Sometimes you have to take what you get

[bajadreamer]

When shooting a photograph of birds, ideally I like to have it all. By that I mean beautiful bird, great background and perch, high IQ, good head angle (bird looking at me), engaging action. Unfortunately that scenario is uncommon, even rare. So we all take what we can get. This bird, a Violet-tailed Sylph, is a good example of that. Beautiful bird-yes; beautiful flower ("perch"-yes, nice background-fair to good; good IQ-fair to good; action-yes BIF with tail flared. What we do not have is head angle-the bird is looking away from me. In this scenario, truly you cannot have it all. If you want the beautiful tail colors you have to look at the bird from behind. He is interested in the flower (actually he is interested in another hummingbird out of the image that is trying to come to the flower at the same time). Shot with a Canon R5, 100-500 lens, ISO 10,000, SS 1/2000. f/5.6. Slight crop from L and bottom. Processed with DXO PR, PS, and Topaz DeNoise AI.

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[Charles Loy]

Good read and nice image.

 

[bajadreamer]

Good read and nice image.

Thank you.

 

[ssheipel]

You got that spread of tail feathers mirroring those flower petal curves; all you needed I figure I think it's a great photograph. Nice work.

 

[coachjohn57]

I like the image...I really enjoyed the backstory. I don't know that I've ever had an image that I could come back to a week later and think, "This couldn't get any better." I think we grow in our craft by always being just a little dissatisfied with the capture, no matter how good...there's always room for improvement, always a new way to look at a subject, even if we've shot it hundreds of times in the past. Thank you for sharing!

 

[EricBowles]

I love the position of the bird - the wings and the tail are excellent. I might want the head slightly turned to the right - but I'm with you in thinking it's probably not possible with a hummer. I do think that the tail is the highlight.

What I would do is clean up some of the details. The background immediately behind the bird and the flower has some blotchy dark areas, and I'd try to reduce contrast, brighten shadows, and reduce the contrast for a smoother background. The base of the flower has some brown spots and I'd probably try to clean them up a little with some minor cloning.

This is a really nice image of a spectacular bird. Well done.

 

[Woodyg3]

It's a great image, and I think it's easy to overthink things. If this was my image, I would crop out the top third or so since I think it would balance the composition better. I like the background, it looks natural. As Eric said, maybe take some of the contrast out of the background. Instead of raising the shadows, I think I would slightly darken the highlights. Of course it would take some tinkering to see just exactly looks best and shows off the bird well without making it unnatural. I would leave the spots on the flower because they are a natural part of the plant, but that's more of a philosophical viewpoint on my part than a compositional one.

All said, the image is fantastic just as it is. If and how to modify it will certainly be a matter of personal perspective.

Great job!

 

[Platalea ajaja]

Nice shot, very nice shot. I agree with Eric's and Woody's suggestions. And I concur with your analysis/backstory but for me, the HA in this picture isn't a big deal. If you took a few steps to your left to better show the tail feathers, we would then be looking at the back of the birds head. For me, that would then be a problem. As it is now, you get the tail feathers, and you also see the birds eye clearly and his focus. I am usually pretty critical of a subject looking even slightly away but this one doesn't bother me at all. I like it. Great shot, beautiful bird.

 

[PhD69]

I am a fan of the 16*9 format, so I would suggest switching to this format. By cropping from the top, we remove 30% in unused / almost empty height (from 1440 pixels to 1012, with 1012 = 1800/16*9 and 30% = (1440-1012)/1440).
This way, we still have room on top of the picture, almost the same space on top, bottom and on the left of the bird. Same with the flower (top, bottom and right).
Finally the eye of the bird comes at the third of the height of the photograph (even if the "rules" are made to be broken).

Which gives...

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[Anjin San]

Excellent shot…and taking what you can get is always the case…but ya got pretty darned good here.