This one is still a work in progress as the dive site was quite murky and there was an awful lot of back scatter from the flash. I am spending a lot of time removing this. I have had it printed and none of the current specks show up apart from the couple on the caudal fin that I still need to sort out but they are a bit trickier. I have a couple of different angles too including an almost head on (in the photoshop queue!).
I've tried messing around in CS2 on this image - crikey there really is a lot of 'crud' in the water - ever likely there's back-scatter from the flash!
Using S/H adjust can make the old boy look a bit better but brings out the sediment in the water to an unacceptable level, and I couldn't hold on to the contrast in the tips of the dorsal spines and pectoral fins - and to be truthfull the result I ended up with wasn't really much different from your post.
What might be worth a try is luminosity masking in conjunction with what's already been done - see http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminositymasks/luminositymasks-1.html - if you can get your head around it you'll be one up on yours truely
Thanks Andy, I might give it a go when I get the time. Truth is though, none of the crud shows up on a print. I had some sent away to get properly printed and the background just comes out as jet black and looking great. So it may not be an image good for the web but for prints it is fine
nice shot of a very colourful critter. Why not just paint the background black? you'd have to be careful around the edges but the crud doesn't show up too much in front of the fish so just makin the background completly black would probably help
where did you take this? if it was a place where they are not common then this might be worth all the work, but, and i don't seem to be negative at all, but lionfish are quite common, and very approachable, so it might be worth getting your backscatter control sorted out with another go at the subject than spending hours on this image. backscatter is not that hard to control and will save you hours in the future.
Hi Mark - yes you are right, it's a lot of time but the end result of the print was worth it I don't see myself been able to visit tropical regions (esp the Philippines where I took this) for some while now so I am happy to work on these when I get the chance. The only reason for all this backscatter were the atrocious conditions on the very last dive I did where I had the idea of narrowing the aperture to darken the background. I'll get it next time in clear water
Discussion
5 repliesCanon powershot A620, 1/60s, F5.6, flash.
I've tried messing around in CS2 on this image - crikey there really is a lot of 'crud' in the water - ever likely there's back-scatter from the flash!
Using S/H adjust can make the old boy look a bit better but brings out the sediment in the water to an unacceptable level, and I couldn't hold on to the contrast in the tips of the dorsal spines and pectoral fins - and to be truthfull the result I ended up with wasn't really much different from your post.
What might be worth a try is luminosity masking in conjunction with what's already been done - see http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminositymasks/luminositymasks-1.html - if you can get your head around it you'll be one up on yours truely
Graham
hi matt,
where did you take this? if it was a place where they are not common then this might be worth all the work, but, and i don't seem to be negative at all, but lionfish are quite common, and very approachable, so it might be worth getting your backscatter control sorted out with another go at the subject than spending hours on this image. backscatter is not that hard to control and will save you hours in the future.
mark