Originally Posted by
Cotterik
It really is underexposed, its terribly dark and gloomy. Maybe the ISO setting was wrong. Either way, a photo like that would benefit from using flash or external lighting and maybe then it'd be the winner. Because it does have the potential because of its composition.
I don't think that's right, it's only a touch underexposed to me. And I'm assuimg it was taken outside in sunlight, rarely a time to go upping ISO when youi've usually got stacks of exposure to play with.
Originally Posted by
Cotterik
On the other hand Speedy's shot is vibrant and sharp.
Not every shot has to come out of the camera sharpened and saturated to buggery, as seems to be the preference these days. And as for sharpness, I think Merril's shot appears less sharp as a result of resizing rather than being out of focus.
Originally Posted by
Cotterik
The depth of field is used well also. I know how hard it is to get a good shot of a clownfish when not using an underwater kit. The glass distorts the view of the fish and they never seem to give you the right opportunity to get a good perspective of them. But its done really well. Its clear and lighting is next to perfect. I can say all of this from a completely unbiased view. If the rest of the voters could look at all of these points then the voting would be made with more knowledge of what makes a good photo.
That's all well and good (in fact, reminds of shooting gigs, not the glass distortion bit, the moving about bit) but in the end, it's just a picture of a fish. I could climb up the side of the cliff, hang off and capture a technically brilliant shot of something boring, but in the end, if the subject is boring and the pic doesn't do anything special (ie use clever composition etc to make something out of the ordinary and create a view of something you wouldn't otherwise see, like Merril has done) then it's still a boring shot that won't do anything for people.
(I'm sorry Speedy, I'm not hating on your shot, just disagreeing with Cotterik's obviously expert opinion)
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