Focus? Noise? Composition?

Evening/Morning /Lunchtime everyone,

I took this photo in Mauritius recently and was after some advice.

I quite like the it but it is rather (very) soft and I'm not sure if it is noise, focus or a combination. Any advice welcome.

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

The overall effect is nice, but the photo is a bit dark and not the sharpest I've seen. How far were you from the subject when you took the shot, and did you use the zoom?

Visibility is generally very good in Mauritius, and you're often tempted to shoot from a distance while zooming in instead of getting close. This could explain the slight fuzziness in the picture.

I agree with Mathieu. Essentially the fish are underexposed and do not stand out from the background. If you were using a flash you were probably to far away from them to be effective. Using flash, and close enough to expose the fish correctly would have made the image pop more.

Thank you both for your replies,

I have had a look again. It was taken on an SP-350 with an equivalent focal length of about 90mm.

From you comments it is clear that I broke that all important rule of underwater photography and was too far away.

I'll have to keep this in mind in future.

Cheers

Matthew