Critique appreciated

Now I pretty much just concentrate on Macro photography ad have never really spent any time on Wide Angle of any kind but lately have been looking to extend my skills.

This last weekend was my first proper attempt. I live in the UAE and visibility is a constant problem with 5-10m vis seen as the norm. Luckily on one of the sites this weekend the vis was about 20m, but there were still a lot of particulates in the water.

The following shot was taken at 30m using an Olympus e-520, married up with the 8mm Oly fisheye + a 1.4 teleconverter. Shutter speed was 1/125, ISO 200 and f6.3 if I remember correctly.

I used two strobes set on TTL, with the let hand one dialed down slightly.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as I am still trying to learn Wide Angle. Thanks in advance.

Just a quick idea, when shooting stationary subjects such as lionfish you do not need fast flash recycle times, so here is what I suggest:

Put your flash on full power (or at least somewhat higher power) and increase your aperture to get a deeper depth of field.

Another thing, maybe consider warming your strobes somewhat, use a Lee Straw filter and put it on the front of your strobe, this will give you a pleasing foreground color (as you already have) but a much better blue background color!

-Morten

I second Morten's comments! You could up the Aperture a bit in order to improve the Corner sharpness of the Lense. That generally improves it, but I don' know how the Lense works.

I would also generálly switch of the TTL in Wideangle. It works in this picture, since the Lionfish occupies a large part of the Picture frame.

I would have tried to get a bit more of an angle of the Lionfish, ie facing the Camera.

/Erik

Thanks for the tips guys. I did try and get the Lionfish from the front but he wasn't being cooperative.

Personally i like the image, composition is not great for me .. but the image is nicely exposed with great colour graduation in the background.

I would like to see the fish with it's head not at the center of the frame and not going left to right from the middle .. break the image up a bit differently with the subject.

That sure is one fat lionfish too.

Thanks for the tips guys. I did try and get the Lionfish from the front but he wasn't being cooperative.

Somebody should theach them some manners!!!

So, that it is more cooperative next time

/Erik

I personally would be trying to darken the back ground more especially if your at 30m and you have a sunburst or at that depth a sun blob coming through. I feel that the Lionfish fills up too much of the frame and a bit of the low fins are right on the boarder of the frame.

As other have said a wider aperture like f8-f10 for better depth of field. I would be shooting at your lowest ISO and shooting a higer shutter speed or the highest you have which syncs with your strobes. Higher shutter speed darkens the background and I feel gives a better colour graduation when you have the Sun in the back ground. Regarding strobes try the same shot in TTL and then try manual strobes with 3/4 power and then full power. I prefer to shoot manual for wide as you know what they are going to do everytime you shoot.

Have you tried just shooting the 8mm Fisheye without the TC? Just have to get use to getting really close and having good strobe placement.

Write down some different setting on a slate and when your in a position to do so and take a few shots with those different settings and when your back infront of a computer decide what setting you like best and go from there.

Regards Mark

Good light, color, subject, and framing. My only suggetion with this would be to explore a different negative space. The structure behind the fish doesn't help tell your story. I often look for a good negative space as much as, or even more than, a good subject when I'm shooting. Nice work!