Playin' round with underexposure

[cee]

-1/2 to -1 stop on these with my son's D80, no postprocessing, straight out of the camera. Do you like the dark background? I think it brings out the corals better.

Sunset montipora and Acropora lokani

Dendro, excuse the coralline algae

Atlantis meteor cyphastrea, wish I could remove the rock to frag

The mille and its buddy, I really like this shot!

Dave

 

[imsqueak]

I like #4 the best but it's the least of the dark background. For the dark background effect, I like #3 the best but the far end of the coral is blurred. If the whole coral was in focus and still had the dark background it would have taken #1.

 

[cee]

I intentionally left the aperture as wide open as possible to reduce the depth of field and achieve the "creative effects". By letting in more light and underexposing, I was able to get decently fast shutter speeds (notice minimal polyp blur on the dendro, even though it is in a high flow area). However, I still used a tripod. My son's camera is amazing, and I think I know what my next big purchase is going to be! All were shot on full manual mode. But I agree, Don, I like #4 best!

 

[cee]

PS, I think I found the topic for the meeting at my house. After several years, I think I'm finally getting a handle on reef photography, However, constructive criticism is certainly welcome and encouraged! Thanks.

Dave

 

[imsqueak]

Where's Julie when we need her?

 

[cee]

She sent us a Christmas card (thanks, Julie!), but that's the last I've heard from her.

 

[fishdoc11]

Nice pieces Dave

 

[vol_reefer]

I've also noticed that underexposing really seems to bring out the colors. Dave - here's a shot of the colony (a. navini?) you got the frag off of from our trade last month. The shot was significantly underexposed (nearly black in the uncorrected image) and then autocorrected for brightness and contrast in PS Elements.

The colors are really all there, but when you're looking at it with the naked eye, they are significantly more subtle.

Jeff (vol_reefer)

 

[cee]

Looks good, Jeff! My frag got stung by an LPS and is no more. Hope yours is doing well!

Dave