Taken this morning, this Anna’s Hummingbird was giving me the tongue and the open beak. The sun was just beginning to hit the area where the bird was located and I got sun on the head and shade on the rest of the bird.
Iso-1250, 200-500 at 500 mm, F8, 500th, EV at zero, fill flash at -1, D 500, tripod, DxO photo lab 2, ACR 11, Topaz adjust, TK sharpening action at 1%.
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Excellent detail and color, David. The open beak and tongue add a lot. To my eye, this has just a slightly oversharpened look. I know you’re not using any significant TK sharpening, so I’m not sure what’s causing that look unless it’s something in the DxO software or the ACR conversion.
The background is awesome.
The BG is just really nice…
The tongue is a nice bonus.
Nice in flight image, David, of this beautiful little hummer. Love the BG to compliment him. I agree with Dennis, when I look at it in the larger view, it does seem a bit sharp. It just might not have needed any sharpening. Using the flash really helped in the shady area as well as stop motion (just enough motion in the wings to give the feel of him flying). Wonderful shot.
Thanks for posting the raw file, David. Excellent detail, in my opinion. I wouldn’t sharpen at all. I am jealous though, I don’t have any hummers to photograph until spring, and I have yet to get anything nearly this good! I think I need to consider the flash.
I haven’t commented on this image. Overall, I like it except it feels over saturated (especially the background). That was my reaction before I saw the RAW file, and I still think the same.
Sharpening: The original does look a bit crispy from something. I saw your original post had the TK sharpening at 1%. I just took the crop of the RAW and created a jpeg at the default 50% TK sharpening and it is nowhere near the amount of sharpening showing in the original post, so something else is contributing to the over sharpened look. What Sharpening is being applied in ACR and at what level? Or other software you’ve listed. Something is causing it, but I’m convinced it isn’t the TK action based on the test I just tried.
Very nice capture of the hummer. To my eye the raw file of the hummer looks pretty good and natural. I like the treatment you gave the background in the original post.
I really appreciate your feedback Keith. I went through my workflow and I believe the culprit in this case was Topaz Adjust and to a lesser degree the DxO Photo Lab. The Topaz application clearly increased the saturation and between the DxO application, there was either increased clarity, sharpness to a very small extent, and lens detail. The default on Adobe camera raw is set at 40 and that was no different for the raw image I posted in this one. So here is a repost with everything that contributed to both sharpness and saturation eliminated. This new image was done from scratch.
The new processing nailed it, David. The amount of fine detail in the feathers looks perfect to my eye and the background does look more natural. I wasn’t thinking about the background saturation because I just figured it was some gaudy fall colors.
The sharpening on this version is much improved. Glad you were able to figure out where the extra stuff was happening.
