Couple of Hummingbirds

[Richard Unsworth]

Hi

Two little gems from Costa Rica



cropped to 6X4 and levels adjusted, small unsharp mask adjustment, and a little increase in saturation

Also this one which is one of my favorites from the trip



Sorry about the watermarking but Im unable to post attachments the usual way so these are pulled in from my other web presence : -)

Rich

[Dave Mills]

Hi Richard, First off welcome to the forum.
Please bear in mind one of the forum rules is a forum participant can post 1 image every 48 hrs.
Regarding the first image I like the fact that the subject is sitting on a diagonal perch.
A few points to consider...
First is that its a bit tight in the frame. I would like more room on the top and bottom.
The bright areas in the backround are distracting and take away from the bird.
Some white areas in the birds head appear to be a bit overexposed and lacking detail.
The image appears noisy and could stand some noise reduction.
Finally, I know you addressed the watermarking issue but it is very distracting to look at an image with that so dominant...

[Richard Unsworth]

Hi Dave

Thanks for your critique

Can you advise me how I might reduce the light areas in the background?
Admittedly it would have been better when taking the picture to have had an all dark background, however as you know in the field these subjects don't cooperate :D.

I am sorry I posted 2 pics, my mistake, my enthusiasm out did my need to read the guidelines :)

Changing the watermark today, as you are right it's dreadful.

Rich

[Dave Mills]

Hi Richard, Based on the spots locations they look very easy to clone out in PS. If you have CS5 that new content aware would take them out very simply...

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm Welcome Rich !!!

Fully agree with Dave !!

Couple of things to consider .. when making the image look carefully at what is behind the bird see if you could move a few inches here or there to improve by reducing merges, bright spots etc.

Would post settings since will be easier giving an opinion of what is going on !! Also for these the use of flash is a great help !! PS wise would not crop to a specific size just best crop. Looking forward to the next one !! .. will leave the second up this time .. no problem :)

[Richard Unsworth]

Thanks

Had a go at cloning out the bright spots.
CS4 here not 5 ; looks like an interesting function :-)
Point noted re flash

settings were

Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 1/200

Aperture 5.6 (Canon 100-400 IS)

ISO 400

Early morning

thanks so far, learnt a lot :-)

Rich