Got a more colorful one yesterday. Just pulling back from the feeder, part of which was cloned out. Canon 7D2, 600mm II, ISO 800, f/14 for DOF, 1/160 sec on paper but flash was the main light which gave about 1/8000 at full power (needed even with the Better Beamer as it was back on the tripod at about 20 ft away from the bird.
Cropped to 50% of the original full frame. Very basic processing in LR5 -- shadows lightened very slightly and a medium contrast curve. (So far, it seems I'm needing less processing of the raw files, but that initial impression may not hold up.) Then into PS for darkening the eye and cloning out a specular highlight on one of the magenta feathers. Lightened the shadow from the near wing, with a masked Curve. Did NR with Nik Dfine but I can barely see a difference at 100%. Didn't need to mask out the bird.
I'm going to drag out three flashes today, place them closer with a radio trigger, and try for more sculpted lighting and a much faster effective SS.
I think its pretty cool that we can see the plumage through the top part of the near wing. Very nice details and the iridescence is awesome. There is still very faint evidence of "steel eye" caused by the flash that could be removed. Looking forward to the 3-flash results!
You do a nice job with the flash and your camera work.
You need a BG with more interest or a flower or something.
There are a lot of Hummer photos in the world, just a sharp bird is fine,
but I think there could be a lot more you could do.....
Thanks for the correction, Mike. I'm going to learn to type in my next life.
Have been sidetracked and may get to the 3 flash setup later today. I place them closer to the birds on light stands and use a radio trigger, so I can set them to lower power and get a shorter duration to freeze the wings more, and also sculpt the light a little.
The BG for this setup is a piece of colored 32 x 40" matboard. Avoiding a ghost image from the ambient light, even when it's very underexposed, depends on having a flash of the same duration lighting the BG. I have a printed OOF BG with two 17x22' pieces from my 3880 cemented side by side onto fom-cor, but it's on the edge of being not big enough. Need to have a bigger canvas piece printed. Or layer on some detail in PS. I think I'll try that next -- it's cheaper!
Killer detail and an awesome pose! Very nice Diane.
Come join me for a Custom Raptor Workshop starting this November 2019- January 2020.
P.M. me to inquire on dates, pricing and availabilities. Thank You. www.davidsalemphotography.com
Hummingbird
Reply With Quote
