Recents shots from Bay of Pigs, Cuba

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

Hector1959 wrote:

Craig, I post here some of the close-up shots from Gallery Album "Bay of Pigs" (in next I'll focus in WA). I would appreciate your comments and critics (as well as other's)

Edits in LR (from JPG) NOT Cropped +9 contrast -24 shadows +5 clarity +5 dehaze +5 Saturation

Too bad you didn't leave some blank lines between shots. Makes it easier to comment in-line.

What should I have to do? put some space between photos? I' try to do it next time

I don't have much to say about this one. Basically a 'fish shot' I am a bit suspect of your processing settings as I think it leads to some harshness, but I am not familiar with your RAW files and what you can squeeze out of them. But in general, I've become very hesitant to use the Clarity slider. And since I don't have a Dehaze function, I'm not sure what it is doing.

This first photo, as some others, was edited from the JPG file. My card became corrupted and I had to use a Data recover program.

In the process, some files were lost.This is the original JPG photo not post-processed, just resezed to 1920 x+1280

Link to :gallery https://www.dpreview.com/galleries/4028300953/photos/3895258/dsc03173-lr-no-edit

Not post processed.

Edits in LR: Just cropped from RAW file

I think I like it uncropped better.

Edits in LR. Just cropped from the RAW file. Some adjustments might help

This is not bad, but I wonder if you had the diopter on? I'd like to see if sharper, but again I don't know if you've already got the maximum out of your camera here.

I find Christmas Tree worms to be sort of the mallard duck of underwater shooting. Relatively easy to find, flashy, but can be hard to get maximum detail out of it. In the shot above I'd try for a bit more contrast, possibly pull down the highlights too (to keep detail in the white tips).

I am almost sure I had the diopter on. Seeing the original I think I could not have get that close without the diopter. This photo had no processing, Just what LR adds when exporting to JPG

this was the original (resized):

RAW exported to JPG by LR. No other processing

And taking your suggestions this is a version with -80 highlights and +20 contrast

Processed as per Craig' s suggestion

Edits in LR Cropped +0.43 Exposure +9 contrast +5 clarity +4 dehaze +7 Saturation

Seems nice.

Edits in LR NOT Cropped +0.27 Exposure +10 contrast -38 shadows +5 clarity +4 Saturation some spots removed.

I don't like the composition here, with the bottom antenna cut off. Might be a good one to crop into the details.

Good remark. The camera should have pointed a little lower for better composition

Edits in LR: Just cropped from the RAW file. Some adjustment would help.

Edits in LR Cropped -78 Highlights +10 clarity +12 dehaze +7 Saturation

Edits in LR Cropped +1.36 Exposure -12 Highlights -49 shadows +46 blacks +9 clarity +4 dehaze +12 Saturation

Possibly the best of the bunch, though I'd like a lower angle. This spinyhead blenny is a tough subject to capture without blowing out the face, not to mention getting a shot in focus in what is usually a lot of current surge.

Your comments shows me how much I need to improve my perception of a good photo. I was not sure to upload the first 2 of these 3 and hesitant about the blenny. I loved this blenny, the composition, the shadows, the color/tint of its surroundings so I decided to uploaded besides my perception that is somewhat out of focus (eyes are not bright enough).

The first 2 are small portions of the original. Very cropped. They were a TRY of your suggestion that I should crop more (and more). The first of 3 (Damisela (Stegastes planifrons) is not even post processed, just RAW cropped and exported JPG by LR.

Edits in LR Cropped +0.66 exposure +13 contrast -7 highlights +9 clarity +13 dehaze

Edits in LR. Cropped (a very small portion of the original) +9 clarity +26 dehaze

I'm not keep on shots where you are looking down on fish. Also, on this last one, pay attention to the harshness of the background coral. It looks like some highlight reduction might help there. This is also a type of look I see when clarity gets pushed up.

In the first of this 2 photos I was shooting small critters on the cask of a sunken boat, and this fish swam by and I shot it. The background is the coral covered side of the boat.

For the second I was not even looking for this shot. The fish came to "eat' my finger (cropped from photo)  and I try to shoot it eating but I could not. It was first a no-keep but then I explored the option of a crop.

This a new version of this photo with -50 HL, +5 Contrast + 5 Sat. What do you think?

I'm interested in your techniques for white balance. On the above, I would have tried an eyedropped tool on both a white coral speck and the black eye portion.

I really do not white balance the shots when I use the strobes, what is mostly the case in close-up.  And even for WA, if I dislike the color of water I use more the HSL  hue eyedrop and move till  I get what I want. It normally makes the aqua and blue slider to move.

For shots where no strobes are used, I tend to find a neutral color in image for the eyedropper. In the photos with my buddy diver and wreck I turned strobes off, about 20 m deep. Then, I tried to white balance. I first pointed the eyedropper on the gray of the Z-240 strobes but I did not liked the result. But I took it as as base and then play with temp and tint sliders to find something closer to I was looking for.  In fact I was not doing here a perfect WB but looking for a look of my liking.