Costa's Hummingbird
by Richard Ditch
Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae)
Place: Phoenix, AZ
Date: February 25, 2016, 6:28 pm
Equipment: Nikon D7200, Nikkor AF-S 300/4, G1325 tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head
Exposure: aperture priority matrix metered, ISO 3200, 1/60th @ f/4
Raw, PS CC 2015 on Mac, 60% of frame
This was mostly at experiment on how far I can go on ISO with the D7200. Taken in our yard 7 minutes after official sunset when I saw a resident Costa's Hummingbird on his favorite agave perch just off the patio.
I did my normal processing in ACR and PS CC for exposure and color fine tuning. I also used my Noiseware plugin to clean up nosie in the smooth background, but not on the hummingbird or its perch.
Honest critiques requested; all comments appreciated. If possible please view the larger image before commenting.
Comments
3 commentsWe've been relatively pleased with the high-ISO performance of our D7100's, though definitely notice the restricted dynamic range above 1250 especially (which may be showing itself here in the throat area). Interestingly, two of Josiah's biggest awards in the past year were on images taken at ISO 3200, and in both cases were enlarged significantly for exhibition (including the beautiful backlit "prints" in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit). We were shocked to see how nicely they presented, especially as neither image had any noise reduction applied!