First crack at underwater photography...how did I do?

[JDMerk]

Key Largo, FL
DEC 2008
SeaLife Reefmaster
~30ft

 

[BTravlin]

Very nice and certainly better than my first time out.

 

[jagfish]

I like your first subject....

 

[alcina]

Looking good!

Nice selection of creatures

 

[JDMerk]

I like your first subject....

Yea the first picture is my favorite out of everything I took, it my desktop background...LOL

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Pretty nice. What camera/housing were you using?

Sean

 

[Tigerman]

I really liked the two first shots. Only pics i got of rays is stationary (yes, im jealous right now).
Have you done any post-processing? (Lightroom/Photoshop or similar)

 

[JDMerk]

I was using a SeaLife Reefmaster mini, im very pleased with it. It takes better pictures than I had expected.

Yes I did touch them up very briefly in photoshop, just adjusted the levels and colors a bit...nothing major.

 

[Tigerman]

The 2nd one could use a bit of noice reduction other than that its REALLY cool. Problem is the "built-in" noice filter in PS isnt all that great. I found Imagenomic Noiseware Professional to do a REAL good job at reducing noice without messing too much with details. For example it can remove red color noice, like the one you have some of on the 2nd picture without touching other colors

As far as post-processing goes Adobe Light Room is a very nice program, but seeing as the reefmaster only shoot jpg (as far as ive found) you dont have the best starting point to post-process from anyways.

The pictures are good for a cheap 6mpx p&s though and the composition is quite good too.

Edit: The first two pictures is the kind of pictures Id personally do whatever I could to make as good as possible as I get more and more jealous the more I look at them. Why cant I find rays that want to have their picture taken like that...

 

[deeper thoughts]

very nice