Little Wings - Rufous hummingbird

[Brownbear]

This image I'm posting just to share (see my two questions at the bottom) but as always C&C is truly appreciated.

This little guy is a Rufous Hummingbird. When I first saw him I thought he was a big bug in flight and it was not until he landed on some reeds that I realized he was a beautiful wee little bird. I never managed an in flight shot because a passerby scared the little guy away.

SS 1/2000 f/7 ISO 800 300 mm focal length with extender, and still cropped. A little soft (hand held).





1. Is the bright sunshine on the red colours is too much? Just a wee bit of clipping in the reds.

2. Any thoughts on the crop with the branch as a leading line?


Thank you.

[Otavio]

Hi, Christina.

Nice image we have here! Regarding your question, please find my humble thoughts below:

1 - Yes, too much. Try to tone the reds a bit down (both light on reds and saturation)

2 - I like the crop. It works very nice, IMHO! (you can also try cropping the 10~15% of the lower part of the image and see if you like it better). But it works fine the way it is, in my opinion.

Good focus on the eye and good composition, Christina. Well done!

[Brownbear]

Thank you Otavio. Your humble thoughts are truly appreciated. I thought the red was too bright, hence my question.

And nice to know about the crop, and the option.

Hi, Christina.

Nice image we have here! Regarding your question, please find my humble thoughts below:

1 - Yes, too much. Try to tone the reds a bit down (both light on reds and saturation)

2 - I like the crop. It works very nice, IMHO! (you can also try cropping the 10~15% of the lower part of the image and see if you like it better). But it works fine the way it is, in my opinion.

Good focus on the eye and good composition, Christina. Well done!

[Shadowman]

The light does look a bit strong but you should be able to tame during processing. I like the slant of the branch and it does add a bit of a lead in towards the bird.

[Marie Hass]

Nice, Christina.

A lovely capture of what can be a difficult subject. John and Octavio have addressed PP issues and I agree with their suggestions.

Still I am in awe of the timing of your birding images.

Marie

[Benjy]

Nice capture Christina and like your description <wee bird>... wid,ve been wee burd here

[NorthernFocus]

Nice shot, Christina. I agree with Otavio's recommendation to crop a bit from the bottom. I'd put the bird's eye right on the top 1/3 line.

You can tone down the reds and recover the detail by using the HSL panel in LR. Selectively lower the luminance on those colors. If you haven't done that, click on the little target looking thing in the upper left of the luminance panel and then click/hold on the feathers and use the scroll wheel to increase/decrease luminance on just those colors. I'd also do the same thing to reduce the luminance/increase the saturation a bit on the blue sky to make it bluer without mucking with it too much.

Regarding the softness of the image, the eye, feathers, and feet look pretty good. The beak looks to be outside of DOF. With an extender on that lens your DOF is extremely flat.

[Brownbear]

Thank you John, Marie, Bernard, and Dan...

Bernard... wee burd - even cuter sounding than wee bird.

Dan...

Thank you for the tips on post processing. I haven't tried using the luminance sliders, yet. Later today I will try just that to tackle those reds... Also thank you for advising on the DOF when using the extender. I did notice that in the head on shots the beak was sharper but I didn't like the shadow on his belly. Next time around with small birds I will try a smaller aperture, and a higher iso.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Christina, no need to mention about the red again because it has been said already. I like the composition very much. Very cute bird

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Christina,

Nice capture.

I can't really add anything to Otávio and Dan's suggestions, so I'll shurrup and enjoy it

Cheers,

[Brownbear]

Thank you Binnur and Dave. Truly appreciated. Binnur it is an adorably cute wee burd and I hope to find another one day.

And a special thank you to Otavio and Dan for your post processing tips. It is the first time I've used the luminance tool in LR, and I can see that it is a useful tool. While it did not fix the bright red to an acceptable level (at full size and mostly because of the harsh shadow of the beak) it definitely helped and will serve me well to know for future. I do like what it does to the blue sky and I prefer this crop.



Thank you to everyone!

[NorthernFocus]

The rework is much improved, Christina. Now we can see those lovely feathers on the throat. My eye fixates on the red and I barely notice the beak. Well done.

[Brownbear]

Thank you I learned something new and as always, truly appreciated.

The rework is much improved, Christina. Now we can see those lovely feathers on the throat. My eye fixates on the red and I barely notice the beak. Well done.