California Anna's Hummingbird

[pat lillich]

practicing my handheld skills in the backyard (ie - trying to get strong enough to hold the 200-400 steady enough to get a useable picture!) my husband has been trying to convince me that with LR 3, it can cleanup the noise from ISOs over 800 on our d300. Not totally convinced, but this is a whole lot better than I ever got it before.

nikon d300, 200-400 f/4 @400mm, ISO 1250, 1/500 sec at f/4.0, shutter priority

cropped in LR with a little clarity and vibrance added,
a little shadows and highlights and curves in photoshop - background NR, an oof branch at bottom right cloned out.

it isn't as sharp as it should be, so went ahead with NIK output sharpener, but i think it harshens the lines of the feathers too much.

any suggestions and input greatly appreciated....

[Lance Peters]

Hi Pat - noise does look quite good here - You really need to nail the exposure (Push it as far to the right as possible) to reduce the noise, shadow/highlight will add to the noise issue.
Perhaps a fraction too sharp for my tastes - usually when sharpening I will take it to the point of were it just starts to look too much and then back it off a tad.

There is a lot to like here - A lower shooting angle so that you were not pointing up at the bird would have improved and for my personal tastes just feels a little tight in the frame. The removal of the orange spot in the BG on the RHS would also help, a easy quick mask or cloning job should help there.

Good luck with building up the muscles and keep em coming ;)

[William Malacarne]

Pat

I like this one. Shows the iridescent color well. Nice HA and background. As Lance says it could use a little more room, especially on the right.
Looks as if he had a run in with a window or something with the tip of his beak getting bent.

Bill

[pat lillich]

hi Lance,

I hear you about the exposure/noise --- but since I just shoot for fun, it is good for me to learn what I can get in a low light situation - (or if my hands are shaking so much I need the highest shutter speed I can get!) you are right though, definitely the pictures taken in optimal light are much better!

Scott Bourne said when you shoot up at a subject you give them power. And the Hummers in our yard most definitely feel that they are the superiour species. so I kind of liked his regal pose.

thank you for input on crop - boy do I struggle with that. so i redid that a bit and took most of the oof chestnut out of the picture. I also did some selective unsharp mask instead of the NIK sharpening. is this any better?

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Pat,

Greetings. Agree with most that has been said... Sharpening hits edges, so with the great feather detail you have here, most of the in-focus area is effected. When edges are so close, sharpening tends to desaturate, hence, the harsh, somewhat metallic look. Tried to roll back the harshness, increase the color contrast with this:



LAB mode curves adjustment used to soften the sharpening and tone down the bright spots on left shoulder & near eye - with the L curve, added color contrast with the A & B curves (I maybe left it a bit too cyan on the left side).

Nice portrait, good job on the tough settings balance...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[pat lillich]

Michael - thank you. ok - that makes sense, all those tiny white lines are being sharpened -- I didn't know about sharpening causing desaturating when the lines are close together - interesting. they definitely look "fatter" and flatter - which is kind of counter-intuitive to them having been sharpened, it seems.

so when you did the LAB mode cure adjustments, did you select the whole bird or the whole photo? and with the L curve - the only thing i've tried so far is pulling each end in towards the middle the same amount - I haven't tried playing with the actual curve itself yet. Can you tell me a little more about what you did to make the changes?

I like the intensified colors and having the spider web on the branch sharp --- your processing change retained that. its little things like that that make the picture more interesting for me.

Thank you so much for your help - Your suggestions really help.
take care
pat

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Pat,

Greetings. I happened to take some snaps of the LAB curve settings in case you asked (see below).

Michael - thank you. ok - that makes sense, all those tiny white lines are being sharpened -- I didn't know about sharpening causing desaturating when the lines are close together - interesting. they definitely look "fatter" and flatter - which is kind of counter-intuitive to them having been sharpened, it seems.

Sharpening essentially adds a little separation in tone (one side of the edge is lightened a little, the other side is darkened a little), but only at the edges and and an adjustable distance from the edge. When the edges are really close together essentially the whole area is adjusted.

The idea using the L curve (LAB mode curves Lightness channel) is to bring the darkened parts and the lightened parts closer together in tone... Doing this after the image was sharpened actually doesn't eliminate all of the sharpening (just decreases the "depth" of the tonal separation). Note: This process is intended for just this type of image where the edges are very close together.

So the L curve - lowered from the diagonal on the right and raised from the diagonal on the left. Since this reduces contrast, I put in a couple of small steeper sections in the curve (at the far right and between 2-3 lines from the right) to maintain some of the contrast at those two tonal zones (guided by where the contrast lands in the image as I change the curve... an interactive adjustment).

so when you did the LAB mode cure adjustments, did you select the whole bird or the whole photo? and with the L curve - the only thing i've tried so far is pulling each end in towards the middle the same amount - I haven't tried playing with the actual curve itself yet. Can you tell me a little more about what you did to make the changes?

I like the intensified colors and having the spider web on the branch sharp --- your processing change retained that. its little things like that that make the picture more interesting for me.

The repost was just this one set of LAB mode curves adjustments over the whole image. I kinda liked what happened to the bg with the curves so if this were mine I would leave it instead of masking. (by the way, for my taste, I kinda like the orangish color in right side of the bg and would leave it).

The A & B curves primarily increase color contrast to taste (steeper curves = greater contrast, flatter curve = less contrast). The only tricky part was not overdoing the red/magenta parts on the head. The right pin in the A channel curve is that color and the pin is keeping it unchanged from the original. Other than that let your eye choose the color balance that appeals.

Thank you so much for your help - Your suggestions really help.
take care
pat

You're very welcome. I actually learn a lot by working shots taken by others.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Julie Kenward]

I actually learn a lot by working shots taken by others.

Michael, you have just voiced why it is so important to critique other people's work. We are often too close to our own images to always give them a critical eye but working on other people's images helps us to let go of that "it's perfect because it's mine" attitude and really figure out what could take the image up another notch. You've done a beautiful job with Pat's hummer here.

Pat, like you, I like the regal position because these guys are so territorial and so aggressive - I think you're right that this puts him in a position of power. But, I agree with Lance, it's not always going to work to your advantage so remember that eye-to-eye contact is almost aways preferred on live animals but feel free to break the rules when you can get away with it.

[pat lillich]

Julie,

I had a wonderful sculpting teacher who took all us beginner-knowitalls and told us - first you learn anatomy. then when you know what you are doing you can push the bounds - but you push them because you want to, not because you don't know what you are doing.

Thank both you and Lance(and Michael and the others who join in and give us input on the forum) for helping us learn the groundwork of good bird photos. (and for putting up with us when we give you glib answers because we muleheadedly go against what you are trying to teach us!)

take care
patl