Ruby

[Deborah Hanson]

During the winters look forward to the hummingbirds.
After disappointing season in my yard I visited a friends yard to see what her feeders had attracted. Almost more fun watching.
Flowers in the yard provided the background.

Hand held, 1/2000 at f/6.3, ISO 800, D3s with 300 f/4.

[Randy Stout]

Deborah:
The is one full figured hummingbird. Nice exposure, like the full up wing position, catchlight.
The bird looks a bit soft on my monitor and might respond to a bit more sharpening.
I have mixed feelings about he halo effect from the orange flower. I think it would be stronger if the orange was large enough to cover the entire bird, or not there at all, but this is def. into the realm of subjective decisions.
I might be tempted to crop a bit from the right to move her off dead center.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Deborah Hanson]

Thanks for comments. Usually don't sharpen much as concerned about overdoing.
Funny about the crop - before I posted I cropped some off the left side putting her more into the middle. Can definitely change.
Still trying to figure the best way to catch the hummingbirds (at the top of my favorite birds).

Thanks again for time and comments.

[Randy Stout]

Deborah:

I generally don't like my images as crispy looking as some, but you have some room to go here before you hit the crispy/crunchy phase.
Cropping is remarkably subjective, and many may like the square crop with centered subject. Because we know that hummers can hover, it probably does work well, but I tend to err on the off center side of things.

Cheers

Randy

[Dave Peters]

I think thats a remarkable effort considering how difficult the subject is with available light.

The only real answer to truely crisp hummingbird images is to use multiple flashes. If you want to try it, use 3 flashes to light the bird and a fourth to light an artificial background. Set them all to 1/16 power in manual mode as that makes the flash duration short. Try about f18 and vary the ISO until you get the correct exposure for starters. Use sugar solution from a syringe to top up your flower so they keep coming back if you want a more natural look than a feeder. Keep the feeder close by to attract them but tape up most of the holes so there is a shortage of positions and they use the flower. Set up everything on a tripod so you can use a remore release and just snap away as the birds come into place.

[Arthur Morris]

Ditto Randy's excellent critique. The o-o-f orange flower does bug me here. If you stick with the SQ crop I would prefer the bird a bit farther back in the frame.

[Deborah Hanson]

Thanks Dave for instruction on flash and kudo for my attempt. Don't have the set up for that (and don't know that I would be invited to friend's yard:)) but would love to try it. Thought I would try to do the best I could with available light and available background as really enjoy these birds.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Thanks Dave for instruction on flash and kudo for my attempt. Don't have the set up for that (and don't know that I would be invited to friend's yard:)) but would love to try it. Thought I would try to do the best I could with available light and available background as really enjoy these birds.

And aside from needing to be a bit sharper , you did well here. Not easy to shoot hummer with available light and hand held to boot. A slight re-crop and a bit more detail and this good image can become great.

[Deborah Hanson]

Joe- thanks for encouragement and for very nice comment. I was pleased that I was able to catch the thing and not blow out the whites:p. Will try to sharpen a bit and rework the crop ---
Thanks again for time and comment.