Fish Identification?!

[Chuck Tribolet]

Very nice picture. What were the camera settings?

There's a FireFox plugin called FxIF that will put the camera settings (and all the other
EXIF data) in the properties of a picture. Net:

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon PowerShot A710 IS
Image Date: 2008:03:22 14:11:10
Flash Used: Yes (Auto)
Focal Length: 5.8mm
CCD Width: 1.45mm
Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/2.8
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix

Note to photographer: I suspect you could have been stopped down a few stops
and still gotten the picture. There would have been more depth of field, and the
lens would be sharper (most lenses are sharpest stopped down about three stops,
and very gradually degrade from there, slowly enough that the decreased depth
of field is more important than the decreased sharpness at perfect focus. And they
are at their most abysmal (ESP. the cheap ones) wide open.

I do almost all my macro photography at f/38.

 

[sarita75]

There is the original photo.

I have been shooting completely auto recently. I am a very novice photographer at this point and am looking forward to some more calm conditions to experiment more. Thanks for the advice CT.

 

[opisthobranch]

Not sure if srcaldiver's question was about my picture or Sara's. Mine was shot with at ISO 100, f13, 1/250th with a Nikon D200 and my 2 Sea and Sea YS350 strobes set at half power.

With my image depth of field is a bit of a problem as the focus is on the scales closest to the camera and the eye is just every so slightly out of focus. I was definitely quite unhappy when I looked at the shot at full res on the computer and saw that the eye was out of focus. Oh well. A good case could be made for stopping down but then I would have had to use full power on the strobes. If I'd done that I probably wouldn't have gotten the shot as the fish was moving around and I would have had to wait for the strobes to recycle between each shot. That's 4 seconds for a full dump. Alternatively I could have used ISO 200 or even 400 but I like the creamy smooth tonalities I get at ISO 100. ISO 200, while nice enough, just doesn't have the same impact. The other problem was that I had been shooting nudibranchs when I noticed the fish and changing the f-stop was faster than changing the strobe power or ISO and I needed to get the shot before the fish moved from it's easily accessible position. No free lunch I guess.

I hardly ever shoot macro stopped down below f22. Even at f22 the diffraction effects are enough that the overall softness of the images bothers me. Chuck is shooting 35mm film which is larger than the sensor on my D200 so he can stop down a little more before diffraction is too much of a problem though f38 seems a bit much for my taste. I also like the out of focus backgrounds. Depending on what speed film he uses lighting might be be an issue for a shot like mine as I was far enough away that even Chuck's dual SB104s would have had trouble lighting the fish at f38.

Of course very little of this matters for a point and shoot camera with a built-in strobe which has far fewer options for manual adjustment, and of course far fewer ways to screw up. :tongue:

$.02

Clinton

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I'm shooting ISO 100 film.
The SB-104s have a guide number of 56 feet each, so 78 for two of them. That makes f/38 good
out to about two feet. I'm shooting a 50 mm macro lens with a doubler.

 

[wdunne311]

It's definitely a baby Jaguar Shark of the Beehsukus Ofbraducus. I'm going to email the picture my friend Zissou. He'll probably confirm it for you.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Hi Sarah,

Here is a quick video I took at Break Water, I believe this might be the same fish you took a picture of. Take a look at how small he is as I place my finger next to him.

Also take a look at the end of the video, there is a unique shrimp that has adapted to his surroundings; when he attaches himself to the kelp he blends so perfectly.

View My Video

MG

 

[opisthobranch]

Hi Mike,

Yep, the fish in the beginning of your video, like Sarah's, is a Kelpfish of the genus Gibbonsia.

Cheers,

Clinton