I've been sorting through all my blue ribbon eel pics that I took off Kapalai island. So far I've been horribly disappointed at the feel of the pics I've gotten... in contrast to the many photos of this species I've seen, my photos of this eel seem to lack 'punch' or 'snap' for lack of a better word.
I've played with saturation and selective sharpening, but neither seem to help much. It might be a color balance thing, but I did try several temperatures while converting in ACR.
Perhaps it's just the lack of a black open-water background....
Here's the best of the bunch, which is pretty feeble:
The background is what has taken the punch out of the shot! Years ago I worked with David Hall. He gave me some VERY simple but excellent advice. He said that the difference between a good shot and a stunning shot is usually determined by the background. He told me to first find a good background, THEN find something in the foreground.
As for your Ribbon eel, they are quite a challenge as they tend to live in low lying holes. In the case of this shot, due the light background, I may have tried using a very wide aperture which would soften the background and therefore highlight the eel.
If you want to add some punch to the colors, try Fred Miranda's "Digital Velvia" plug-in. he offers some very good plugins at VERY reasonable prices
www.fredmiranda.com
KIndest Regards
Chris Bangs
You have something very special in this shot! And it's the reason why the colors seem drab... This eel is doing a sex change from male to female (and subsequently from blue to yellow). The females are very rarely seen. This is cool!
You have something very special in this shot! And it's the reason why the colors seem drab... This eel is doing a sex change from male to female (and subsequently from blue to yellow). The females are very rarely seen. This is cool!
Very interesting.
In Lembeh we saw all three colours. I actually had a male and female within a meter of each other on one dive. Others did see the Black juvees also. I did not know about the sex change though. Thanks for that.
Sorry, the female shots I got were not the best as she was much more sensitive than the male.
In Sipidan we had all three color available in one wide shot with a white clown frogfish to boot. No one had a wide setup though.
I find these particularly difficult to shoot. Hard to get the background you want plus they move so quickly. You really want the nosehairs too.
In Sipidan we had all three color available in one wide shot with a white clown frogfish to boot. No one had a wide setup though.
I've seen the juvies and the males, but not any females. Anyone have a good shot of one?
Apparently, the eels only change to female once they've reached a certain size and maturity, and they're around only about a month while they're in the female stage, as they die after mating and laying eggs.
Wow, that's something new --- I didn't even know that these eels change sex. I have a lot to learn about marine biology!
Thanks for the cool information Linda. At least I can console myself by saying "It's a shemale eel!"
