Ruby-throated Hummingbird

[Lisa Stinnett]

I put several hummingbird feeders out and have planted a few flowering plants specifically to attract the hummingbirds each year. I love photographing them and find it a great challenge. This is a shot I got toward the fall of last year. The sun was going down, thus the high ISO and low ss. Would like suggestions, cc, etc. Thanks so much.
Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f/5.6 L Prime lens non-IS, shot on a tripod. Settings: Aperture f/6.3, ISO 1250, Shutter speed 1/400. Photo cropped and minor adjustments made in PE12.

[Diane Miller]

Hummingbirds are great fun to watch and shoot. Having a subject in low light is difficult, but full sun causes hash shadows. Somewhere in between there is "cloudy-bright", which can be faked with a diffusion disk (translucent fabric) if you can manage to use it to "shade" a certain perch you know they will land on. And having the background far enough away to be softly out of focus is always a plus.

Is this a raw or jpeg? What was you processing? It looks like it has had a lot of noise reduction, giving a sort of artificial look. The only cure for noise is to shoot at a lower ISO, in better light. (Your aperture ans SS are good and probably about the minimum I'd want to go.)

Get the bird big in the frame, too -- small in the frame can really limit the quality of an image. Here's a similar "parked" hummer I posted a while back that should show you the image quality that can be achieved.

Would love to see more!

[Lisa Stinnett]

Absolutely gorgeous photo Diane! I almost always shoot in RAW. I will look at the original file tonight and see exactly what I did do. The photo was taken at a very close range, and I remember thinking that the noise would be manageable because I would not need to crop that much. I took several and they all turned out with those "animated" colors. I don't shoot with any artificial light; I haven't studied much on taking pictures with a flash.

[Diane Miller]

Color saturation is increased by contrast adjustments. Colors are easily controlled separately from tonalities, though. I don't know PSE but having separate control for the saturation and hue of various colors is a very good tool. If there are options for more advanced adjustments, vs. quick-and-easy ones, they will serve you best.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Absolutely CUTE image, Lisa. BG very nice...although I think you may want to think about cloning out the branch on the right side.. Looks pretty sharp to me. I am also a PSE user.... Hummer looks rather blue/purple (Diane's is a different species, but shows it off nicely). Here is one "trick" on PSE (or perhaps other PS programs).... After converting from Raw.... do your basic cropping, which you have done. Go to "Enhance" and "Color/Hue"...run a slider up to the max on the color that seems predominant (possibly blue and/or red/maybe magenta here)...it will light up and show you if indeed that color is overwhelming. Then, you can either desaturate and/or move the color sliders just a bit. I'm sure not the best at PP...but this basic "experiment" seems to work pretty good ... and there is always the "undo" button! Where are you located? Hummer looks like one that has molted out of breeding plumage? All in all.... very pretty image!

[Sandy Witvoet]

Ok... gonna stick my neck out here (cuz I'm learning too!) I think this is a Juvie Hummer, molting a bit?... so is not showing a lot of color.... I did a bit a hue/color and a tiny bit of brightness.... Let me know what you think... and will love to know if I'm way off-base!

[Diane Miller]

Good removal of the blue cast, from being in the shade.

Needs to be reworked to try for less smoothing from noise reduction, and to optimize sharpness. For future shots, think about moving the plants further back so they are softer shapes and don't compete with the hummer, and get close enough to it so you don't have to crop. I think you'll have a great time chasing after these guys. The ones I've been around are tolerant of people. Focus and depth of field will be your main challenge, and good light will help a lot.