Another shot of a local hummingbird, Antillean Mango. I'm still having monitor issues, so any response on lightness, darkness and color would really be appreciated.
Nikon D3s
600mm, f/4
ISO: 320
Aperture: f/6.3
SS: 1/2000
Flash with Better Beamer
Exposure Mode: Manual
Tripod & Wimberley head
Image has been cropped, a slight curves adjustment and sharpened.
Excellent capture, Fred - the bird is sharp with vivid colors, but it does seem quite dark on my monitor (MacBook Pro). The BG is beautiful, so if you decide to lighten the bird, I would leave the BG as is.
+1 on the bird being too dark. Nice wing back with transillumination, tail flare and background. Because of the darker breast/neck area, it will take some selective lightening to balance the luminosity, rather than just global lightening.
I would also consider a slight change in comp, with more canvas to the right(not much) and perhaps a sliver more above.
Gorgeous bird and fantastic pose. +1 for brightening the bird and adding some more to the right. Love the near wing with light filtering through it and that gorgeous fanned tail.
Thanks everyone for all the comments, it is a tremendous help in deciding how to handle my monitor problem. I think I have now got my monitor/video card back to settings where I trust what I'm seeing. Guess I can delete the new monitor and video card order now.
As far as brightening the bird, I now can see what everyone is referring to. I'll either make some changes to the shot or just re-shoot and see how it turns out.
Again, thanks it really is a great help.