a few from lembeh

this was my second trip to lembeh, the first being a few years ago. this time i was going with a dslr instead of my old sony P & S.

all shots are un cropped, canon 350D canon 60mm macro with ys90 strobes.

i havent done too much work with the shots in PS, so any comments would be very welcomed.

Fantastic shots Stew

Only thing I can think would be to rotate the goby on the bubble coral through 90 degrees, he feels like he's falling out of the shot for me at the moment! Otherwise absolutely fab!

By the way, I'm just up the road from you in Romsey (presuming you are Soton UK and not Soton anywhere else in the world!)

By the way, I'm just up the road from you in Romsey (presuming you are Soton UK and not Soton anywhere else in the world!)

yes that is southampton hampshire. do you dive in the UK or are you a softy like me and enjoy the warmer waters.

You should use the Wetpixel Maps feature:

http://wetpixel.com/maps/

That way you can see how close we all live.

Alex

great macros Stew, wish I could join phototrips to Indonesia in the future , would be great to learn and shoot this macros

You should use the Wetpixel Maps feature:

http://wetpixel.com/maps/

 

That way you can see how close we all live.

 

Alex

what a great idea. that way when you are next out of the country i can pop over to your place and BORROW your spare cameras. only joking Alex, i still havent managed to use the one i already have properly yet.

Ha ha. I wish I had a spare camera. Also you may notice that my precise position on the map is not actually my house.

Alex

hehe, same with me Alex, i didn't have the patience to zoom in that close.

Stew, good stuff! I am looking forward to finally getting to Lembeh in Nov for the first time! You are inspiring me..

Nice shots. Seeing you have not done much in PS I will try to tell you what I would do in PS to make them even better.

1. Play with Colour Saturation and increase this a little bit either using Curves or the Colour Saturation Adjustemnt.

2. Unsharp Mask to do Local Contrast Enhancement - set radius high like 80 and amt low, like 15% adjust to taste and watch it pop.

3. Smart Sharpen as usual for final sharpening.

Just tried that Unsharp Mask tip, Jeff. Wow.

Alex

i have just watched doug sloss's dvd regarding sharpening and have just sharpened the soft coral crab using the high pass filter. what an amazing tool. i cannot believe the difference it has made. i thought it looked like a good shot to begin with but now it looks very good.

cheers for the advice.

Yes Alex - I love that technique it's called HIRALOAM sharpening I think originally proposed by the Photoshop guru Dan Margulis. There are different ways to do it, like using High Pass Filters with high radius and Soft Ligh Blending mode in the layers.

i have just watched doug sloss's dvd regarding sharpening and have just sharpened the soft coral crab using the high pass filter. what an amazing tool. i cannot believe the difference it has made. i thought it looked like a good shot to begin with but now it looks very good.

 

cheers for the advice.

Doug Sloss?!?!?!?!?!?!

don't listen to that then....

(kidding... i trained him in the ways of photography... ) that should get him out of lurker status

heres the original and also the high pass filter sharpened image and the unsharp mask

i did try the unsharp mask, but my CS does not have the smart sharpen function so it probably doesnt look as good because of this reason.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26034596@N08/...57605157934052/

this was my second trip to lembeh, the first being a few years ago. this time i was going with a dslr instead of my old sony P & S.

 

all shots are un cropped, canon 350D canon 60mm macro with ys90 strobes.

 

i havent done too much work with the shots in PS, so any comments would be very welcomed.

Not bad for a brownie in tupperware

Great shots and makes me look forward to using my 60mm when I get a channce to get back in the water.

... that Unsharp Mask tip ...

Adding the full Unsharp Mask feature is my number one feature request for Adobe Lightroom. You can get pretty close with the existing sharpening tool and the clarity tool, but the number one reason I leave Lightroom to go to Photoshop is the excellent control you get within PS for sharpening.

When I am ready to print something, I almost always go to PS for final sharpening.

heres the original and also the high pass filter sharpened image and the unsharp mask

i did try the unsharp mask, but my CS does not have the smart sharpen function so it probably doesnt look as good because of this reason.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26034596@N08/...57605157934052/

Makes a nice difference doesn't it.

My own preference in this case is the Unsharp Mask over the High pass version, but that's personal preference.

It's probably just as good to use Unsharp Mask for the second regular sharpening step as Smart Sharpen. I do not think I could tell a difference most of the time

Not bad for a brownie in tupperware

 

Great shots and makes me look forward to using my 60mm when I get a channce to get back in the water.

i was toying with the idea of going for the 100mm macro for the trip but from what i could remember from my first trip the suspended particals were horrendus (sp) there. i might have missed out on a couple of short due to scaring critters away whilst trying to approach them, but on the whole i have ended up with around 45 fair to good shots and 5 that i am very happy with. before i went i would have been happy with 15 good shots. most of the other guys there (germans) were all shooting with longer lenses 100mm 105mm but they never showed any of their shots off, so i couldnt see if they had much joy.

most of my shots that i have taken recently IMO have started to get crisper and better in general, this is due to the fact that i have a pretty cushty (slang) job and i can sit on wetpixel all day getting tips from guys like yourselves. I am also shooting MF now which is a HUGE difference. its a struggle at times as my box brownies view finder is tiny. i have just taught my eye to look through the view finder from about 10 cms away from the view finder. it might not be for everyone but it seems to work for me.

cheers, stew