how to improve quality of these pics?

[marke]

Just started taking coral photos, and just learned how to upload using photobucket. I am looking for pointer on how to increase quality. Also pics seem big how do I shrink a bit? I think I forgot to crop in photoshop. Any advice is helpful. thanks.

 

[luvmylo]

that oregon tort is throwing things way off. You should just send it to me.

 

[Reef Bass]

You're off to a good start.

Yes, crop and resize in Photoshop. They are different. Resizing takes the whole image and changes its size. Cropping discards part of the image.

Exposure looks pretty good overall though a bit hot in some areas. Maybe dial it down -1/3 or -2/3.

De-icing (removing marine snow) would help a lot. Avoid center composition.

For macro shots I like to get lost visually in a section of the piece, versus seeing a "catalog shot" of the entire specimen.

Hope that helps.

 

[marke]

Good feedback on exposure, noncentering, and deicing. Is deicing a photoshop option? And no to the tort wanter, get back to me in a year for a frag hopefully.

 

[Reef Bass]

To be thorough, there are dust removal filters which will automatically remove many small specks. They tend to also remove detail and enhance noise. I find it best to remove the marine snow manually with either the clone brush or healing brush. It's fairly tedious but makes a big difference in how the pic looks and feels. Do it enough and you'll be sure to turn your pumps off and let stuff settle a bit before taking pics. That also gives polyps a few minutes to extend which usually makes for better pics too.

 

[marke]

thanks again! need to shut off pumps. that can be a pain but looks worth it. And using the brush to clean up. thanks. Another question: do you adjust white bal or exposure first in photoshop, or does it matter?

 

[Reef Bass]

I shoot in RAW mode and then adjust the white balance in PS. It's much easier and more color accurate than custom white balances in the camera, imho.