Xmas tree worms [hammer me]

Even though they are so common, I can't resist taking a few shots of them on each dive trip.

Most excellent! An uncommon treatment of a common subject. You has isolated them to the point where they seem like an alien landscape. Lighting is soft, composition great. I like it!

Regards,

The isolated lighting on that is superb. How did you achieve this? It truly does lokk like another planet. An NTI perhaps!!!

Mark

I love the composition, it really doesn't look like anything of this world. Beautiful.

Since it IS a "hammer me", the only criticism I would levy is that the image seems slightly underexposed, but really only a bit. You might have been able to get it a little brighter, but realistically, you probably wouldn't have been able to.

Tom

Well thats next years Christmas cards sorted!

Pity the fish were ignoring you but a most esthetic composition which was obviously thought about before the shutter button was pressed.

Really cool interpratation. I think the lighting is superb as well.

I agree with the possibility of a tad underexposed and the front worm looks a tad soft. This could be that I am looking at it on a piece of s$%^ monitor at work however.

I think you have yet another winner!

I'm not qualified to hammer, so all I can say is absolutely gorgeous!

Can I get on your Christmas card list?

everyone is qualified to hammer......

Just tell people why, and not just "I hate it", or worse

I'm not sure what the macro capabilities of your system are, but I would've liked to see more magnification in this shot. A tighter shot with more subject detail and less landscape would be the difference, in this case, between a good image and an exceptional image.

Fantastic lighting and color, however. How did you get such great saturation with such soft lighting? Could you add a blurb on your lighting technique for this shot.

Kasey

Thanks very much for the comments everyone. I guess that makes the decision on next year's Xmas card easy.

The lighting was done with two strobes placed by the sides of the lens about at the same level, maybe a little above, as close to the lens as I could get. I don't remember their power settings, but I think the left one was set to 1 to 1.5 stops higher. This was a day shot, the dark background is a result of high shutter speed, and shading of the strobe light by the coral.

Kasey. The zoom was set to around 65mm, the sweet spot for macro focus on the C4040, I think I got as close as I could without disturbing the worms. I didn't use a macro wet lens for this shot.

Great shot

The only criticism I have is thats the worms are litle soft.

How you successed to ligth them like that?

Superb shot, Herb. I agree with everyone that your lighting technique on this shot couldn't have been achieved better if you were painting the light on with a brush. The sharpness of the yellow xmas tree worm could have been improved by focusing somewhere in between both worms. I think this would have also sharpened the coral in the foreground. Not a big deal as the image still works well as it is.

Now this is just my personal opinion but this photograph could have benefited from some type of fish in the photograph. A neon goby, a blenny--something to compliment the lighting and colors of this photograph with a more personal touch. I feel like there's few things to really make a photograph stand out than some critter looking right into the lens.

Technically, I am still fighting the issues of seeing two shadows coming from different directions in a macro shot (some is visible in yours). Some people agree on using two strobes and others don't. It's a tough call on this.

As a Christmas card... hmmm.. It's nice but it seems a little dark. Maybe when you come down here to the Keys I'll ask Fu Manchu to put on a Santa hat for you.

Now this is just my personal opinion but this photograph could have benefited from some type of fish in the photograph. A neon goby, a blenny--something to compliment the lighting and colors of this photograph with a more personal touch. I feel like there's few things to really make a photograph stand out than some critter looking right into the lens.

 

Technically, I am still fighting the issues of seeing two shadows coming from different directions in a macro shot (some is visible in yours). Some people agree on using two strobes and others don't. It's a tough call on this.

Thanks for your comments Laz. You really got me thinking about the issues with two stobes again. I know that I turned the right one down at least a stop from the left one, maybe I should have gone further?

How about a squid instead of a fish

I love these as well.

Great shot Herb. I like the different colors on the Xmas trees.

I know that squid!

Thomas

Nice Shot. Reminds me of sunrise!