Marco Collection Part I. (56k go make lunch)

[SP Aquatics]

All pics taken with digital rebel with 100mm macro lens, 2 or 3 taken with stocker lens. I hit the auto levels button in photoshop on a bunch of the pics, but not all, other than that no editing done. All were taken in the fish side of the shop.

I made a little underwater acrylic cover for good top down shots, i love it so far, however its very difficult to take good pics with one hand holding camera and other holding the box in the water. Add to this the fairly large 100mm lens and my hand has some serious cramps in it haha.

Enjoy!

This one reminds me of a helicopter look down on a city

 

[SP Aquatics]

This one will make the eyes hurt

 

[MarineTeng]

these are really nice shots, i need to get one of these boxes to take some pictures that way

 

[edwing206]

Wow, those pictures are great!

 

[tike]

love the red blastos! How long have you had them?

 

[SP Aquatics]

around a year now, alot of these are the larger colonies we frag off of for customers

 

[Krish]

Greta shots! Thanks for sharing!

 

[danno14]

Very cool!

 

[SP Aquatics]

thanks, there will be a part II here in a few weeks

 

[Anthony Calfo]

cheers Sean (and to all... I was asked to come over and share an opinion/critique... please note I'm not being randomly critical )

OK... some very nice shots overall indeed. And without getting too picky, let me say that the Montipora trio and the trio of zoanthids that followed the first pink zoanthid shot (not so good) were all superb images. I'd print them untouched in my mag if they were mine or one of my photogs (for perspective).

Constructive criticism:

- flash... the standout problem here (at least in these images). Ironically, you have a problem that most folks do not have: too much light. Or rather, its too harsh in some obvious places. It looks to me like your flash is fixed or (if off camera on a cord) being held too close. You need to get that flash further off the body and allow it more space to diffuse. If/until you do this (rather hard too for macro shots over water unless you have a helper holding the flash)... you have another unique situation in your shop and the store that you have A LOT of overhead light. If you use a tripod more (or bracing for over the tank shots) you can skip the flash and slow down the shutter speed and get more natural looking lighting/shading (not so harsh... you are losing too much detail in many of these pics).

Since Ive seen your working space as well as looking at these shots, I'd further estimate you could stop up (reduce your Aperture... as in "bigger F-stop numbers") in most of these situations and get a far greater (better IMO) depth of field for these compositions.

There are other ways to finesse the excess or harsh light issue. Your external flash has a small diffuser plate. Not that great but it helps. Some folks tape/drape a thin tissue or two over the flash to soften it. There are devices to buy as well to diffuse or bounce/reflect light more softly.

But the overall message (to recap) here is to reduce your aperture (get more depth of field) and diffuse the light more.

kindly, Anth-

 

[SP Aquatics]

highly appreciated, always nice to hear from a pro. I knew i needed to reduce the aperture, but was faced with blurred pics due to slowed shutter speed from holding the camera. I will have to see if i can rig some kind of tripod up to help out.