Pygmy pair

So this is likely the best image I got of a pygmy pair from a recent trip to Lembeh. Unfortunately the composition of the lower pygmy isn't perfect and he/she is also a little soft

The question is, does it matter? I'd like to consider submitting this into one comp. or another this year but am trying to decide if I should bother with the 'softness' issue. No harm in trying of course but I like to get subjective opinions as well.

Any thoughts/critique gratefully accepted

Cheers,

Andy

BTW, shot with a Nik F90x, Nexus housing, 105AFD and 2X, twin YS30, Velvia 100.

Howdy, Andy. That's a gorgeous photo. You don't say whether you want to enter an underwater photo or a general photo competition, but I'm assuming you mean underwater. Either way, I think you need to address the sharpness issue, but underwater photographers are probably going to be more critical of any softness.

In Photoshop, the Unsharp Mask is of course your primary tool. For the soft areas, try these settings and see what happens:

Amount: 150%

Radius: 1

Threshold: 10

You could use this as your first sharpening or after a first pass using the Unsharp Mask with the softer areas masked.

Also you might try Edge Sharpening and see if it gives a desirable effect.

There are a number of variations that can be helpful when the image is just slightly soft, as yours is.

Good luck in the competitions - you've got a nice photo!

Jim

P.S.: Take my advice with a large grain of salt. I'm still fumbling around with Photoshop and have no business giving advice!

Thanks for the advice Jim. I was thinking of entering the slide but with the softness issue I may do that and enter it as a print or under a digital section.

I haven't really done much with selective sharpening so it nay be a good learning opportunity

Andy

Andy, I think it is a lovely shot.

The only comment I have is a general one about pygmies in competitions. Although very few divers have ever seen pygmy seahorses a very large number of photographers have! Therefore I think it is very difficult these days to win an UW photo competition with a pygmy seahorse shot.

I think that pygmy seahorses can still win in general above-water photo competitions, but as far back as Jan 2001 Peter Rowlands (now editor of UWP magazine) talked about "Pygmy seahorse fatigue" when judging DIVE (UK) magazine's photo competition.

The first pygmy seahorse photo I remember seeing succeeding in a competition was Constantinos Petrinos's in 1997 at the Antibes Festival. With all due respect to Constantinos, IMO, I think he, and other people, now have much better shots of pygmies. But back then it was a very fresh and amazing subject (particularly in Europe and N American comps).

In terms of competitions I think pygmy shots are often best as part of a portfolio, rather than as a stand alone image.

Alex

I hear what you're saying Alex and have heard similar as well as feeling the same after seeing more than a few crop up in recent comps. I was hoping that a shot of a pair of pygmies was somewhat different (and something that I haven't personally seen - but that's not to say they haven't been done somewhere). But that just enforces my feeling that anything like this would have to be technically perfect as well. And this isn't

Oh well, this pair may have their day in the future when pygmies 'make a comeback'

thanks for the thoughts,

Andy