Violet-crowned Woodnymph??? Costa Rica

[Dan Brown]

This is a mystery hummer photographed at Rancho Naturalista, CR. while with Greg Basco and Doug Brown. I am calling it a V-C Woodnymph by process of elimination looking at my CR field guides. The Woodnymph should be violet, not blue however? Maybe the strobes caused the color problem? HELP!!!!

Camera Model: NIKON D300, handheld
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec
Aperture: 18
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Spot
ISO: 200
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 195mm
Focal length: 292mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On
AF mode: MANUAL

[Doug Brown]

It's the bird you think it is Dan.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Dan The strobes shouldn't have affected the color unless some light was bouncing form a color surface. Dead on exposure and good flash set up !!

[Harold Davis]

nice two tone bg. i'd back down on the saturation a little. i like the perch and pose.

[Gus Cobos]

Well done Dan,
I like the capture...I have never photographed one of these little guys; but imagine they are quite difficult to catch...:D:cool:

[denise ippolito]

Dan, I have never had the chance to photograph one of these either. Don't know how you can get them in mid-air. Do they stay relatively still or are they skittish?

[Dan Brown]

Denise, Yes, they are skittish but they will hover at the flower and in front of the flower also, giving you a good chance. The super short flash duration is what does the work! I think that Greg Basco put the flash duration at about 1/15,000th of a second, which stops the little guys nicely.

[denise ippolito]

Very good to know Dan. I hope to attract Hummingbirds to my garden this year to get some practice.

[Greg Basco]

Dan, indeed, this is a crowned woodnymph. Since artificial flash tends to be cooler than natural light, I usually set my white balance to flash or cloudy when using all flash for an image. This will render blue tones as more purple. I'm guessing you used auto white balance. When photographing purple hummingbirds here, I'll usually go to the blue color in Lighroom and slide it just a bit more toward purple. I imagine you can do the same in Camera Raw or the Nikon software.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Dan Brown]

Dan, indeed, this is a crowned woodnymph. Since artificial flash tends to be cooler than natural light, I usually set my white balance to flash or cloudy when using all flash for an image. This will render blue tones as more purple. I'm guessing you used auto white balance. When photographing purple hummingbirds here, I'll usually go to the blue color in Lighroom and slide it just a bit more toward purple. I imagine you can do the same in Camera Raw or the Nikon software.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

Thanks Greg, that will clear up the ID problem.:)