Undressed!

At the end of a dive last week, I was watching this crab wandering around on a pile of rubbish in about 2m of water, when a surge pushed the shell off the pile of rubbish and it ended up upside down on the sand. For about 2 minutes the crab kept trying to turn over the shell without actually exposing itself; but finally it had to take the risk of coming out ...

Anyway, my question is: How would you adjust and crop this shot for the best effect? Given that the crab is right at the end of the shell (& the shot), but it's the subject of the picture, should teh picture be cropped to half the shell?

Thanks

-David

Details

Oly C5050zoom + PT-015

UN "close-up" converter UMC-01

Manual 1/200" F6.3

ISO 64

Camera's internal flash (TTL) only

Resized for this posting, no other changes

BTW Here's my own attempt. (Crop + adjust the curves a bit to lighten the dark part of the shot + unsharp mask).

-David

David,

Your crop gives it more definition now. Just increased the colour & contrast & this improves it further. Nice shot.

Mark

or you could try framing it!!

If you want to repeat the crab opportunity, then find another hermit, place it on the background of your choice - sand is easiest - then wait until he walks around a bit.

Approach from behind and place your index finger on top of his shell, pinning it to the ground.

Very often his curiosity as to why his home has suddenly become "stuck" will lead him to exit his shell to take a look.

You can then place the shell about ten inches away and shoot his returning, taking hold of the shell, and reversing into it.

Don't believe me? Try it and see.

I always show trainee divers the hermit's repossession of his home - adds to the joy of the UW experience.

Best of luck,

Seadeuce

Hi David,

I agree with Mark about cropping the shot to emphasise the subject to the maximum but keeping the whole senario in perspective by showing the crabs housing dilemmae

All I did in PS was selected whole image: Edit - Transform - scew. Using the frame pull the crab side of the picture up-right & down-right, deselect frame by double click inside. Then select Edit - free transform and pull the centre left of the fram left and deselect. Then crop inside the readjusted image to square it up.

In selective colour (Image - adjust menu) work on your colour separation to add texture and saturation.

Obviously the larger the file the better it will turn out.

A better angle on the shot would have been more to the right, putting the shell slightly behind the crab.

If you want to repeat the crab opportunity, then find another hermit, place it on the background of your choice - sand is easiest - then wait until he walks around a bit.

At this point the crab becomes unnaturally vulnerable and open to predation...

It is not showing the joys of the underwater world, mearly one of the negative impacts diving can have on the marine environment.

If you want to see something special try and catch a Lionfish stalking a hermit crab and then actually picking the shell up and trying to invert it... That is a worthwhile observation

I have a photo I took in Indonesia somewhere I'll post it sometime.

If you want to repeat the crab opportunity, then find another hermit, place it on the background of your choice - sand is easiest - then wait until he walks around a bit.

 

Approach from behind and place your index finger on top of his shell, pinning it to the ground.

Remember, MANIPULATION NOT MAN HANDLE.

Agree with Bobs comments re divers negative impact on environment.

A better angle on the shot would have been more to the right, putting the shell slightly behind the crab.

How very true. However, I felt that this guy cheated me a little. I was lined up for where he was a few seconds earlier. (See attached shot). I probably should have known better, because he started trying to get an angle to reach the sand from the end of the shell. But I was still facing the middle of the shell when he suddenly emerged from the end...

Thanks for all your comments.

-David