Rip it apart

[Myaj]

Well, here's my first attempt at a "good" picture and doing some editing in a "real" program (only Photoshop Elements, but much better than the freebie I was using), go ahead and rip it apart.

Its just a .jpg, I still haven't figured out what you guys mean by shooting in RAW, etc yet.

And wow, that healing brush IS incredible!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/Myaj/Fish/smallershelly.jpg

I'm thinking the fish blends a bit TOO much with the shell, but seeing as its a shell dweller, I kind of wanted the shell in the picture. Of all the shots I took, this was the best focus I could get.. BUT I finally figured out how to manually focus my camera, after all this time!

Did I sharpen the fish too much? He blended in so much I sharpened him a little and blurred the background. The magnetic lasso tool is also a lifesaver!

Here's the original pic, to compare my editing to:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/Myaj/Fish/smalleruneditedshelly.jpg

Now that I'm looking at it, I may have brightened his color too much, its hard to tell, he changes his color so much depending on if he's showing off.. Geez, now I'm seeing all kinds of stuff, the green line is an airline way in the back, theres some algae on the shell that's kind of distracting..

[Obliviou$]

You can make something good out of this one.
IMO the crop is to loose and there's to much noise.
I don't exactly know the colours of this shell dweller. The shell would have worked better if there was a great depht of focus.

Here my try, hope you don't mind.
It might be a bit to contrasty, but the main point is the crop and noise reduction.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v415/AlexChristensen/smallershelly.jpg

[Myaj]

Okay, I figured out RAW, my camera doesn't do that, though it does do TIFF.. is it worth it shooting in TIFF instead of .jpg, if I'm right at my computer to upload the bigger files?

[RazorBlade]

Without knowing the fish's true colour, I can't really comment on the colour.

Composition is ok - Oblivious' crop will give you more focus on the fish, but your crop would give you more 'background' to look at. Probably even give the fish a sense of 'smallness' or to convey to the observer that the fish is small.

On the shell - IMHO I don't think it's conveying the message it's a 'shell dweller'. I think Oblivious' comments on it being OOF is the reason. It's not distracting or anything - just not giving any message.

You definitely have a noise issue - I think you're shooting in high ISO, so that can't be avoided unless you get a flash or something.

[Myaj]

Well, I used the onboard flash with a piece of paper over it, and the tank is also pretty brightly lit. I never even checked what the camera took the picture at, I was just worrying about focusing... Let me look it up..

BTW, the camera isn't anything fancy, just a Sony Mavica 5.1 megapixel, bascially a "Cybershot" only it puts pic's on CD instead of a stick.

Lets see here...

Aperture F2.5, Shutter 1/125, ISO 400, yep, that would do it... Thanks for the suggestions, I'll remember that next time and get out my tripod, etc, see what i can do.

[paradise]

That is good info, but it only helps if we know what cam you are using :) Please fill out your profile for Camera. Different cams have different noise tolerances.

[Myaj]

That is good info, but it only helps if we know what cam you are using :) Please fill out your profile for Camera. Different cams have different noise tolerances.

Its a Sony MVC-CD500 (5.0 megapixel Mavica in other words). Like I said, nothing fancy.

[hir0]

wow, i'm impressed that you did that with a mavica. anyways, i agree that the crop could use some work. but that is a beautiful fish - and the shot is nice and clean.