Rufous Hummingbird

Gallery: AvianPosted June 15, 2017213 views13 comments

This is from the same session as my last post with the feeder above the fuchsia. In this case, the bird was completely in front of the white trim around the porch window. I thought it might be fun to go with a completely high key bg, so after cropping, I replaced a bit of the feeder that was still showing with a brush from the bg sample and then raised the exposure on the bg to completely blow it out. I then did normal brightness, contrast, detail adjustments to the bird itself.

One note: There was a distinct red fringe along the bill and top of the head, but the lens profile tool in the Develop module of LR took care of it in a single click!

7Dii, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600 mm, tripod with ballhead and Sidekick, f/8, 1/3200, iso 800, Manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped to a 9 MP 4x5. Taken June 11th at 6:54 am under sunny skies.

Your comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Comments

13 comments

Comment posted by Mike Ramy on June 16, 2017 at 12:50 AM

Sweet . . .

Registered on June 16, 2012, 567 Posts, 2809 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Wilson on June 16, 2017 at 6:39 AM

Hi Dennis
this is a great capture of a quick bird.
A neat idea to go this direction with the background but it doesn't seem to work for me. I think I would prefer some faint background to help with a depth of field. This approach just seems to flatten out the image too much.

Registered on June 14, 2017, 39 Posts, 73 Comments

Comment posted by Shirley Freeman on June 16, 2017 at 12:44 PM

Excellent capture of this little guy, Dennis! The white backgrounds sure makes him stand out.

Registered on May 27, 2017, 77 Posts, 844 Comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on June 16, 2017 at 2:00 PM

I like it. It's different. Well done.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Williams on June 16, 2017 at 3:06 PM

She really pops in this rendition Dennis. Nice work.

Registered on December 28, 2010, 636 Posts, 3499 Comments

Comment posted by Peter J. Morrissey on June 16, 2017 at 4:21 PM

Hi Dennis
The photograph looks like something out a high end Bird book. Nice work.
Peter

Registered on July 3, 2011, 188 Posts, 969 Comments

Comment posted by David Schoen on June 16, 2017 at 6:13 PM

Definitely different with a high key background. But I do think it needs a little more as an image to stand out by itself. You got a lot of nice detail on the bird itself and the exposure seems about right.

Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments

Comment posted by Matt Shellenberg on June 16, 2017 at 6:21 PM

A great image for a field guide, Dennis. Nice job with the high key effect. You have really nice detail in the hummer.

Registered on February 6, 2008, 168 Posts, 3118 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on June 16, 2017 at 9:20 PM

Excellent, Dennis. Love the unique high key look.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on June 16, 2017 at 10:42 PM

Great capture of the bird Dennis-excellent wing spread and good detail. I personally find the hi key renders the image a tad flat and would prefer to see a softer tone in the background.

Registered on August 12, 2009, 544 Posts, 2414 Comments

Comment posted by Craig Moreau on June 17, 2017 at 8:18 PM

Dennis, I really like this high-key look. I don't know how the original looked, but this feels like the right way to go from your description. The bird's position is just perfect. Beautiful presentation! If this were mine, I would clean up the roughness of the bottom of the bill, but I know that's not for everyone.

Registered on April 21, 2015, 64 Posts, 584 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on June 19, 2017 at 11:30 AM

Certainly different Dennis. With zero background it certainly isolates the subject.

TFS
Steve

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Kathy Snead on June 20, 2017 at 12:10 PM

Hi Dennis

Great capture of this little quick bird. Thank you for including the info of how you used the lens profile tool in LR! I like this photo the way it is . It might be fun to have an alternate where you put in a gorgeous background. If I had this super capture I would be thinking of experimenting with it in that way!

Best
Kathy

Registered on April 6, 2017, 104 Posts, 397 Comments