Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

[Peter Farrell]

Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, f5.6, 1/1000, iso1250, 85% of ff

[John Chardine]

Hi Peter- Nice composition here with the bird and the flower placed as they are. The BG complements the image nicely. In terms of processing, I think the image is a bit light, at least on my calibrated monitor. I tried just sliding the levels down a bit and it worked well. I see some noise in the wing but the BG looks pretty clean. It would have helped to have the head of the bird angled a bit towards you rather than away.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Peter - a couple of issues - but doing well!! HAP might have something to say - IMHO this works OK as the bird is engaged in a activity.
John has it pretty much covered - agree with his points.
Is there something funny going on the LHS towards the bottom??

[Julie Brown]

Hi Peter. Nice action pose in natural light. It looks a bit light to me as well, making the colors appear washed out and flat.

[Julie Kenward]

Peter - agree with what's already been said. If this were mine, I'd look at cloning out the half in/half out leaf at the bottom of the frame...this gives an image more of a finished feel - keeps the viewer from wanting to look down below the frame to see where the rest of the leaf is.

Both sides of the frame have more of a blue tint to the BG - I'd choose a medium green shade already present and swipe the brush tool over the top of those areas at 20-30% opacity and see if you can't warm them up a bit more. Another option would be to use a yellow filter in pp and then mask off the other areas so it evens it out more.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Pete....Nice image that could be improved by darkening some....esp the flowers. Softer light might have helped!