Broad-billed Hummer

[Kurt Bowman]

Had some fun the last few days shooting hummingbirds. Brian came out to join me and we had some challenging light for two of the three days. (Great having you out Brian). This was from the one good day of light.
A1, 200-600mm, 1.4 TC
1/3200 at f/9
ISO 1600
EC -2/3 (Av mode)
Natural light

[Kurt Bowman]

Why does my image also look sharper on my computer before I post it? Not sure if it’s something with my processing or if I’m just not seeing something accurately.

[Brian Sump]

Kurt, had a blast shooting with you. Saw so many amazing hummer species, thanks for being a gracious host!

Love the composition. Sweet look at this Broadbill male. Flowers are gorgeous and the rich green bkg compliments so nicely.

Were you exporting from LR or PS?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Kurt, was this shot whilst tracking the subject or pre focused? Is ot a large crop?

Image looks/appears a bit flat and needs some more tonal range to create depth and to inject some more richness, as these guys are very spectacular in their plumage, likewise I'm sure the flower.

TFS
Steve

[Kurt Bowman]

Kurt, had a blast shooting with you. Saw so many amazing hummer species, thanks for being a gracious host!

Love the composition. Sweet look at this Broadbill male. Flowers are gorgeous and the rich green bkg compliments so nicely.

Were you exporting from LR or PS?

thanks Brian, I had a blast also! Exported from LR

[Brian Sump]

Ok, yeah may just need a little boost in pre-export sharpening. I think it's all available based on this post.

[arash_hazeghi]

one of the better hummer frames in natural light. agree with bumping up the contrast/saturation/warmth a tad NR on the BG.

TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

agree with bumping up the contrast/saturation/warmth a tad NR on the BG.

Arash, this was the direction I was thinking, but as presented, it's not 'critically' sharp.

[arash_hazeghi]

LR resize probably killed the IQ. I never use it

[Steve Kaluski]

I don’t have any problem with any IQ drop whilst using LR. Without seeing the raw, it can only be assumption to why the OP lacks critical sharpness, as it could be a whole raft of issues even prior to import.

[arash_hazeghi]

You don’t resize your pics in LR do you ?

[Steve Kaluski]

You don’t resize your pics in LR do you ?

I will crop from the 16bit Tiff within Lr and output for Social Media. I never ever crop the Raw within the conversion, then output to PSCC and scale it back up to the original pixel size, then work on it within PS. When supplying any files they are always at the original pixel size, never cropped or sharpening applied, as you have no idea on what size the file is to be used for.

[Arthur Morris]

Neat wing position/pose and well done in natural light. My biggest problem is that the bird's head is angled slightly away from us. In addition, critical sharpness on the face is lacking. Your might try selecting the face and running Topaz Sharpen AI/Motion Blur on that layer only ...

with love, artie

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with love, artie

[John Mack]

Agree with the ohters. Nice framing. Great background.