Moray and Lion

Hi all,

I hope maybe some of all you talented people out there could give some constructive criticism here

Maybe an attempt to bring out the moray a bit more, since he's the main motive of the scene.

It's my first gallery post on wetpixel, and I realize the quality around here is huuuge.. but anyways, here goes:

Unprocessed raw -> jpg conversion.

Rig:

Nikon D70

Tokina 12-24 @ 15mm

Sea&Sea YS-120

EXIF:

1/160

f8

iso 200

Picture was taken at New Providence / Bahamas, at a wreck close to where Stuart Cove does their shark feeding.

EDIT:

Submitted a smaller version

Everything is in one picture, amazing!

Thanks for sharing!

Here are a few things I think may have helped the image "pop" more.

I think getting closer to and feature the main subjects a little more prominently would assist in the composition. In doing that trying to feature the key aspects in the thirds of the frame can also create a more pleasing image to the viewers eye.

I also feel the exposure of the foreground and background do not blend well. The background appears a little underexposed in relationship to the foreground subject matter.

I think you have done a good job on balancing the strobe light across the foreground and have also properly placed the strobe light to avoid any backscatter issues.

It is a nice image but maybe a few of these things would help it standout even more for your viewer.

Cheers and thanks for posting

Todd

Thanks for positive comments and for the detailed list from Todd! I will keep all of it in mind for next dive.

The part about the underexposed background appears to be a common problem of mine too, many images taken deeper than 20m share these underexposed backgrounds.

Guess I need to lower the strobes' power and open up more the aperture, hopefully avoiding blowing out the subject.

Cheers and thanks again

- Christian

I think you're right Christian. If you take the image and increase the exposure about 1 1/2 stops the background blue looks a little nicer to my eye. I played with it in Lightroom and increased the exposure on the background, moray and lionfish then made masked the rocks to keep the lower exposure on those.

Cheers,

Steve

I would be happy to have this picture in my portfolio, but agree with Steve, works better as a vertical framing.

Thanks for showing,

John

You always learn that "you should have started with a different...": exposure, orientation, framing, lens...

... but Steve is right: get close, and fill the frame!

With this image I would crop in, push saturation (ideally in something like Photoshop layers so that it can be applied just to the fish) and perhaps selectively sharpen the fish, too.

The real advice, though, with a subject as good as this, is to shoot several images in different orientations so that you can compare one with another and to gradually edge closer, being careful to keep any strobes aimed at the fish.

Tim

IMHO, I like the darker blue background...but then I do in general like to go for a moody feel in my images.

The "problem" in the original was that the major amount of light from the strobe hit the the portion of the wreck to the right of the Eel.

If this light concentration would have been on the Eel, it would have popped out much more and read as the focus point it was aimed to be.

(Currently the focus point is that portion of the wreck which is so well lit as it pulls your eye immediatly.)

It can also be clearly seen by the vertical crop where this portion of the wreck is eliminated from view, how much more the Eel stands out. (and its been lighten up a bit)

What I think is also important to mention is the Lion fish. Sorry to say but the way it's face is partially hidden behind the foreground object is not very flattering. I know these are not things we have direct control over, as sometimes the subject is not hanging around for another try, but that is part of what makes photographing wildlife such a challenge;) It would have been great if the Lion fish was not hidden and it was orientated a little bit around its longitudinal axis with its dorsal fin leaning more towards the camera.

And then as the others have said, being even closer to the Eel would have been good. If you would have liked to still get a large chunk of the wreck and surrounding in I would guess you would also needed to be a little bit lower.

Steve, thanks a ton for the cropped and lit version you did!

That would have been a much better original image to start from, I'll be doing my homework on this.

I'm going to a wreck in Puerto Morelos (Riviera Maya, Mexico) on Sunday so I'll be looking for another opportunity to make a similar shot, only better

The critique from Aqua soul is much justified, the strobe was a bit off, and the part it lit didn't contribute much to the image anyways, as Steve showed. I'll try to keep my eyes more on other critters than the subject, honestly I didn't bother more at the time than to have the Lionfish in the scene. Guess things like that makes the difference between a good shot and a so-so one.

Would it be a good investment to have focus lights on the strobes?

I find myself readjusting them frequently, but sometimes I forget, or they don't point where I intend them to. The small LCD on the D70 makes it difficult to spot these mistakes at the location too.

Thanks for everyone for taking your time!

Christian from my experience focus (or as I like to call the aiming) lights on strobes are of little use in a scenario like this. (I have the Inon Z240 and it might be that other manufactures have much brighter aiming lights, but it would need to be much brighter, to be of real use).

When doing macro work or working within and dark overhead environment, I do find the aiming lights useful.

A great tip is once saw, is to find out what the beam angle is of your strobes. Have little triangular stickers made resembling the beam angle and stick a few of those around the front of your strobe. This is a good aid in visually guiding you where to point the strobe.

Also remember its easy to give advise/critique afterwards, there has been many times when I have found myself in the same situation. Things looked fine on the camera display, but when looked at properly many "mistakes" was highlighted