Yellow Spotted Burrfish, Cyclichthys spilostylus

This was taken on my second outing with my new camera setup (rig?), and only my 8th dive after a 26 year break! I managed to get a sequence of 4 shots in quick succession as the Burrfish entered off stage left and came around the back of the coral to hide. My strobe and flash setup was a bit hit and miss, to be honest, but I would appreciate any feedback. Depth is about 15m, location is Golden Blocks, Nr Dahab, Red Sea. Camera is an Olympus e-300 with dedicated housing - a beast!

f/5.4

1/80 sec

ISO-125

Focal Length 42mm

Orig. Dimensions 3264x2448

Filetype Jpeg (will take RAW in future I think)

Uncropped, auto level adjustment applied.

Hi Fish,

Not that I'm an expert by any means.

Love the potential in your shot- its a real 'peek-a-boo'

If I took that shot...I would crop a little more tightly around the fish and see how it looks- make the essence of the 'peek a boo' aspect of the shot a bit more pronounced.

If I was there taking the pic at the time- maybe think of trying for black background as the blue one is taking away a bit from the fish.

In an ideal world- this could involve increasing shutter speed and having a single strobe light coming from top downwards- make the fish the star- assuming of course he is playing the game with you- and you have the time to experiment!

There is no right or wrong- its what you want to convey and what you are happy with that counts most.

Hope this helps?

D

Nice pic.

We cannot get the fish to be where we want, when we want. But the fish gets blended to the coral in this shot.

If you could take the fish and camera angle - up and right...so the fish is surrounded by the blue and the coral is smaller (perhaps no more than 1/3 of the frame) then it might be better. Did I explain that to make any sense at all?

Here is another way to word what I am trying to describe. Imagine the fish frozen in the frame location. Then move the picture (the fish moves too, its frozen relative to the frame) up and right until the coral covers the left and bottom sections only and the fish is surrounded by blue. But then again, we cannot make the fish be there when we want it.

With the current composition, you might try post processing to darken the coral compared to the fish so that the fish pops out a bit more. Any good with Lightroom or photoshop? Might be fun to work on it a bit.

Just a thought since you asked for any feedback.

I am certainly no expert in this field..just trying to learn, like you.

dave

Hi Fish,

 

Not that I'm an expert by any means.

 

Love the potential in your shot- its a real 'peek-a-boo'

 

If I took that shot...I would crop a little more tightly around the fish and see how it looks- make the essence of the 'peek a boo' aspect of the shot a bit more pronounced.

If I was there taking the pic at the time- maybe think of trying for black background as the blue one is taking away a bit from the fish.

In an ideal world- this could involve increasing shutter speed and having a single strobe light coming from top downwards- make the fish the star- assuming of course he is playing the game with you- and you have the time to experiment!

 

There is no right or wrong- its what you want to convey and what you are happy with that counts most.

Hope this helps?

 

D

Thanks for the feedback, I was a bit rushed at the time and with a very new camera, also only my 2nd sea dive and 8th dive overall since a 26+ year 'rest', so also getting used wearing a BCD rather than a horse's collar! Still at the stage of 'point and shoot', so I need to get much more familiar with the camera controls. I'll play around with it a bit more in PS.

Thanks again, M

Nice pic.

We cannot get the fish to be where we want, when we want. But the fish gets blended to the coral in this shot.

If you could take the fish and camera angle - up and right...so the fish is surrounded by the blue and the coral is smaller (perhaps no more than 1/3 of the frame) then it might be better. Did I explain that to make any sense at all?

 

Here is another way to word what I am trying to describe. Imagine the fish frozen in the frame location. Then move the picture (the fish moves too, its frozen relative to the frame) up and right until the coral covers the left and bottom sections only and the fish is surrounded by blue. But then again, we cannot make the fish be there when we want it.

 

With the current composition, you might try post processing to darken the coral compared to the fish so that the fish pops out a bit more. Any good with Lightroom or photoshop? Might be fun to work on it a bit.

Just a thought since you asked for any feedback.

I am certainly no expert in this field..just trying to learn, like you.

 

dave

I get what you mean, but I was concerned if I moved, so would the fish! Although I call myself 'The Fish', underwater with my camera I'm more like 3 legged giraffe - always on the verge of colliding with something. I will have a play in PS with it and see what I can achieve.

Thanks for the comments

Mick