retry on the ruby-throated hummer.

[jamn4ex]

Ok Steve I jacked the iso up to 1250 ss 250 f- 5.6 and set tripod up at minimum focus distance for my 400 Then waited for him to come back to his favorite perch. I tried to clean out the noise in lightroom then sharpened and did the rest in elements. I feel a lot better about this one . Let me know what y"all think.

[Digital]

Nice photo.


Bruce

[Brownbear]

Beautiful photo... Gorgeous colour and detail, and a very nice composition and background. The only feedback I can think of is that perhaps the beak and the top of the branch are a teeny bit overexposed and the photo seems just a little on the soft side.

All that said, I have yet to capture a hummingbird photo and I would be delighted to capture one as beautiful as yours.

[jamn4ex]

Thanks Bruce and Christina I like the photo too. My concern is very little about the over exposed parts because the shots where I got the exposure better on branch and beak lost details to dark areas. Such as the throat colors (which I felt were important to the image). The softness could be due to my lack of pp experience. I am not used to noise reduction and I think I could be losing a touch there. This image was shot wide open at 5.6 and at minimum focusing distance, so I accept the soft branch and tail as limits of dof.
Once again I am not unhappy with this image it is probably an accurate description of my skill set to date. I more less want to make sure I am staying on the righ track towards ever- improving. Thanks again for all feedback .

[Brownbear]

Hi James,

It is a beautiful photo! And I would be delighted to capture a photo as perfect of yours.. Darned proud, in fact.

I'm just learning too, and part of learning for me is trying to figure out how to make a photo perfect, hence my comments... It does look a little soft to me but wait to hear from others with more experience, as to whether they think it is a tad soft or not, and how to process and whether they would darken the beak or not.

[terrib]

Oh Yeah! The detail there is wonderful. You are on the right track. I don't think the photo is soft. It's just at that focus distance with the 400, you would need a more narrow aperture to get the whole bird in focus. But I'm not bothered about the DOF. The eye is in focus and there is great detail in the breast feathers. Having the back of the head and tail out a bit could be a choice. Also, the beak being shiny looks natural to me. I think you should be pleased.

[Stagecoach]

Hi James,

Firstly, this IS a great image, no question about that.

Secondly, as for DOF and exposure we can not get everything perfect but to me any concerns are insignificant with this image.

What does interest me is your comments in post 4 regarding the softness issue and that it might be due to your experience in PP. To me although this is a great image I would be asking myself has it got potential to be greater WRT sharpness and how do I find out ?

It may be that it can not be sharpened any more but have you tried ?

[jamn4ex]

Hi Terri, glad to hear from you .You have been very busy taking some wonderful photos. look forward to more.
Hi Grahame. I have sharpened that 3 times now. Once in lightroom (after a noise reduction) then once in elements, then once again after down sizing it . I put a final sharpening on it. Perhaps I could've went a touch further (I am trying to break myself from over processing). Perhaps someone more proficient with their post production could produce sharper.
Maybe its time for me to hit the books again. once again thanks all for all the help.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice detail and exposure on the eye/head/neck and a great BG. Several people have commented on the beak. It looks like it is on the front edge of your DOF. The tail being OOF is pretty common but the beak is a bit distracting. Overall a nice image.

[Stagecoach]

Hi James,

Fully agree that care is needed from over processing and the difficulty is finding that point between the under and over that gives the result you require.

Following your post No 8 I put the image into Elements and applied some unsharp mask and in my opinion although there was a very slight increase in noise the added sharpness achieved up to a point where I considered it acceptable was worthwhile.

I also put another copy through the default 'Neat Image' noise and sharpening process which in my opinion made a very noticeable improvement. As I only have the free version it's limited to 1024 pixel width so I had to reduce from the 1100.

I'm certainly not saying my mods made it 'better' than original or that I'm an expert and of course it's my view only but I would suggest there is a fair bit of scope to increase the sharpness and reduce noise if you wanted to achieve that whilst avoiding the over-processed look.

[Steve S]

Looks alot better , james. You're getting there.