Hummingbird at feeder.... C&C please..

[Sonomadavid]

Is this photo salvageable? Seems busy, but I liked the "pose" of the hummer. I know the feeder and background add confusion, but does anyone have suggestions for this one? I wish the hummer had been looking at flower..not the feeder...but...oh well. Darned brown fence didn't help any either. Thanks in advance..

[FrankMi]

Hi David, if you feel that the hummingbird is the subject and the background is too busy, try playing with the cropping to see if you can get a composition that you like better?

For example, if I slide this image up on my monitor so that I see only from top of the fence down, I see a landscape image of the hummingbird looking up at the feeder with a consistent, non-distracting background. In my mind, I fill in the rest of the details and the hummingbird is a prominent subject. If I liked that view, I might be tempted to use sharpness, contrast, and maybe a bit of saturation/brightness to get the hummingbird to pop out from the fence just a bit more.

Hope this gives you some ideas to play with.

[Sonomadavid]

Hi Frank, and thanks for your input. I gave it a shot. I will have to try and compose my shots a bit better in the future. Those little hummers are sooo fast, huh?

Thanks again. ( I am originally from SC myself...grew up in Camden.)

[ggt]

Yes, I think the crop helped a lot. I notice the cool shadow of the bird is less intense thant he shadow of the feeder. That feeder shadow is right by his head. If you could lighten that a bit, it might help his head pop out more and still work with the entire photo. Or get rid of it completely? --not enough of the feeder is showing, I don't the think it would matter.

I love the angle of this shot. IT really shows the shape of his wings with the body nicely!

[jamn4ex]

Great shot David! And excellent advice from Frank as usual . I love the finished work.