Wide angle Shot

Hi all

After getting my Ike housing 3 months ago I have only been concentrating on my mcro technique with my 60mm lens and am starting to get the hang of it. Thanks for the help and suggestions btw.

I just got back from the Similan islands and I did my first dives with my new Tokina 12-24mm and 6" dome. I have adjusted a little in PS but am interested in your comments about lighting (I know I need more already), composure, strobe placement, diffuser or not, PS hints etc etc.

The conditions were far from ideal and the shot was taken on a rainy day around 8am. Taken with a Nik D80, Tokina 12-24, single DS-125, 1/125s, f5.6, ISO 125, RAW.

Thx in advance

Spen

Not that I'm any good at WA but I think I would've framed the sea fan to the lower right showing more open water. Your strobe also appeared to leave a hot spot just to the above right. Maybe higher power with a diffuser aimed more at the sea fan. I wouldn't have been afraid to adjust my shutter speed up a little either. just my immediate thoughts.

Spen, two tips:

One, use the Photoshop RAW converter (ACR), and hold down the ALT key while moving the exposure slider: The image will turn black. Increase the exposure to the point where you just start to see pixels, then back it down .05 stop. (Note: If the scene has reflective highlights, such as from metal, you may even want to try the scene without backing down after you start to see a few blown pixels.)

Then, in Photoshop, use the Shadows/Highlights adjustment to recover shadow detail. This can be found at:

Image -> Adjustments -> Shadows/Highlights...

And then be sure to enable the Advanced settings.

The starting points are way too aggressive, though: Start out with these settings:

Shadows: Amount = 20% ... Tonal width = 30% ... Radius = 30 pix

Highlights: Amount = 2% (that's two, not twenty percent) ... Tonal width = 20% Radius = 30 pix

Adjustments: Color correction = zero ... Midtone contrast = zero (but you'll adjust this once you recover the the shadows & highlights)

Black Clip = 0.01% ... White Clip = 0.01%

Then, save these as your defaults.

Hope this helps!

Dan

...I just got back from the Similan islands and I did my first dives with my new Tokina 12-24mm and 6" dome. I have adjusted a little in PS but am interested in your comments about lighting (I know I need more already), composure, strobe placement, diffuser or not, PS hints etc etc.

 

The conditions were far from ideal and the shot was taken on a rainy day around 8am. Taken with a Nik D80, Tokina 12-24, single DS-125, 1/125s, f5.6, ISO 125, RAW.

 

Thx in advance

Spen

Dan seems a bit technical, and I don't see a major technical problem with the shot.

I'm perhaps not the best person to comment (the images that I like, including my own, never seem to do very well in competition), but here goes:

The image is a nice subject, but isn't very "punchy". To improve it I would think "contrast", and "graphics":

a) contrast: the right edge is too bright, and distracts the eye. I'm guilty of this a lot, and don't think often enough of using a single strobe from above, shining onto the subject. If the reef were dark and the sea-fan bright, the image would really jump out of the screen.

B) graphics: use the much-over-used "rule of thirds" or the classical "golden mean" to reposition the main subject nearer to the right edge of the image. The eye would be more likely to flow around the image.

Tim

B)

PS "bee" "bracket" doesn't work on wetpixel!!

Tim

B)