This one is bugging me

THoughts please. Back to the ol sunburst thing...

Shot this one today, along with about two hundred others over two dives with 6 mantas, spent three hours in the water with them today.... (Jealous now?? i call that subliminal advertising...)

Problem was the water was a touch greenish so was hard to balance light properly. This was shot at 1/200 and f7.1 , not the best settings but because of the darker water couldn't go to high on the shutter speed and higher fstops were just too dark around the edges of the photos, you can see this one is a prime example. Shot the next shot at 360, then at 500, both too dark. Damn greenish water!

Anyhoo,i keep coming back to this photo cuz i like the composition, still sort of humming and hawing on whether it is a keeper or not. Yes i cheated a touch in PS to make the water appear bluer than it was (bad mike bad mike)

My problem is i think its a bit dark at the top of the top manta and a bit bright in the sunburst. To play with one or the other ruins the other one.

Soo, keeper or no keeper what are your thoughts?

Thanks,

Mike

Mike....this shot looks nice, but it's too small to study.....how about something larger?....650 x ? maybe?

Karl

My problem is i think its a bit dark at the top of the top manta and a bit bright in the sunburst.  To play with one or the other ruins the other one.

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Have you tryed photoshop's shadow/highlight recovery tool.

Better? How do you attach the pic straight to the message instead of clickable anyways? Does it have to be online to do that?

I don't like the shadow recovery tool, creates far too much noise in the photo i think. Was thinking of doing a layer but don't know how

Better?  How do you attach the pic straight to the message instead of clickable anyways?  Does it have to be online to do that?

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This is a better size....I believe that it does have to be online to be part of the post

I like the composition.....but the sun is too bright and too centered and/or dominant for me.....you have many better shots of mantas

Karl

I would try this:

Pull into photoshop. First, use curves. Click on the white ball and find out where your color marker falls on the graph (usually in the upper end). Lock in that color and slightly down grade the hot light (see what it does, anyway). Then make some curve adjustments on the other side of the marker to change the blue without affecting the white ball. I have been using this feature a lot when I get near white in my pictures and need to adjust some other colors without blowing out the sun.

However, what I can't help you with is the hazy look of the pic. Some guys like James and Craig are pretty good at ridding the pic of that hazy look, but for the life of me I don't remember what that is.

Good luck.

Joe

It's the hazy look that caught my eye as well. I've no PS magic for you.

Could the photo just be soft due to the lower f stop? I've not shot into the sun with that wide of aperture without disasterous results. Frankly, it looks real good exposure wise. Suns a bit white but still not horrible.

Sorry, just rambling...

Rand

Grrr, dang server i just answered this and lost connection...here it is again

Thanks for the comments guys, i appreciate the honesty.

With the hazy look, wellll it was just plain hazy down there, i have been moaning about the results of the photos all day yesterday because of that. Was hoping to be able to save some of the better ones but looks like all of them with the manta more than about 5 feet away is getting trashed unfortunately. THe water was just a little bit too murky for good results unfortunately. But i will just try again tomorrow!

As for fixing the hazy look, for any of you who have had to deal with scanned slides in the past, you will find that this haziness is often a problem, almost like an opaque layer across the photo. THe best way to deal with this i have found is to go to Curves and use the eyedropper tools to set a black or white or grey point, this gets rid of the haziness in most cases (best to set default of 244 for white and 8 or so for black)

Joe (kelpfish) thanks for the tip, haven't tried that before, i'll see if i can give it a whirl.

Better?  How do you attach the pic straight to the message instead of clickable anyways?  Does it have to be online to do that?

When the new POTW feature goes live, I'll try to rig a PROPER gallery area for users. The Invision one currently available is simply horrible.