Looking for Critique

[iluhcoh]

Hi - I am new to photography. I have been lurking around here for a while looking at all of your great pictures and thought maybe if I post some of mine you guys can telling what I am doing wrong.
TIA.
Lorrie

Shot with Canon Rebel XTI and 100 mm macro lens.

 

[edwing206]

Looks good.

 

[Blazer88]

What do you think can be improved on it? To me the color looks pretty flat and the image lacks contrast, possibly caused from the use of flash. You could clone out the white spots on the right side of the picture which are distracting. How much sharpening did you apply to the picture? 1/15 seems very slow to capture a fish, especially a tang.

 

[gregr]

To me the color looks pretty flat and the image lacks contrast

I think it looks great except for the spots on the left. The contrast and color look real to me, and I may be in the minority but I prefer real to too much contrast and color.
Welcome to RC Lorrie

 

[clippo]

colour and contrast look fine to me too... the plane of best focus is well placed on the eye of the fish but overall depth is very shallow.

 

[iluhcoh]

Thanks for the comments everyone.
I have read that when you photograph your tank you should turn the pumps off. The spots on the left are debris floating in the water. I guess I also need to learn to use Photoshop.
I don't understand the flat color comment. The colors are accurate. Thats is what exactly what my Sailfin looks like. Could someone clarify that?
I also think that the DOF is a little off.
Thanks.

 

[gregr]

As far as depth of field goes- I was impressed that you got the eyes and mouth in focus (not an easy thing to accomplish). For this kind of portrait that's great. Perhaps a teensy bit more depth of field would've helped get the eye a little sharper but you could sharpen it in Photoshop to achieve that because it is such a small amount off.
Because you had such a narrow depth of field the background is very soft and, in my opinion, perfect for this kind of shot- nothing to distract the viewer. Notice how when you look at the picture you are immediately drawn to the face/eye of the fish?

 

[Blazer88]

I viewed the pic on my laptop at work which tends to show colors washed out, sorry about that. I guess the only thing I would change is to remove the debris.

 

[livestockvendor]

NICE NICE