Hum a few bars

So I’m back on the couch with pots of flowers up on the railing, waiting for these guys –

Isn’t he a beauty? And here’s one of our girls –

While I have seen more than one female at a time, I only have seen a single male at a time and those don’t stick around all summer I don’t think. I haven’t seen a male (except for fledglings) after June so I wonder if they head back south after fatherhood has been achieved. Hm?

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I’ve changed up some settings and approaches to photographing these guys. First is that after getting a few meter readings I switch from my shutter-priority Wildlife mode to Manual with auto ISO. Mostly because the settings for the Custom mode revert back to the baseline after the camera goes into stand-by. I usually alter settings for a shooting session depending on the light and it’s a pain to lose them in between. In the excitement to get more photos after it reverts to the standard parameters, I often overexposed the birds at first because the background is typically darker. I wasn’t quick enough changing settings. Grr. So Manual to the rescue because it allows me to retain settings when waking up the camera.

I also dialed in faster shutter speeds when I could – 1/2000, 1/2500, 1/3200 and 1/4000 – all while keeping the ISO at 6400 or below. With Single-area Animal Detection focus and focus peaking engaged, I felt like things locked on sooner and stayed locked longer with me still being able to tell what was what. Kinda. They move so fast.

Another thing I’m trying is highlight-weighted spot metering since the camera doesn’t need to include background in the calculations for exposure. At first I thought center-weighted would do the trick, but it still ends up overexposing the birds unless I apply exposure compensation, which only ends up changing the ISO since it’s the only variable I left up to the camera. Panasonic lists the function that came with a software update as Highlight weighted metering, with no mention of spot. However, the icon in camera looks like spot metering with an asterisk next to it, so I’m not really sure how much of the frame it takes into consideration. All I know is that it will expose for highlights more accurately which is good since a lot of the underside of these birds is very light.

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I also changed up processing techniques and workflow to get the best final image. Well duh, don’t we all want that? LOL.

Here’s the new stuff I used for that photo of Mr. Hummingbird above –

First, in Lr I ran a denoise action after basic adjustments. Some of the basic adjustments included masking the bird to bring up clarity and contrast since he was in full sun and needed some finesse. Then I ran the RAW file through Topaz Sharpen AI as well. This produced two additional files – the DNG from Lightroom and the TIF from Topaz. In my experience, using either technique adds contrast and can push highlights and shadows too high so I massaged both of them again with my next step in mind. That step was to drop both files into Photoshop as Smart Object Layers. This way the adjustments from Lightroom carry over and can be fiddled with more in Adobe Camera Raw. Being able to have S.O. layers is new with an update earlier this year.

In Ps I selected the subject which is the bird and the flowers and used the Sharpen AI photo for that with the better background from the Lr denoise version. Once I had everything the way I wanted it on each Smart Object layer (I added a little denoise to the bird on the Sharpen layer) I combined them in a new regular layer for some distraction removal. (Note; the new layer has to be a regular layer and not a Smart Object for healing and remove tools to work.) The result introduced some odd colors so I added a Solid Color layer with a black mask on top and painted in more harmonious colors where the weird ones were. With a 30-ish% opacity brush it worked really well. 

Back in Lightroom I cropped a bit and then some things became distractions and I removed those as well as adding a Linear gradient mask to lower the background exposure on the left. By subtracting the bird using the Object selection tool it only affects the background. Very neat and easy. I also did a little work on his face with a Brush tool and added a radial gradient to further minimize the background. 

That Solid color layer worked really well to help this photo of the Missus –

A tree in the far background showed up as a very brown wedge which is fine if the whole area was more or less uniform, but in a sea of green is kind of an eye-magnet. Using 4 different Solid color layers one after the other, I painted different shades of green over the brown and used different layer blending modes to feather and ease the colors into each other. It takes practice and a light hand with brush opacity and flow. I had many do-overs and it it isn’t perfect, but I’ll get better with practice. 

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These next two didn’t need the Solid color layer, but I did bring in a Topaz Sharpen AI version and a Lr denoise AI version to layer in Photoshop. Did some distraction removal though because who would want to take their eyes off her?

It might seem like a lot, but the new stuff just makes the whole process more enjoyable. Knowing that I can up my keeper rate by harnessing my camera’s technology and features is so much nicer than coming away with little or nothing. And then taking what starts off good and making it better is always part of the goal. I’m sure a few years ago when I didn’t know Ps or Topaz at all it would have been daunting, but now it’s second-nature.

And here she is again – probably just seconds from those two. She’s so gorgeous and busy, what with the kids and all. I find it so interesting that some bird fathers raise their young and others don’t. Even in species we associate together – like geese and ducks. Duck dads don’t help, goose dads do. Most songbird dads help, but Ruby-throated hummingbird dads don’t. Cow birds don’t raise their kids themselves at all – they make other birds do it! Evolutionary strategies play themselves out in such varied ways.

No heroic processing needed here, just Topaz Sharpen AI and some tweaks in Lightroom involving masking to bring out the best in the background and the bird.

Sorry this post is so late in coming, but it seems like I have so much to show and write about that everything slides a little. By the time this hits, the male will probably be long gone, fledglings will be on the scene and summer almost at an end.