My new monitor arrived and it is a pleasure to use. Sharpness and color accuracy are unbelievable. I just finished editing some photos that I took of a few residents of my reef tank. This is an algae blenny that has a lot of personality plus some amazing cryptic coloration. I cropped about 50% to get the comp and close-up to where I wanted it. The purple covering on the rocks is a type of red algae that serves to stabilize the reef and also attracts coral. The algae blenny grazes on algae and enjoys various frozen fish foods.
Thank you @Shirley_Freeman@Kris_Smith , @Diane_Miller , @linda_mellor for your comments and critiques. I reposted the image with the recommended edits. I cropped off the top and a little off the left and burned the bright portion of the rock in the LRH side. Looks pretty good. Thank you @Diane_Miller and @Shirley_Freeman for the suggested edits…Jim
Specific Feedback Requested:
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Z9 105mm f2.8 micro (1/200 sec at f16, iso=800, 2 flashes set at +1.3 ev (TTl) and 1/32 manual). Levels, crop foir comp, Topaz DeNoise, Hue and Saturation, Rubber stamp tool for bubble removal, burned in some light spots in the BG.
Thank you. The colors are nice and tame with the new monitor. The blenny is fairly elongate with a long dorsal fin. They are very cute fish that behave like rabbits when they graze on algal films…Jim
Wonderful and unusual (to me, anyway) capture! Looks like an amazing aquarium! For my taste, I could lose some of the negative space on top, just because of how busy the bottom half is. I’d be tempted to subdue the bright busy area in the LR corner and the OOF algae at the left edge.
What a little cutie. I kept various freshwater aquaria for a long time, but never dipped my toe into saltwater or the even more specialized reef tank. Fabulous. I understand the negative space to illustrate the habitat a bit more; cranny loving critters that need to hide. But to showcase the blenny itself, maybe a little crop as Diane suggests. The colors do look really good as your new monitor shows. It’s tough to get the lighting right with aquaria and even harder to photograph it well. Keep 'em coming!
What an amazing fish and shot, Jim. Looking at your shots feels like we are underwater somewhere out at sea. So glad the monitor has worked out for you too. I have a Dell that was factory calibrated, and I love it. Never have to do anything to it.
I love the new crop – makes me feel much more comfortable in the frame, like I’m right in there with the little fish. And he’s making such good eye contact with me! We could sit down and have a conversation…
Hi Jim,
Edit: I meant to ask about the micro designation but I forgot to actually ask (it was a senior moment I guess). Since I posted this I did a little research to figure out why it has the “Micro” designation. It looks like a good, affordable lens with lots of good qualities.
I like the shot and the subject.
I like both versions, the original shows a little more depth in my opinion while the second version brings the algae blenny in a little closer, they both look great to me.
I also like how the algae blenny blends into it’s environment so well and the color contrasts set it off.
What brand and model is your new monitor?
I’m in the process of searching for new monitors because I need to update both of them soon, they are both cheap, old and don’t match in terms of color or sharpness.
Thank you for the critique. I recently purchased an Eizo CS2740 which is a 4k high gamut monitor. Color accuracy is excellent and images are very sharp. I built my computer a while ago and my 6Gb video card handles my old and the new monitor perfectly. I have experienced no issues with Windows and Photoshop along with NX Studio and Lightroom work well with the higher resolution and with no problems. I use an Xrite i1 Display for calibration with Color Navigator 7.0. Hope that helps…Jim
Thanks, Jim
That is a really nice monitor!
I’m not too concerned about my computer and video card not having enough power and memory to handle two high resolution monitors, my computer has the i7-8700K CPU and NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti GPU, GPU memory is 24GB, dedicated GPU 8GB, shared memory 16GB. Admittedly, I’m not very savvy when it comes to deep technical details, all I really know is that it has what I need for photography and videography using two monitors. I also use Autodesk CAD modeling software so I bought a good gaming computer and added a few things, I’m not a gamer but a gaming computer works pretty well for other things IMHO.
One of the commercial ink companies I work for has a good monitor calibration tool similar to what yours is so I just borrow theirs when needed.
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my question about the monitor, I may have to wait for a couple of months on the monitors though, the camera and lens investment was just about all my budget could stand for this year.
