Green Eyes for Halloween

Leptoseris is a genus of large polyp stony corals from the South Pacific. This one is called the Halloween Leptoseris because the green polyp mouth regions glow and resemble the eyes of some imagined night creature peering out of the darkness.

I used a 105mm macro lens with a 1.4x teleconverter for magnification. The coral was photographed through the glass and illuminated with a main flash set at TTL 0 compensation and SB-R200 flashes set at -1 compensation. Room lights were off to reduce reflections from the aquarium glass. 10 images were stacked and I selectively cropped 50% from the frame for this comp. After setting levels, I tweaked up the saturation of blue, cyan, and green to replicate the LED lighting in the aquarium. I burned the BG and increased the shadows in the final step. Thanks for looking.

That is so cool and a bit creepy, Jim. It looks electrified. This is really something different and I am intrigued by it. Nicely seen.

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Jim, the details as well as the flowy patterns are stunning! Those green nodes are fascinating, with all those ridges emanating from them. At first I thought this was the underside of a sea anenome. Congrats on getting the lighting and flash settings.

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Jim, you are a master at using flash to capture images in the aquarium. I really am enjoying everything about this coral. The lines, shapes, colors, all of it is just amazing. Thank you for sharing an image of something I would otherwise never get to see. :+1: :+1:

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This is awesome and beautiful, with gorgeous detail! The work paid off so well!

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Thank you @David_Bostock,m @Mark_Muller, @Diane_Miller, and @Shirley_Freeman for your comments. Also, Thank you for the EP. I try to do something different and this is a first step for something better. Blue and UV wavelengths of light penetrate the deepest when moving through water. And many corals have color pigments that fluoresce when exposed to the high energy wavelengths of light. So, my next step is to use violet and or blue filters on the flashes with a yellow filter on the lens. Hopefully, I will be able to capture the glow in the coral tissue…Jim

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