Shot on a tripod with Canon 7d camera, Canon 400mm f/5.6 L lens. Settings: f/6.3, SS 1/2000, ISO 1600. Photo cropped and minor adjustments made in Photoshop Elements 12.
Nice job to catch the bird in a good pose -- it looks sharp at this size.
The image would be more pleasing with a different crop. I'd crop from the bottom to eliminate the out of focus flower and add more on the right so the flowers aren't cut off. If that was the edge of the frame, next time think about edges, and if necessary choose an autofocus point that's not in the center so you can keep it on the subject and keep the best framing. Planning when I set the flower up, I'd pick off the bright buds near the top. Edges are always best clean.
Thanks for the suggestions, Diane. I have re-cropped it two different ways. The first one I did an auto-fix in PS Elements which gives it more of a green tint. The second one I cloned out the flower stem that is behind the hummer. Which one looks best? I think I like the second one best.
But be careful of auto adjustments. Sometimes they're good, sometimes not. Use them for a guideline but it's best to learn to do the tweaks yourself. If you use adjustment layers, rather then doing the adjustment directly on a BG copy layer, you have much more flexibility when you decide it wasn't quite right.
I like the colors here and that nice, smooth BG. What I especially appreciate is what I see as a step up the learning curve between your last photograph and this one. That and a willingness to learn from comments and make changes as you go. Congratulations
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
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