Belize Aggressor III

Juvenile Slender Filelish

S2 Pro, Nikon 60mm, 2 SB-105's

Exif: 1/60, F22, TTL + 0.5, WB Sunny, 4256x2848 CCD RAW

The file was converted to TIFF with no touch up.

Blue Bell Tunicates

Saddled Blenny?

You're certainly getting the hang of it!

It's funny you re-posted that. I have a print that looks identical to it ( post PS). I just wanted to post it like it came off the camera. My wife and I were debating on which shot looks better. She thinks the coral takes away from the subject when enhanced. I personally like it enhanced.

Beautiful!!!

James

super shots! the blue bells remind me of NZ's Poor Knights

She thinks the coral takes away from the subject when enhanced

That's the point of the coral in real life, isn't it? To take away from the subject and provide it a way to hide. This image is more true to life, and the enhanced colors are what make it that way.

amazing shots really...

Tom

WOW, nice shots!

All three of your macro photographs depict your great talent in underwater photography. Approaching some of these very timid creatures is not an easy task. And above all, the photographs deserve much merit for their superb quality.

Now, this wouldn't be complete without some critique and I hope what thoughts I have to offer are taken in a positive attitude as they are not meant to degrade your photographs in any way but instead offer a different perspective from an otherwise different viewer. I am not a professional photographer nor anywhere near that.

With regards to your Slender File fish photograph, I personally like your version of the photograph as its colors seem more natural. Maybe increasing it a stop could have brought out some highlights. Compositionally, I like the diagonal angle of the subject as it depicts their natural swimming behavior but I think a side or a front-side view would have made this great photograph even better. Another important aspect for me is eye contact. I feel that when the subject is looking towards the camera it draws me into the photograph. This is not an easy task by any means especially since the reflectiveness of the Slender File fish's eye can change drastically based on its direction. Artistically, having the background mirrored--meaning having a perfect, symetrically shaped gorgonian would have made the photograph nothing short of perfection. By no means an easy task.

Your Tunicate shot has superb lighting. No blown highlights and you've captured the delicacy of these beautiful creatures very well. The orange-red sponge contrasts nicely against their purple/violet color. The only thing I can think of to make this photograph more appealing would be to fill the frame with just one or two of these tunicates. By no means an easy task and one which would require some very impressive optics. I just feel a closer look at one of these tunicates would really attract my attention further.

Congratulations on a superb shot of the blenny (?). I have tried numerous times to photograph these little guys and know just how skittish they can be. Getting this photograph must have not been easy. On this shot I would have to again critique on the eye contact. Besides that maybe decreasing it one f-stop and shooting the fish from around a 70 degree angle with more a frontal view could have made this great photograph appeal to me even more. I think the reflective body on the fish would have stood out more from this angle.

Again, please take all my comments as a PERSONAL critique--nothing more. All three shots are superb and show a great amount of photographic skill. I highly respect that and I look forward to seeing more of your photography.

Laz

BTW - I believe the blenny is actually a Triplefin.

    That's the point of the coral in real life, isn't it? To take away from the subject and provide it a way to hide.

 

again, really super shots!

anyone know whether or not file fish choose an angle of repose based on the angle of the coral branches as seen by the "predator"? or do they just stick to an average angle?

anyone know how to process an image for color/sharpness in order to portray the scene as if viewed with the eyes a predator?

anyone know whether or not file fish choose an angle of repose based on the angle of the coral branches as seen by the "predator"? or do they just stick to an average angle?

From my own personal observations, these Slender File fish tend to swim in the diagonal position depicted in the above photograph. They do tend to sway back and forth--at times displaying their side and at other times turning to display only the top or bottom-side of their body.

What is even more stunning was the quick color change they go through. On one occasion I witnessed a pair of Slender File fish swim back and forth between a brown colored gorgonian and a common sea fan. I was astonished how their whole body went from dark to light as it swayed in the surge from coral to coral.

With regards to your question on processing an image to portray the view of a predator, I suppose you need to first figure out which predator would be the one to prey on this creature and the way it sees things. (ie. jack vs. mantis shrimp -- two completely different types of eyes).

Fish do not see reds the way we do but much else is the same; stealth and camouflage is everything.

Fish do not see reds the way we do but much else is the same; stealth and camouflage is everything.

From an artistic standpoint, my idiosyncracies lean toward the fishes' version (with the reds removed).

The fishes' version also make more sense to me in terms of the biology: the camouflage is more effective since the blues and greens appear on both the fish and the coral, whereas the coral's violet seen in the other two version is proportionally missing on the file fish. So in this sense, the latest image tells me a story now, and the three together teach a lesson: the human perspective is not all it is cracked up to be

It would be nice to ground postprocessing in experimental data - data that describes marine animal vision, in the manner of someone's previous post that graphically demonstrated the engineered similarity between the color sensitivity of our CCD chips and that of our (human) eyes.

What is even more stunning was the quick color change they go through. On one occasion I witnessed a pair of Slender File fish swim back and forth between a brown colored gorgonian and a common sea fan. I was astonished how their whole body went from dark to light as it swayed in the surge from coral to coral.

Capturing this using movie mode would be awesome!

Thanks for all the commentary. I'm really trying to soak up all this available knowledge.

One more time, probably pushing it a little.

Any wide angle?

Fish do not see reds the way we do but much else is the same; stealth and camouflage is everything.

Interesting! I didn't been aware for that.

Now the hot colors of some fishes make sense.

Does it true to all the fishes? Mammals?

Lionfish are the benchmark for this subject - Flambouyant and ornate with their vibrant colour schemes but in blue monochrome they are almost invisible to other fish when not moving.

It is difficult for us to imagine this fully as our brain still interprets red even though in reality the water has filtered it out. Your camera however will only see the truth. Shots using ambient light at depth are exactly as it appears to fish. They have never seen Red in its glory, and interpret this as green through shades of brown to black. Again Lionfish can adjust the frquency of red to suit their immediate environs.