Hummingbirds in black and white

[Marie Hass]

I was experimenting with settings for catching hummingbirds on the fly. These were shot at 1/1250, f5.6, 200mm, ISO 1600.

These images were converted to black and white as the color competes for your attention in the originals.

Please tell me what you think.





Marie

[Mike Buckley]

Were these "converted" using a color filter or were they "desaturated?"

[deetheturk]

Nice images Marie

[Marie Hass]

Mike,

Black and white adjustment layer and levels.

The setting was sun and hazy.

Your thoughts?

Marie

[Mike Buckley]

Black and white adjustment layer and levels.

Is that a conversion process or a desaturation process?

I'm not one who requires deep, rich black tones in monochromes, but I wonder if more of them would be a help in these. The bright tones in the background and the feeder of the first one distract me. I would consider eliminating everything in the background of the second one except the bright tones.

[wlou]

Great capture Marie! These littles girls move so fast. If you have colour water in your feeder, I would suggest plain sugared water. Is there more pictures coming?

[Downrigger]

Nice images, Marie, and thought provoking. 1/1250 at 200mm seems about right but I wonder what other insights your experimentation afforded you. I guess also I'd be interested in seeing an original to better understand how much decrease in competition from surroundings you achieved with the monochrome conversion. It seems to have worked well, and I bet your approach would never have occurred to me for these nice images.

[Marie Hass]

Thanks, David and Louise for your comments.

Louise, more will be forthcoming when the opportunity arises.

Mike, the images were converted, not de-saturated. I understand what you mean, though. Rather than there being a good dynamic range, the grey tones are clustered to the middle and bright side. If you are interested, this evening some time I will post the originals. When I used Levels and the black eyedropper, the black was stark and I lost much of the details.

You may edit my images. Please continue.

Marie

[Marie Hass]

Hi, Mark.

I have to leave for work, but this evening after 8:00pm or so I will be able to post the originals.

I might be right or wrong, but at that high of a shutter speed, does a full tonal range have a chance to register on the sensor?

May be an uneducated question, but still.....

Marie

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, background really adds to the first image.

[Mike Buckley]

If you are interested, this evening some time I will post the originals. When I used Levels and the black eyedropper, the black was stark and I lost much of the details.

I would like to see them because I wonder if using a different color filter would produce better results.

[Mike Buckley]

at that high of a shutter speed, does a full tonal range have a chance to register on the sensor?

Everything I have read indicates that the higher the ISO value, the lower the dynamic range. I don't remember seeing anything about any other factors limiting the sensor's ability to capture the dynamic range.

[Marie Hass]

Thank you, Mike, for explaining that. I did not know which of the 3 factors (ISO, Shutter speed, f-stop) was responsible.

Here are the originals - for Mike and Mark:





Marie

[chauncey]

Marie, FWIW...I plug all but one hole>wait a day or so for them to adapt>put that camera in close on a tripod and pre-focus on the open hole>use remote shutter so you're out of view of the birds.

[Mike Buckley]

Now that I've seen the originals, my suspicions have been confirmed. Ideally, you should improve the fundamental lighting situation. Converting to monochrome only goes so far in improving either image.

Hopefully the information shown below is helpful. I worked very quickly, so more time surely would have resulted in better revisions.

First photo shown below

1. Reduced brightness of the circles in the background and the upper part of the feeder
2. Brightened the left side of the bottom part of the feeder to increase separation between that area and the middle area
3. Converted to B&W using a green filter
4. Brightened the entire image by raising the middle of the curve and raised the black point
5. Reduced brightness of some of the circles in the background
6. Cropped

Second photo shown below

1. Eliminated the dark areas of the background around the bird by painting using the bright color
2. Converted to B&W using the same color filter as used in the first photo
3. Adjusted the curve and black point almost exactly as in the first photo
4. Cropped

[Marie Hass]

Mike, thank you so much for editing! I am very much a visual person. And you understand the qualities of light so much better than I do.

Ok. I do see. When I converted to B&W, I don't know where my head was at. I just used default.
1. The green filter was a so much better choice. It seems to have allowed you to increase the black point further.
2. Decreasing the brightness of the bokeh in the background further was a great idea.
3. Brightening the background of #2 was an even better idea.
3. I like your crops better.

Thank you again for taking the time to teach me.

Chauncey, thank you for sharing your technique. I will try it next time.

Marie

[nikon66]

Just wonderful.

[Marie Hass]

Thanks, Steven.

Marie

[Downrigger]

Marie - thank you for generously offering up your color originals, the reason for moving to monochrome is easy to perceive, and we got some nice teaching out of Mike, too. But worth noting again is the nice work you did to capture very well these impossible, improbable little creatures.

[Brownbear]

Hi Marie,

Just to say that is an especially beautiful capture of the hummingbird, especially in the first shot. Gorgeous detail, colours and so sharp. I love the colour version and the bokeh. If it were my shot I would crop about half of the hummingbird feeder (vertical crop) so more attention was on the bird and the bokeh. I also like Mike's b&w version.

Lovely!