Hummingbird

[arash_hazeghi]

I got this in early morning light, I didn't have any flashes on me and in general setup photography is not allowed at this location but I thought I could take advantage of early morning light.



7D + 400 f/5.6 @ f/5.6 1/1250sec ISO 800 sw : DPP 3.7.2 I have cropped the original and selectively blurred the BG here.

Hope you like it.

[Harshad Barve]

lovely image with nice colors , nice eye contact here
TFS

[Rohan Kamath]

wow...they are ever so fast...beautiful species nicely frozen...gr8 details on the tiny fellow...

-Cheers,
Rohan
__________________________________________________
Conservation begins at HOME... We CAN make a difference...

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Arash, you've yourself a nice looking HB image here. I love that it is angled slightly towards us. Lovely colours too. BTW, my first thought when viewing your image was that the BG was gaussian blurred (before I read your disclosure). As posted another round of sharpening on the face would be good.

[Randy Stout]

Arash:

Very nice, good angle in frame, wing position, display of gorget color.

I might consider lowering the brightness of the background a bit so the lighter areas don't compete quite so much with the bird. I might also play with the cropping on the right side a bit, perhaps just a bit less plant showing.

I love the results people get with the multi flash setups, but in reality that is not what we see. The wings are a blur, they are zipping around like crazy, and if the natural light is right, I find the result very pleasing, like here.

Randy

PS: I was typing at same time as Daniel, so some repeats there.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Arash, you've yourself a nice looking HB image here. I love that it is angled slightly towards us. Lovely colours too. BTW, my first thought when viewing your image was that the BG was gaussian blurred (before I read your disclosure). As posted another round of sharpening on the face would be good.

Thanks Dan and Randy, based on the recent heated discussion on ethics and Artie's instructions I will disclose any digital manipulation that I do in the EXIF section. Except for levels which I guess everybody does by default :) . Is this OK?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good plan :-)

P.S. did you notice the revised blurb beneath each critique forum's title? Good idea for everyone...

[arash_hazeghi]

Good plan :-)

P.S. did you notice the revised blurb beneath each critique forum's title? Good idea for everyone...

Yup, I agree it's fair practice for everyone.

[Danny Laredo]

Love the light and capture.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Arash, getting such a frame of such a tiny bird with 400mm itself is an achievement. Loved the head angle and the catchlight. Despite the blurring, I find the BG quite distracting. It must have been quite close to the bird. Another vote from crop on right.

KD

[David Hemmings]

Arash, this is lovely. The natural light is very pleasing. I agree with darkening the bg a bit and I would consider cropping the bulky part of the planrt.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Wonderful color and detail. I agree about the BG being a tad too bright.

[Glenda Simmons]

Love it! You did a fine job with this one.

[subramanya_ck]

Beautiful Image. Nice Timing

[Clement Francis]

Very natural and totally master class

[Fabs Forns]

The light is gorgeous! And so is the bird's pose and flowers. Darkening the BG would bring out the pattern even more IMO.

[Stu Bowie]

Sharp where it counts, and just love the colours in this.

[Bonnie Block]

This is beautiful, Arash. I love the natural light and the interesting bg. It has a wonderful--fresh feel to it.
Many scenarios to the bg-- the darker area to the left seems to distract me a bit. I might lighten it or darken the rest to even things out.

[Randy Stout]

Arash:

A very quick adjustment of the background, not as smooth as possible on RAW, but just an example of what could be done. I also lowered the brightness of the greenery a bit and cropped a little.

Very nice image, worth the work to optimize it.

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks a lot guys for your nice comments and thanks Randy for the re-post, it's def better, I will go back to the RAW and incorporate all the suggestions. Thanks!

[denise ippolito]

Arash, Lovely composition w/ the inclusion of the flowers. I like the pose and the details also. Randy's repost is subtle yet nice.

[Kiran Poonacha]

the natural settings sure adds to this image, nice setting and angle too.. congrats..

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the natural light in this image. The repost works for me.

[James Salywoda]

A beauty great pose and composition...Arash

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks for all the nice comments, here is a modified version hope you like this one better.