Cuttlefish -- suggestions for cropping?

Hi all,

Here's a pic of a cuttlefish (not sure of the species, think it's a Broadclub Cuttlefish) that I took on the house reef on Mabul Island.

Would it be better compositionally to leave the picture as is, or crop the picture more extensively to place the eye by the rule of thirds, and also show more of the chromophores around the eye?

The only changes I made to the photo was blacking out the background (vis was really bad) and some USM/saturation changes.

Thanks!

Yeang

Sharp!

I would probably crop out some of the bottom of the image to make it more of a landscape shot -- and, to get the eye 1/3 from the top of the frame. I'm not sure if they are just sharpening artifacts, but the outline of the cuttlefish looks a little artificial, like it was cut out from another photo and pasted into black (which is what you might have done?).

Hey Eric,

Thanks for the suggestions... I'll try that crop when I get home.

You are precisely right -- I did a rough selection with the lasso tool on the top left and bottom right corners and blacked out the background.

The background was pretty dark, and there was a lot of particulate matter

I selected the outline as best I could with a tablet, and feathered either at 3 or 4 pixels, then filled the background with black.

How can I do it better? The bottom right edge turned out better...

Yeang

Here's the original, unretouched, unleveled, unUSM'd pic:

Hmm.. in rretrospect the backscatter wasn't too bad in the original pic, but the top outline still looks artificial.

Yeang

Hey Eric,

I selected the outline as best I could with a tablet, and feathered either at 3 or 4 pixels, then filled the background with black.

How can I do it better? The bottom right edge turned out better...

Yeang

That is strange, that the original edge looks fake, too!

Did you just lasso the thing, or did you use quick mask mode? For those of you who don't know about quick mask mode for selections, check out this UK tutorial about refining selections.

I don't find that selection + feathering is enough control, so I usually paint the edge using an airbrush, in quick mask mode.

I agree with the cropping option.

Here's a suggestion: CROPPED - No Cutting, no sharpening, adjusted in levels then selectively enhanced.

The Extract tool (under Filters) can also be used for lifting an object and dropping it onto a new background.

Jim

Yes, never got my head around that, but in egzamples like this it's not reeeeally necessary.

Hello Yeang,

I like your image, but would crop it as Bob suggested. However, I too think it is difficult to discard portions of cuttlefish shots as the textures and colors are often so brilliant. Two of my favorite cuttlefish portraits are below and both should be cropped (but I have not done so for my own personal enjoyment):

Again, nice shot.

Scott

Bob and Scott,

Thanks for the suggestions! I like the landscape crop, and judicious use of cropping will take care of the top 'fake-looking' edge problem too.

Scott, I agree with you that it's hard to discard parts of cuttlefish shots! The fluorescent colors are just too much of an eye magnet. However, it might be possible to create several different crops of a good cuttle shot -- say one of an extreme closeup of skin texture, and others showing larger parts of the whole animal.

Beautiful cuttlefish shots you got there, Scott! -- what species and where did you shoot those?

Thanks,

Yeang