[missbirdphotos] Re: Hummingbird Shots
- From: Larry Pace <larrypace64@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "missbirdphotos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <missbirdphotos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 07:05:59 -0700 (PDT)
Stunning photos all! If the second in your series were from my camera, it
would be on my wall as large as the pixels would allow. Thank you for sharing
these "jewels". I love the discussions on our site. They are extremely helpful
to me, not only technically, but by adding new perspective to my photography.
Robert, please continue to post your work as you find the time--it is
inspiring.
I did try the Least Sandpiper as a horizontal--lots of cloning involved on
other tails, etc that encroached on the composition and on the bright blue
spots prevalent in the bottom half of the shot that are distracting. I have
continued to work on the photo taking all of you guys recommendations in mind.
The huge amount of cloning necessary is more than my program (or skill level)
can handle. My results are too clumsy (noticeable). It is encouraging to me
that some of the "tweaks" you guys suggest are some that I can accomplish with
Aperture, but others , such as negative sharpening, are beyond the scope of my
program. Once I have mastered the camera techniques, may give some thought to
adding photoshop and some of the plugins that Judy recommends.
LP
On Thursday, October 10, 2013 7:34 PM, Robert Smith <rsmithent@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I thought I'd share some hummingbird shots from the last couple of weeks. Our
hummingbird numbers have taken a big drop in the last week, but I did have a
chance to get out and shoot them a couple of times while we still had
comparatively high numbers.
All were shot with a Nikon D300s, Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 lens (old version),
tripod with Wimberley gimbal head, Wimberley flash bracket, SB-800 flash dialed
down to - 2 1/3 or so, a Visual Echoes Better Beamer Fresnel flash extender in
place in aperture priority mode. Some were shot with a 2x teleconverter and
some without.
2 were "framed" with a simple black frame. The other 3 were "framed" with a
digital "gallery wrap" in Photoshop. This was done by preparing the final
image for sharing in a single layer. Then I duplicated the layer. I then
extended the canvas 0.8 inches in every direction & used the color selector
tool set to a 5 pixel radius to select a color for the extended area. Then I
used an fx layer style to add a drop shadow for that whole layer (adjusting to
make it appealing to me). Then I used an fx layer style to bevel & emboss
making it appear raised with rounded edges (again adjusting the sliders &
numbers to make it appealing to me).
If anybody wants more details, I'll be glad to try to provide them.
I really like the light purple pollen on the head of the immature male feeding
on the Turk's cap.
Robert
Robert Smith
rsmithent@xxxxxxx
www.photobiologist.com
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