How I Edit Bird Photos
How I Edit Bird Photos, these Ruby Throated Hummingbirds have been very active this past weekend. I have been sitting on my porch with my camera set on continuous high speed trying to get some good photos of these fast little birds in flight before they leave here and head south for the winter.
But because they are so fast, one can’t really get great compositions without doing a little post processing in the editing room.
So here are a couple of examples of how I crop a photo of these hummingbirds. The first photo is the original, the bird is off center and there are to many distractions with the wood post and the feeder to really see the bird itself.
I love the detail of its tail feathers in this shot, so I cropped everything out and brought up the exposure a bit because its body is in the shadow and now you can see a bit of its green color around the wings.
The sun is off to my right in these photos, so the bird is facing me and you can’t really see its beautiful throat colors without the sun shinning directly on them.
So again, I raised the exposure a bit in photoshop and used a vertical format for cropping to showcase the bird itself, now the one thing this composition is missing is its other wing. But, like I said they are so fast, we can’t see the wing movements to shoot at the exact time. Only high speed camera settings can do this and we can only take what we get.
If you notice the tail feathers are clear but the wings have a little motion blur, the average wing beat is around 53 beats per second and I have the camera set up at 1/4000 of a sec shutter speed.
It is so fun trying to get good shots of these beautiful little birds.
This photo below, I wasn’t sure I could isolate the bird from the feeder because it is so close to it. It is quite the challenge to photograph these birds flying away from you and to be able to see the tail feathers from the top like this photo.
Photoshop is a great tool for editing, along with light room. Again, I used a vertical format and really like the diamond shape light spot behind the bird. All these photos are taken with my camera set to 1/4000 sec shutter speed, f8, ISO 1200 and 600 mm lens.
Dueling Hummingbirds
How I Edit Bird Photos
55 Replies to “How I Edit Bird Photos”
To us photography is about people being real and then letting us paint a picture of that moment to remember it forever. This is the story that matters most: real people, real stories, real moments.
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This is so true, thank you for sharing 😊
Wow
Even the unedited ones are amazing! You have a great eye for composition.
In a drawing or painting, keeping the “distractions” actually adds more interest to the piece. It’s so interesting how the standards can vary between mediums…
I think many people underestimate how much work goes into photography, especially the editing! It’s an underrated art form, especially considering how much we rely on it!
Such a cool post, thanks for sharing with us! Love to learn these types of things.
You are very welcome and thank you. Yes shooting wonderful compositions with birds can be a challenge and that is where editing takes place so we can really see nature up close. 😊
They are beautiful birds with their iridescent colors and until this post, I had not noticed how much their tail feathers fanned out – you have captured that in your photos Sandra.
Thank you Linda, yes I have been wanting to get a photo of their tail feathers like that. I finally did this year.
I think it is the first picture of a hummingbird I’ve seen like that … incredible to see as it made them look bigger.
Fabulous captures!!
Thank you Amy 🙂
Great
These are some really great edits, and it’s so cool to see what you do to make your photos pop even more. Thank you for sharing! 😃
You are very welcome, thank you 😊
You’re welcome 😊
Amazing 🐦
I was thinking of you/your posts while watching one of my hummingbirds chillin’ on a branch today. Your pics are outstanding but I feel blessed when I see them relaxing.
Thank you, yes the last few days I have noticed them sitting still more and the ones here are starting to look a little chunkier, that means they will be leaving here soon. I always hate to see them go.
Aww. Chunky here means pregnant.
😊 that could be.
Isn’t it pretty late for preggo season in your area? It now year-round here.
I don’t know what’s going on with the male cats… I caught the unfixed feral tom stalked a fuxed female and my fixed male is suddenly trying to hump all his nieces… I don’t know where he learned it!
Yes, it is to late for that. They will be leaving soon.
Looks like we use similar tools and processing philosophies. One of the reasons I am so slow to get the results of my field trips out is I like to spend time processing the good shots and applying different treatments, trying to learn new features and new approaches. If people only knew how many shots end up on the digital darkroom floor ha!
Yes, and when it comes to hummingbirds, there are a lot of shots on the floor. But it is exciting for me to go through them all and then come across that one good shot. It always makes me smile and makes me want to go out and do it again.
Awesome clicks and edits! At some point of life, I know will have to buy a camera, click and edit pictures to give them the best advantage. The only point that holds me up from going this lane is that the majority clicks I take are on morning walks, where I don’t want to have a camera with me, rather just a phone camera is what I use. May be I should focus on how to get best clicks and edits using my phone itself. But such a click as you have taken and shared, cannot be captured with the phone camera 🤔
I know what you mean, the days that I would not take my camera are the days I would see something and wish I had it. My phone does not have a good camera on It, but the newer phones these days have really good cameras and the results are very nice. 😊
Amazing photos! The cropping transforms these from snapshots to art photos! Love them!
Thank you very much Tamara. 😊
My pleasure Sandra! Have a wonderful day!
Very, very helpful Sandra. Thankyou. I have a 300 mm lens and have not felt I could push past 1/1600. Then there is editing. You do so well there. inspiring, thanks
You are welcome Gary. Yes I used to be timid about using faster shutter speeds. My starting point is always 1/3200 and then I adjust it from there depending on the light. What do you do with your ISO, I have been using auto ISO a lot and that is working real well at times.
I’m going to try 1/3200 Sandra. I had better check but I think I have left the iso on auto…Thanks
Your bird photos are always so gorgeous!
Thank you very much 😊
Sandra, your photos and editing are inspiring. You are correct about how quickly these little ones move and the challenge of getting good photos of them. So often, hummingbirds come up to me and hover close by, but once I lift the camera, they are off. Thank you for sharing your photos and knowledge.
You are so welcome Mary and thank you. Yes, same here, they fly right next to me. But I have to raise the camera really slow or hold it for a long time and wait for them. The arm gets tired after awhile.
very nicely done, Sandra!
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Thank you very much 😊
Great lesson, Sandra. I’m going to have to get photoshop so maybe I can learn to enhance my photos. I am certainly not a photographer, but I would like to have better pictures in my posts. Yours are always so spectacular!
Thank you very much Kellye. Yes photoshop is such a fun editing tool. There is so much one can do with it. But most important is cropping for me..so the subject of the photo is what others see. Plus being able to brighten a photo helps because outdoor light isn’t always ideal.
💜 Perception is EveryThing EveryOne; so, please, Don’t Let Anyone Tell YOU!!! OtherWise EveryBody
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Super shots and excellent editing! ❤️
Thank you very much Denzil 🙂
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Thank you very much Francine 😊
Congratulations for the shots and for the retouching. You use Adobe Photoshop CC, I suppose?
Thank you for the information. Have a nice day, Sandra.
Thank you very much, yes I like photoshop. I have been using it for years. It is a good program.
Beautiful, Sandra. Your skill is inspiring. They are magnificent little birds and you do such justice to them.
Thank you very much Don, it is a fun challenge photographing these little birds.
Beautiful. My camera and skills are poor compared.
Thank you, I appreciate that. I started with a little pocket camera many years ago. Cameras have sure changed over the years. 😊
Good edit makes a photo more focus
Thank you very much 😊