Fiery-throated Hummingbird
Canon 30D
Canon 35-350mm@350mm
ISO 800
1/640 sec.
f/5.6
AV
Tripod
No flash
I know what you are going to say about the tail feathers!!!, but it would be very hard to handle the exposition on the branch and gorget if flash would have been used. I prefer not to use it this time.
As always, comments and help are very welcome. Thanks in advance.
Stunning bird! I like the colors and the BG, maybe the perch is a bit too big for him, and probably a head turn giving you his profile would've been better, but overall I like it!! Congratulations!
Hi Juan -
It is nice to see you post one of the beautiful hummingbirds from Costa Rica. The BG is so clean and very pretty, and you captured a lot of iridescense in this lovely bird even without flash. You possibly could have gone to f/8 or even f11 for a bit more DOF if the bird was still. The perch is fine. Most people do not know that hummingbirds have extremely weak feet. They do not walk.....if they must travel even two inches, they fly. So a perch that might seem large for such a tiny bird is actually very comfortable for hummingbirds since they do not grip the perch so much as alight on it. I am looking forward to coming to Costa Rica and shooting hummingbirds with you sometime in the next few months.
Thank you Ramón and Linda for your kind comments.
Linda, I will be waiting for your visit! I hope you are getting better and better.
beautiful colors on this bird, and you managed to get enough light on his face to show detail. Lovely work!
Linda, thanks fro sharing that great info about humming birds, I didn't know they don't walk... but I meant that aestheticly, the perch is a bit big, a smaller perch woul've looked better, that my feeling :)Originally Posted by Linda Robbins
Juan Carlos, this is a pretty nice shot of the fiery-throated. Composition is very nice. It looks like there is quite a bit of noise in the feathers themselves, and along the top of the perch there is something strange going on. Did you do any significant exposure adjustments in post-processing? A bit of fill-flash would have helped you avoid the need to mess with the exposure if this is indeed what's going on. Did you take this at La Georgina or the Serranos' place?
Cheers,
Greg
Hola Greg! Yes, I agree with you about the failures on this picture, the noise you see on the feathers is caused because I did not wanted to use flash. And the halo on top of the perch has to do with post processing, I believe. Yes, I went to the Serrano's place. It was veeery cold!
Pura Vida!
Hi, Juan Carlos. I'll bet it was cold. I need to get my multi-strobe kit up there to have a go at that species. But, back to your picture, next time I would try just a touch of fill-flash, say -2 or so. Also, I agree with Linda that, given your already fast shutter speed, you could have gone to f8 or so. By the way, adding some flash also will allow you to drop your shutter speed even lower and still maintain sharpness. This way you can gain some depth-of-field and/or use a lower ISO to cut down on noise. These choices are, of course, the perennial thorn in the side for us lucky photographers down here in Costa Rica. I hope this helps.
Saludos,
Greg
Hi Greg again, and thank you so much for your kind help.
Yes, I agree about using -2 flash, and I did it, but it was still giving me problems with the highlights, that's why I decided not to use the flash for this one. I also don't like to use high ISOs especially with a camera like mine that has a small sensor, but I have to work with what I have. Next time I'll try to stop down a bit as you and Linda recommended. Thank you again.
I really like the pose and bg!!!
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