I set up this trap on my deck with a cluster of flowers that were sprayed with sugar water. I had my dark patio door screen in shadow in the background, sun over my back. D500, Nikon 2-500 lens, tripod/gimbal head, 1/250th, f/8.0, ISO 400, 500mm, reduced to 3063 x 2271, AI Clear
Superb detail in the hummingbird, Dave. and the cluster of flowers looks good. I like the nice diagonal composition. It looks like you might want to hang something over your patio door as there’s a bit of a light colored streak behind the hummer. Did you get the shutter speed right? The wings and tail look awfully crisp for 1/250 unless you used flash as well.
Excellent image.
Dave: Overall, looks pretty good on the hummer. Guessing that you used flash on the hummer which is just fine. I do a lot of multi flash hummingbird flash photography when they are here.
Reds are a tough thing to expose and keep detail. I played with the image just a bit to see if I could bring back some detail in the reds. It worked OK, but not great. I’m guessing you could pull more back from the original raw. I also did a content aware scale crop and added canvas all the way around. I think it also helps.
Ya know, now that I think about it, I did use a flash. The “frozen” wings at that shutter speed should’ve been my clue. Thanks for all of the input!
Hi Dave, I like the details you captured on the hummer. I like Keith’s repost for composition and detail in the reds. Just wondering, was this a bright sunny day? If so, wondering how this would look without the use of flash. I see some ghosting in the wings so wonder if the ambient light was rather bright already.
IQ is fantastic. You can see every feather. My only addition to what’s been said is that I think you could add a little contrast to the bird. It looks, to me, like it needs a bit more depth in the darks. Really nice. Keep them coming!
