Clownfish

Hi all,

Attached should be a a picture I took a week or so ago in the Red Sea.

I would welcome any critiscism/feedback

It was shot with an Olympus sp-350 and YS110 AND YS60 strobes (both in TTL)

Shutter was 1/80 and aperture was f5.6. I shot it in RAW, and have used eye dropper tool to set a white point. but no other editing.

Many thanks

Adam

Hi Adam,

Do you want feedback on how to proceed with editing this image?

Shooting Clownfish with a pns is difficult, with the raw write times and shutter delay, you just have to use the force and snap away! Ideally you'd want the composition to have the fish with anemone behind.

Also what ISO were you using? Your shutter speed and fstop seem a little low, as though the camera was on auto and using ambient light for the meter, try manual and set to your highest f-stop and 1/125 on a sunny day.

This will underexpose any blue backgrounds shooting down, but when you have the reef behind as in this shot, it will mean the only light effecting your picture is from the strobes, thus giving you more control and hopefully making teh image more colourful.

I hope this helps, those clownfish in the red sea are little buggers! The don't just hide to make it difficult to shoot them, they attack you!

Hi,

Thanks very much for the feedback and I now realise that I was being too general in my submission.

You are dead on with the ISO setting-I'd been taking some surface shots and forgot to re-set it-a great learning point! It was actually set on aperture priority and an ISO of 50.

I guess I'd relly like some input on composition, and if possible how I could crop it creatively....?

I do have another picture from the same series that gets the clownfish in front of the anenome-I'll re-size it and post it later.

Many many thanks again

Adam

Hi all,

The other image in the series is this one-any comments? How could te composition be improved-and how would you go about cropping and fixing the image?

Settings were 1/100 at f5.6.Aperture priority ISO200

Same set up as above.

Thanks

Adam

I would crap the left side off the picture so that the clownnie is more in the left then in the middle. Since this is the side where there is no anemone.

Try if a little contrast boost works and maybe some saturation boost in the yellow channel.

Adam,

I would retake this image with the notion that photography is a process of exclusion rather than addition.

Keep an eye on the corners of the image to make sure there are no distractions.

Avoid highlights or disorganization from algae or debris.

Treat shadows like objects.

I concur with boosting the colors remembering that colors are perceived and not real and if you can boost them enough without creating the notion that what is being viewed is over edited then you will be OK.

Velvia film did this 17 years ago and became the mainstay of many nature photographers.

I would experiment with shooting the clown fish on the diagonal and placing the fish in different regions of the frame. The human brain tends to notice diagonals more.

Your type of camera has amazing depth of field but when possible with SLRs keeping the clown's body parallel to the camera back helps sharpen things up.

I know this sounds crazy but I would go back to this site 100 times and shoot it over and over again until you understand these two creature's relationship. Eventually something different and compelling will happen and you will capture it.

Anemone and clown fish images have become very cliche but I never get tired of seeing a powerful image of them. I hope this helps. Thanks for sharing. vr Andy

Many thanks guys

I really like the idea of documenting behaviours-I think this is my major reason for wanting to take and improve my pictures!

Can you expand on the "process of exclusion?" Does this mean the removal of clutter, or making a clearer focus for the picture (focal point)? Looking at some of my pictures (and trying to be objective!) I guess the main event is distracted by the other stuff in the frame. How do you practically acheive this de-cluttering in the thick of the action..? Or am I on the wrong track?

Many many thanks again!

Adam

You're on the right track! 2Oceans has given you great advice, but much of it is difficult to accomplish with the shutter lag of a p-n-s camera. So - take a lot of photos of the clownfish, and select as your keepers:

Ones w/ less/no clutter. Capture only the fish and tentacles for example

Get the fish's eye to stand out - so we can at least see it

Try to put the fish anywhere but in the middle of the photo

Cheers

James

Adam,

Perhaps a better term would be to simplify your image. Eliminate all the distractions. Rather than showing everything, show the most important thing. The Art of Photographing Nature by Martha Hill and Art Wolfe is a good book to read about composition. There is also a book by Heather Angel called How to Photograph Flowers that is good partly because rather than using photography to collect images she emphasizes an understanding of the subject. Both of these books are from the film era for terrestrial photgraphy but the exact same principles apply. The Wolfe book is nice because there is very little discussion about the camera other than lens selection. Even if you are shooting with a high end system you still will have to compose your image. Finally, once you get control of your camera don't let it be the limiting factor. The camera makes no difference. You will see proof of that on your photographic journey. You can take great images with it by learning to anticipate your camera's shutter and the movement of your subjects. Better than many with kits that cost a small fortune. The biggest advantage with digital now days is that you can really be in the moment with your subject and make changes on the fly, or not based on what you see over and over again. Good luck. Keep shooting. vr Andy

How about Jim Church 's " Essential guide to composition", easily picked up cheap.

I think the DOF with f5.6 is to low, Nemo is out of focus. I have the same problem with those kind of shots: autofocus is hard because your subject is within all those anemone tentacles - focus is easily off the eyes. (the same for example with a shrimp between the spines of an urchin). With your two strobes try higher f.

Thanks to everyone for great feedback!

Adam

I like your composition. maybe you can do this . I am on a laptop forgive me if it looks to light or too dark.