Got my final edit in at the last minute so I'm adding the details after voting started.
These two have been flying and playing and eating together around our butterfly bushes in the backyard recently. I got a few crappy shots of one of them in the last day or two with the 100mm. Today I decided to try with the crappy 75-300. To my total amazement I was able to capture this moment. It's not as sharp as I would like, but it's the best shot I've ever taken with this lens, that's for sure. The background is the house behind ours. :)
Shot in RAW: adjusted white balance, crop
PS CS4:
More crop
Topaz adjust (used one of the presets), edit|fade down to 40% or so (as I recall) in normal mode.
NI
B/W layer at 30% for desat
Selective Color (blackened up the blacks a little)
Hue/Sat layer (bumped the sat and lightness of the yellows)
Photo Filter (cooling filter #82 at 16%)
Brightness/Contrast (45/20)
Resize to 1280
Sharpen x2
Resize to 640
Save for web
Thanks a bunch for the votes and comments! I'm amazed!
Original:
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Place: 1 out of 194 Avg (all users): 7.0357 Avg (commenters): 8.6667 Avg (participants): 7.1571 Avg (non-participants): 6.9490 Views since voting: 10618 Views during voting: 324 Votes: 168 Comments: 53 Favorites: 23 (view)
congrats - i know these guys are hard to capture.... well done.
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
Playing? :) Don't you know 90% of the hummingbird language is curse words? They hate each other. But great capture. Congrats on the ribbon.
i was going to say about the same thing, but saw your post. they will even fight off their own offspring to protect a feeding spot. i saw one beat the hell out of a butterfly once too.
You already know I love this shot, and I'm still impressed that you were able to capture it with our hardly-ever-used crappy 75-300! You're in the top row for scores with this lens, that's pretty cool too. And the blue ribbon in a rule of thirds challenge? Seriously awesome! :D
I gave this a 10 (earlier). The processing threw me off for a while... but now, it gets better every time I look at it. If I had an 11, I'd give it to you. So perfect.
The rule of thirds is great, including both of the little guys. I love the stop motion of the higher one'w wings. That background almost beige is funky for me. I think black and white would have really been the way to go. :~)
Hey, Buddy!
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