The hummingbirds are back!!!! Well, okay, at least one of them is back. A hummingbird shot is the thing I was most excited to try with my new camera. First I looked at the exif info other hummingbird shots on 365, to get some sort of idea as to settings. The things I tried were too dark, so then I used "guide mode" still a bit dark, so I made note of the guide mode settings and used those as a starting point for tinkering on manual mode, which was still a bit dark for my liking but it's a start.
Editing consisted of Photoshop Elements 12's Brightness/Contrast Autofix feature and a crop in Ribbet. Any thoughts? Comments? Critiques?
Also, tagging this for my "Get Pushed" challenge by @lynne5477 of "motion".
This is a beautiful shot. If I may critique one thing it would be this. To me the shot is a little noisy. It might be because your ISO was way up at 900. I might just be nit picking though. Looking forward to seeing more hummingbirds in the future from you . Good luck
@mikekutz
You're right Mike, it is noisy. I was using another 365 members EXIF info as a starting point and their ISO was 1600 or so, so I did dial it down a lot, but 4-600 probably would have worked. I will dial it down even more for my next attempt. Thanks for the critique, it is appreciated!
Well, it does have some noise, but I don't think that detracts from the photo at all. Even if you were to change that by a stop, I'm not sure if ISO 450 and 1/250 would have nailed the shot like this. Those birds move so quick, that 1/500 was right about where you needed to be. Of course, if your lens can go faster than f/5.6 at 200mm, that would compensate. In the end, though, I'll take the noise for a photo like this any day. Your lighting on the bird is excellent, and you've got nice sharpness around the eyes. It's an excellent capture.
@kannafoot
Thanks so much Ron for the kind words, they are greatly appreciated! Providing that I see the hummingbirds tomorrow, i will try again for a faster aperture.
hooray for hummingbird season! I'm fav'ing cause I doubt like hell I'll ever get this shot:) As far as the noise - I think a high ISO is kind of a necessity in a shot like this - I mean - it's a FAST bird, so a high shutter speed is necessary. But - I'm wondering if you were shooting through the window again?
@westcoastwallis
According to http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html they are headed towards Canada, though I really have no concept of the geography of Canada.
I still think the shutter speed could be dialed down a bit.
As far as the window, yes.Some days are really good, some days not so much. It's still a work in progress. Although a different window, this was shot through one and it's really good, if I do say so myself. http://365project.org/mej2011/365/2014-04-16
Good action shot. These are so hard to catch as they move sooo fast that you need a very high shutter speed AND a high ISO to make it work. I think you've done well with this.
Here is attempt #1. Be prepared for lots of hummingbird shots.
You're right Mike, it is noisy. I was using another 365 members EXIF info as a starting point and their ISO was 1600 or so, so I did dial it down a lot, but 4-600 probably would have worked. I will dial it down even more for my next attempt. Thanks for the critique, it is appreciated!
Thanks so much Ron for the kind words, they are greatly appreciated! Providing that I see the hummingbirds tomorrow, i will try again for a faster aperture.
According to http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html they are headed towards Canada, though I really have no concept of the geography of Canada.
I still think the shutter speed could be dialed down a bit.
As far as the window, yes.Some days are really good, some days not so much. It's still a work in progress. Although a different window, this was shot through one and it's really good, if I do say so myself. http://365project.org/mej2011/365/2014-04-16