we are fortunate to have a pretty nice group of anna's hummingbirds who hang out in our yard thanks to my husband's persistence in filling their feeders. this guy can usually be found in one of 2 trees that we can get close to with the cameras. unfortunately its pretty dark where he likes to sit - but it gives an opportunity to learn about using a flash.
please let me know any ways that I can improve the image - are the metallic "streaks" on his right side distracting, should I mute them?
thank you for any advice!
nikon d300, 300-800 f/5.6 at 800 mm, iso 560, 1/250 sec at 5.6 with flash
cropped in LR, NR and sharpening with NIK filters in PS
Hi Pat you are lucky to have these guys around !!!
Like the tech settings, a good all around compromise for best results !! Best suggestion I have here is to focus on the eye area, looking at the feathers around the eye seem different than by the shoulder feathers ... I thin the point of focus was there !!
Do like the bird as presented and did well in PS Pleasing bg and pose !! .. btw flash wise it looks ok, not overflashed .. which unit were you using?
Hi Pat, agree with Al and feel technically you did a pretty good job. The flash was handled well and doesn't look overdone. Sometimes with a bird this size it's not easy getting the exact FP but it sounds like you will have other opportunities...
That's a cutie! I agree, you handled the flash well. There's room to brighten without clipping any channels. I masked the bird to leave the background as shot.
thanks guys - this is all good information. to my (and i have to admit i have lousy vision) eye - in the original file he looks equally in/out of focus. so i went back into lightroom and used an exposure brush to paint some positive exposure on him. I'm torn here - I agree David - he shows up much better lightened, but he looks a little less natural - i wondered if a compromise might be to lighten his head around his eye, and down along the right side of his breast....
then I tried a little extra unsharp mask sharpening around his eye.
All in all, i'm still very happy with him - i am just learning manual mode so was very happy to hear my choices were reasonable, and he is roughly the size of my thumb - so at a distance of 6.3 meters away, i'm glad i got close to the right point to focus on :)
hey Al, the flash is a Nikon Speedlight SB-900 -- my husband has this cool mini-tripod for it with bending legs so i had wrapped them around a nearby post and pointed the flash at him from off the side a little... it took me a few tries and questions to realize that the sensor on the side of the flash had to be positioned to see the flash on my camera to fire. kind of a "duh" moment -
Hi Pat - doing well - Davids repost looks good also - although a tad bright for my tastes - maybe in between the two.
Flash looks good and as mentioned does not look over flashed.
jewel : anna's hummingbird
