What technical feedback would you like if any? Color balance OK–I used flash to overcome the 20,000K LED lighting in the tank
What artistic feedback would you like if any? I selectively cropped this to 8x10 to remove an oof zoanthid in the upper rh side.
Pertinent technical details or techniques: D500 105mm bellows lens on bellows (1/50 sec,ISO 800 3 flashes set at TTL), 3 image stack PMax, Levels, Topaz DeNoise AI, Topaz Adjust, Plus bump in yellow and red saturation, Brightness & Contrast. These are soft corals that form a mat on rock or dead coral and are found in fairly deep water. Taxonomy is poor and most are known by the colors of the disk and tentacles. Enjoy…Jim
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
jameszablotny
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Jim, I am enjoying this image very much. I’m not familiar with these corals, but for one who can’t swim, and so never go below the surface of the water, this is quite enjoyable. At first glance, I thought I was looking at sunflowers! Amazing what does grow below the water. It is a whole other world it seems. Thank you for sharing this. No nits here.
Jim an outstanding view into your reef tank! The details are terrific. I do think the colors may be slightly oversaturated (with the greens having that extra “glow” that I associate with over saturation), but since I’ve never seen anything like this in the wild, I could be wrong.
Great colors and shapes in this finely abstract image. Maybe clone the bright green coming in from the right edge below center, but no other suggestions. Looks really good.
Jim: Wonderful subjects and a great capture. I’m curious about the scale considering your rig. Really good lighting as well. Superbly crafted image.>=))>
Thank you all for your comments and critiques. Bill, I could have easily used my 105mm micro for this, but the working distance is too far from the aquarium glass and reflections can be a problem. A polarizing filter may work, but loss of light can be a major problem with this type of photography. Each polyp ranges in size from 3/8ths to 1/2 inches in diameter so we were just over 1:1 in magnification. The nice thing about these bellows is that I can snug up the objective party of the lens up to the glass and do not have to worry about back scatter when the flashes fire. …Jim
