Fish and leaves

[Trailerman]

I tried to capture (didnt use the word shoot, or shot due to another posters pet peeve ) some baby goldfish swimming in one of my homemade ponds.
Im also adding a photo of some leaves on a japanese holly that I took. I was trying to get the foreground leaves in focus while blurring out everything behind them.
They turned out ok, but they dont jump out at you.
Suggestions to make this type of photo jump out would be greatly appreciated.
If it was film and I was in the dark room, I could have almost made those fish 3-D.
This digital is working me.

[OsmosisStudios]

What is the EXIF data for these images? This includes stuff like Shutterspeed, Aperture, ISO, focal length, lens, etc. That'll help significantly in us giving you ideas and solutions.

[windrider86]

To me, the first one is a wash. Just too dark and the fish are just too out of focus. sorry.
The second one however, has a lot of potential. Not sure what programming you are using but by using your adjustment layers and boosting the contrast a tad and/or adjusting your levels this could really pop. Always use adjustment layers, that way if there are areas you dont like all you have to do is take your paint brush and paint black over that area and the underlying area will show thru.
You may also want to do a slight noise removal as it is a tiny bit grainy. If that softens it up too much then go into unsharp mask and play with the settings until you get the clarity you are looking for.

[Trailerman]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

What is the EXIF data for these images? This includes stuff like Shutterspeed, Aperture, ISO, focal length, lens, etc. That'll help significantly in us giving you ideas and solutions.

I should have posted that.
I will when I get back home from work. Dont have the info here.

[Trailerman]

Windrider,
Thanks, thats exactly the feedback Im looking for.
at this point, I have not altered the photos at all, they are just as they came from the camera downloaded in JPG instead of RAW.
I have a couple programs for editing, the one I play with the most is GIMP.

I wanted to present these as they are to see if there were suggetions for getting a better pre-fixing image.
I assume that just like with film, the higher quality you start with,The better quality you can end up with. So right now, Im investing more time trying to get a "decent" real shot before I try playing with the changes.. Does that make any sense?

[windrider86]

It does, fish are tough to get good photos of. especially in a situation like yours. I speak from expierence cause I have a pond in my back yard that I am always trying to get shots of my fishies. I'm forever throwing food in and trying to get an image of them eating. Soi far it hasnt worked.lol
A tripod is very helpful as well as getting in closer.You'll want a faster shutter speed since the lil buggers are always moving around.
The leaf in yours is exposed right but its messing with getting the exposure right with the darker waters. May want to leave it out all together.

[jiminyClickit]

trailerman, Welcome

With your holly, there is more you can do to get better light in camera. For your PP, though, I'd suggest rotating, even though this was probably how the leaves grew, to show them pointing down. A crop will allow more attention to be given them, and to add the room on the top (now the left) that gives a better subject position. I lightened the leaves so detail would show, and added a lightening vignette to further feature the dark green.



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The crop is to show your titled subject - fish - and to eliminate all that blank water and extra foliage. I lightened lower right so the bottom could be seen, and to suggest deep darkness in upper left (even if the pool is the same depth). On a separate layer a copy is saturated and contrasted some, to get green into the leaves and bright orange for the fish.



Both of these I would suggest reshooting until you get something closer to what you envisioned.

[Trailerman]

jiminyClickit
turning the leaves made a big difference, I really appreciate seeing what people are talking about doing to the photos.
I agree with the fish, I have two problems
1) I need to work on the settings for the light
2) they will not get with the program and stop moving so I can catch them. Perhaps some sort of sedative in the water??? (just kidding)

I have a red bud that just went to bloom, I was going to try and work with that today but got caught up getting the trailer ready for a pull next week.
I hope to get the Red bud tomorrow, and in the next week or so my dogwoods should be opening up.
Im also going to go look for a 70 ~ 300 lens maybe sometime this weekend. I really want it for next weeks trip. (Bush Gardens in Williamsburg VA) seems like the perfect place to set up a tripod for some time exposures.

I plan to post some of the pictures here so, if you are all willing you will tell me what I should have, or could have done to improve the outcome. Still think Ill stay away from editing for the time being until I get the actual picture down.

[jiminyClickit]

Trailerman,

If beginner is 1 and lifetime expert is 10, I might be about a two, so mostly I do turn words into pictures, and if they inspire different ideas, I feel successful! The moving subject is one time an edit will help out a lot. Making one exposure for the fish and water, then a second for the foliage and darker water, would allow you to combine the best of each. Better, safer than Valium.

Bush Gardens (or a zoo or aquarium) sounds like Paradise to me, as a Renaissance festival is the only public display I've been to. You should gain a ton of experience there in VA. I'll add whatever may be helpful from the composition and framing perspective, gladly. Good decision about getting the camera work solid first. Some minor changes are helpful now (rotate, crop, lighten/darken, white balance), saving the more major changes in PP for fun and games later.