Reef Bass
colors and textures
I'm not happy with this pic. What started out as an ok idea I think has tanked due to botched execution. I'm looking for confirmation that my perception of the issues is accurate and suggestions for handling specific situations.
I think I need to reshoot the image before I'll be happy with it but I haven't been able to train my hermit to scale vertical surfaces on command yet, so I might be outta luck.
The concept / goal - good looking hermit facing camera climbing vertical wall composed by rule of thirds with pleasing softly focused coraline background.
First problem - composition. I think I shot the whole thing too tight. My rule of thirds horizontally is now a suggestion of halves. This image is 80%+ of the original shot, with overexposed rock on the left being most of what was cropped out. Also, I think the hermit should be "rule of thirds" vertically, say upper left, which would give a stronger impression of the vertical surface.
Exposure - I think I overly darkened highlights and the image is too flat / dull as a result. The highlights of the left hand portion were doing their best to blow / burn. I should have reduced the exposure to correct that. However, I would still like some detail / light underneath the hermit's shell, which seems like an opposing idea. How should one deal with that type of situation / condition?
Shutterspeed - I shot this at 1/50 which was not fast enough to freeze the rapidly moving red mouth parts. I should have gone faster. However, I was already getting uncomfortable with the ISO at 1250 and I didn't want to open up any more than f8 so I could get most of the front of the hermit in focus. Any options here other than bumping up the ISO or adding external lighting?
I'm just getting into histograms and color curves. This image has three strong distinct peaks in its histogram. I understand plotting the quantity of a color vertically against its brightness horizontally but am struggling with how to improve an image based on its histogram.
I think I need to reshoot the image before I'll be happy with it but I haven't been able to train my hermit to scale vertical surfaces on command yet, so I might be outta luck.
The concept / goal - good looking hermit facing camera climbing vertical wall composed by rule of thirds with pleasing softly focused coraline background.
First problem - composition. I think I shot the whole thing too tight. My rule of thirds horizontally is now a suggestion of halves. This image is 80%+ of the original shot, with overexposed rock on the left being most of what was cropped out. Also, I think the hermit should be "rule of thirds" vertically, say upper left, which would give a stronger impression of the vertical surface.
Exposure - I think I overly darkened highlights and the image is too flat / dull as a result. The highlights of the left hand portion were doing their best to blow / burn. I should have reduced the exposure to correct that. However, I would still like some detail / light underneath the hermit's shell, which seems like an opposing idea. How should one deal with that type of situation / condition?
Shutterspeed - I shot this at 1/50 which was not fast enough to freeze the rapidly moving red mouth parts. I should have gone faster. However, I was already getting uncomfortable with the ISO at 1250 and I didn't want to open up any more than f8 so I could get most of the front of the hermit in focus. Any options here other than bumping up the ISO or adding external lighting?
I'm just getting into histograms and color curves. This image has three strong distinct peaks in its histogram. I understand plotting the quantity of a color vertically against its brightness horizontally but am struggling with how to improve an image based on its histogram.
