Hmm, having my camera club over on Sunday for a hummer shoot. (I live close to Boulder). Hummers are tricky because they are so fast. Sadly the temperature is supposed to reach 100. However, I have a couple of issues with your hummer. The foreground wing has too obviously been isolated from the processing. The background is too busy to get a good look at the bird. Good focus and definition on the face and flower. Perhaps you could crop for those?   Posted: 07/12/2024 20:11:35

Hummers are indeed challenging!

I agree with everything that Leslie said :)   Posted: 07/13/2024 01:21:19

So I'm not going to be quite as critical....shooting Hummingbirds is one of the most difficult birds to shoot (although I would add Kingfishers to that list as well). When you are in an area like Costa Rica many of the shooting spots are set up specifically for hummers...... such as they have a feeder out to get them interested then take it away to get them to go to the flowers by putting the sugar water on the flowers. That does make it easier to get clean shots and they are still very fast.....but gives you a better chance at getting a clean background. When you are shooting out in an unaltered environment I think you invariably get lots of busy background.

So yes, the background is busy, but it does not negate the fact that you did indeed capture a very nice hummer. And there might be one thing you could try to minimize the background. Try the new lens blur feature on LR. It's not perfect and takes some trial and error but it may help. The two most distracting things are the leaf behind the wings and the one with black on it. I might try the "Remove" tool in PS to see if that helps. Just some suggestions to play around with....because the Hummingbird has decent focus .....But hurray for you for giving it a try. One of the things I noticed personally is the Mirrorless and a prime lens make s a big difference. You get faster lock on and the prime helps with the blurred backgrounds.

  Posted: 07/15/2024 19:33:58

I am not a bird photographer, but I'm certainly learning from everyone else's examples. From my perspective, this is a very pleasant image. You nailed the focus on the most critical part of the image--the eyes. Since you used a relatively fast shutter speed, you were also able to freeze the wings in place. I am not as bothered by the DOF showing the leaves in detail. So many things going on at once, I doubt you had time to give that a lot of thought in the moment--unlike us landscape photogs who can spend half the morning patrolling the frame. Would it have been possible to shoot on aperture priority to address the issues raised above? Just asking. I like your shot, Sarita. Nice job.   Posted: 07/16/2024 03:47:57

I studied this bird before I read anyone's comments and I think it is stunning. I particularly like the purples and magenta colors that blend with the purple flower. I like how the head and eyes are so sharp.
Maybe try a tighter crop, try to take out the black leaf, and maybe decrease the brightness of the leaves in the background.
I think this is a very pleasant photo.

  Posted: 07/16/2024 13:38:15