During the humming fall migration I found numerous juvenile Rubythroat hummingbirds feeding on Gaura, an Arkansas Native plant, along a back road near my home. The plant grows tall so I was able to capture the flower and the bird against the sky.
Canon R5; Canon 100-500mm lens with 1.4 teleconverter; handheld
ISO 1600; f/10; 1/4000 sec/ Spot metering
I deliberately underexposed a bit to avoid blowing out white highlights. First step was DXO Deep Prime noise reduction. Then I removed background distraction, dodged the white flowers and the front of the bird in PS. I used the Color Mixer in LR to selectively enhance the color and adjust the luminosity in some areas. I added a very slight vignette.
I will look forward to your suggestions for improvment.
2 comments posted
Mike Cohen
Beautiful shot at a wonderful angle where we can see the beak going into the flower. Nice job in postt. I might try dodging the bird a bit more as, to my eye, it still looks slightly under exposed. Great shot. Posted: 10/05/2026 19:53:55
Tracy Kaminer
Very pretty flower and nice distraction free photo of hummingbird. I like the catch light in the eyes and the feeding behavior. Even with 1/4000 there is quite a bit of softness in the wings. I'm not sure why. I wonder if you could bring out the color on the hummingbird even more. I do like the composition itself, with our attention squarely focused on the hummingbird's beak going into the flower. Posted: 10/06/2026 17:17:09
