Ben's (Class Clown) 240G Photo thread

[Blazer88]

I had the pleasure to check out Ben's tank last Friday and snap a "few" (meaning like 300) shots. I missed his BBQ back in August and I was happy to finally check out this monster of a tank. He did an awesome job on the build and everything looks happy and healthy! This first batch of photo's are just some of the fish. I'll post more shots (corals and full-tank shots) later as I get time to edit them up. I'm sure the question will come up; I use a Canon 30D and a mix of lenses (EF-S 17-55 F/2.8 IS, EF-S 60mm F/2.8 Macro, Sigma 150mm F/2.8 Macro). Enjoy!

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[Blazer88]

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[Blazer88]

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[Blazer88]

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[class clown]

he he.. so fun to see! I think I may order up a couple larger prints for my office too. Thanks again - the pictures look so beautiful!

 

[Blazer88]

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[Blazer88]

he he.. so fun to see! I think I may order up a couple larger prints for my office too. Thanks again - the pictures look so beautiful!

You let me know which ones you want as I have all of the full-resolution shots. I would get the prints done at Costco, I have used them in the past for prints and they turned out excellent. I still have TONS more pictures to edit, lol. Don't start picking out the ones you want quite yet

 

[krisfal]

Blazer88,
Beautiful pictures once again! You are right about Ben's fish being happy just look at the smile on the face of the hippo in photo number 2

My son is an aspiring (starving) photographer. He is using a nikon D50? I believe. I recently bought him a macro lens and showed him your pictures and said "I want some shots like that" he goes by the handle "tuldas" on flicker.

How much editing do you do after taking the shot? What program do you use for editing? I believe my son is using lighthouse? or something like that. I am still trying to master photoshop.

I hope to get my own digital SLR some day, I think I will be looking at Pentax as I have a pentax 35mm SLR with some nice lenses and would like to be able to use those lenses.

 

[Krish]

Amazing photos as always man...

 

[Elmo18]

Awesome shots Rick.

Let us know the equipment... Canon Eos 30D, but with what lenses?

Best,
Ilham

 

[edwing206]

Awesome shots! My favorite is #7.
Ilham, look in first post. Right before the first picture.

 

[roscoe]

wow thats all I can say is wow!!!!!! Hey steven11 if you see these pics I'm sorry man I can't take pics like that. This really inspire me to really invest in a good macro lens for my nikon d40 now!!!!!

 

[steven11]

I love pic number 10 of the blenny cannon!

 

[NC2WA]

Blazer88,

What program are you using to edit your photos?

 

[Elmo18]

Awesome shots! My favorite is #7.
Ilham, look in first post. Right before the first picture.

Alright, I am getting old. Hah.

Best,
Ilham

 

[Blazer88]

Thanks for all of the kind comments guys. My editing can be pretty extensive depending on the initial shot. There are a few things that you have to get right when you hit the shutter no matter how good your photoshop skills are. Composition is something that I'm working on as having everything directly centered in the frame can get quite boring. But I use Adobe Lightroom to process my RAW files and then export into Photoshop CS3 for the final touches. I'll be happy to post a few before and after shots if people are curious to see how much editing I do. But here is the next batch of photos.

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[Jan]

Beautiful photos!

What is that in photo #26?

Rick, I would be fascinated to see a few "before and after" pics, maybe even some "half-way done" pics (after Adobe Lightroom but before Photoshop).

 

[Blazer88]

#26 looks like a brain coral to me. But here is a quick example of the workflow for that shot. The original full-frame shot from the camera has about a million white specs which don't show up once it was resized, those specs are always a pain to clone out. From Lightroom, I adjust the white balance, tint, minor exposure if needed, and curves before I export to CS3. This shot didn't need too much adjustment so the difference isn't huge there. The last shot is the final from CS3 before I put the border on it. I generally use a black paint brush to get rid of anything that I don't want in the scene and to isolate things that I want to. I thought this coral would look good against an all-black background so I went at it. I also had to add a bit of the snail shell since that was cut from the original frame.

 

[class clown]

wowwaa wooey! so neat to see the before, mid, and after shots. It really did make a big difference. The black background is a nice secret to share - I can see that It really helps to drive the focus of the viewer to the particular coral/fish that you're trying to capture. neat.

Jan - the red blob in #26 there is a "red lobo brain" sometimes if you catch it at the right angle, you can see it has two pretty neat green mouths too.

 

[Jan]

It's very cool. Thanks for sharing your process, Rick. Question...how did you know what kind of color adjustment you needed to do prior to imput into Photoshop? What I mean is, frame #2 shows more yellow/less red/generally lighter color saturation compared to the original in frame #1. Was the decision to make those changes just based on your memory of how it looked in the tank and your own judgement as to how to best represent that?

The other thing that jumps out at me is the additional contrast and clarity of the pixels (if I'm using the right language) in frame #3...it's like the difference between regular t.v. and high definition t.v., you know? So does that part come from Photoshop? I love it.