Octopus [hammer me]

One of a few images of an octopus that we saw on a night dive on Paradise Reef in Cozumel.

Camera: Canon D60 in Manual mode in Raw format

Lense: 28-80 @ 70mm

Housing: Sea and Sea DX-3060

Aperture: f/13

Shutter: 1/125

Whitebalance: Auto

ISO: 200

Strobe: Ikelite DS-50 on manual (full)

Shot it in raw, converted using BreezeBrowser, did some minor tweaking in Photoshop including Levels and Unsharp Mask.

Any feedback?

Tom,

It's a good shot that captures the Octo's behavior. However, if you'd been on the other side of the Octo, you could have caught his face AND you would have gotten that purple sponge in the background.

I know it's not easy w/ an octo. hunting at night - it's not like a photo studio where you can tell you subject to look up, then left, etc - but that would have improved the shot, IMO.

I dove (DIVED) that same reef and saw at least 4 of those bad boys last year. Excellent!

Cheers

James

It's a tough subject. Generally you want contrast between your subject and background, but an Octopus is a master at reducing contrast between itself and the background. Your shot has the problem of having the sponges in the foreground with high color contrast. That's the thing that poped out when I first looked at the photo.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I can see what you're saying about the contrast, as I have to hunt to define the edges of the octo, and the sponge really does pop out before he (or she) does.

This was one of a couple shots of two octos we saw on the dive. I have another that I think addresses some of the composition issues, especially the sponge and the contrast, but it's a little soft. I would have loved to get around the other side of him, but he was moving against the current, much to my frustration!!

Tom

This is where the D60 shines. I think this shot is slightly overexposed, yet the highlights retained detail. Anxious to see what cannon has up its sleeve!