Aulonocara Baenshi

[RazorBlade]

Hi all!

Here's a capture of my Wild Caught Aulonocara Baenshi. Please critique!

http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/2/1/9/14BaenshiNikonD70.jpg

Nikon D70 + SB800 Flash
EXIF Info: 1/200 sec, F5.6, 65mm (100mm equivalent), ISO 200
RAW Conversion via Adobe PhotoShop CS

P.S. I submitted this photo to the Cichlid-forum photo contest - more or less the 'middle of the pack' (and congrats to Bobby's winning entry!).

[hir0]

hi Razorblade. this is a beautiful fish and a nice pose you've captured. i think the problem here, is the light source is too far back. the background is exposed more than the subject and looks a little 'hot'. you can even see the shadow from the dorsal fin cast on the fish. DOF looks good, the whole fish is in focus, but lacks some sharpness. perhaps some USM could help out. i think the one thing that could help out a lot is to put the flash closer to the front of the tank. also try stopping down to at least f8 where most lenses are at their sharpest.

[phishphorphun]

R'blade, beautiful wc A. Baenschi. My favorite peacock. I agree with Hir0 about the bg being too bright. Move your flash to the front of the tank and, if possible, turn the tank lights off in the back. I have a similar problem when I use my custom bounce box. You can lay something on the top of your tank toward the back to block the light.

BTW, this is the first thing I've read this morning. Thanks for the congrats on the CF contest. You just told me. I didn't know. :-)

[elTwitcho]

Capture is excellent but like mentioned already the background seems a bit much. The rocks aren't bad at all but the sand is a bit too harsh and bright for my liking.

[RazorBlade]

Thanks for the critique all!

Yeah, you're all right on the flash & lighting - flash was set on wide mode for the session. I'm gonna experiment with a tighter flash setting, and work from there.

DOF looks good, the whole fish is in focus, but lacks some sharpness. perhaps some USM could help out..

I was kinda 'stingy' on using USM ... I really hate those artifacts USM can create sometimes. BTW, the original photo looks good, and you know what JPEG does to a photo this size.

also try stopping down to at least f8 where most lenses are at their sharpest.

I had used F5.6 to get the background OOF. F8 gives me a sharper background than I would have liked. Yeah, I do know that most lenses are sharpest at F8-F11, but thanks for the reminder. :-D

The rocks aren't bad at all but the sand is a bit too harsh and bright for my liking.

Having white sand is always difficult on exposure - flash set to low, not enough light. Flash set to high, too much light. Exposing for fish or for background. I like the sand setup 'cos it does wonders for Peacock behavior. :P

Again, thanks for all the critique! ^_^

[hir0]

hi Razorblade. i use USM but very very sparingly (IMO) about 60% @ .6 radius. i always do it on a duplicate layer so if i get any weirdness in my image i can just erase it.

[Ibn]

Agreed with what others have said so far. It's an excellent capture that was marred by the hot background. The exposure on the fish, on the other hand, is about right on. Had the background been any different (higher up in the tank, where the sand isn't in the frame), this picture would have scored higher.

I use USM very sparingly myself. Amount is at 25% with a radius of 0.4 myself (threshold is always by default at zero). I know what you mean with the jpeg compression. I usually save it at 75% for all my shots at the same time, which doesn't really help that either. :)

There's also a way to refine sharpening but requires a bit more work. I've only seen it done before and haven't explore that route yet.