of my files, and I do photograph and size them thinking of wider compositions with flowers. As you noted, when you take this type of background and only use a small portion of it for a tight framing of a bird in flight, the mottling and patterns do disappear. I would generally prefer more going on in the background even for a tightly framed flight shot like yours, but that said, this is precisely the type of background that one can obtain with a long lens so it does look perfectly natural in this case. In addition, it's the kind of background that would be lauded by most for a telephoto shot of a raptor or a grosbeak or similar bird.

As for the inclusion of flowers, I definitely prefer flowers for the vast majority of my hummingbird shots. Nonetheless, I have a number of similar images in my portfolio that I consider to be nice additions to my body of hummingbird work because they show some diversity of image style and some different poses and focus solely on the hummingbird. I think this image will be a very nice inclusion to your hummingbird portfolio.

Cheers,
Greg

[Doug Brown]

Thanks Greg! And thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment!