DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 
Challenge Entries
Portfolio Images
This image is not part of a public portfolio.
Room with a view
Room with a view
KiwiChris


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Transparency II (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Canon EOS-20D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
Location: Friends workshop, Springston, Canterbury.
Date: Oct 29, 2005
Aperture: F/7.1
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/160
Galleries: Animals
Date Uploaded: Oct 30, 2005

 Well, one of those pictures is worth a thousand words photos...

I took this at a friends house, who runs a business maintaining ponds and tropical fish aquariums.

The fish is a parrot fish, which is a hybrid breed that itself cannot generlly breed, or so I'm told. :-).

The photo was taken in a light tent, on the bench in his workshop. I'll post a pic of the setup after the challenge, along with my 'test' outake using a plastic fish that looked sooooo much better than this.

The fish wasn't as bright as I wanted, and the water tinted orange from his reflection. My white paper backdrop got crumpled in the car so I had to do quite a bit of editing to get it solid white again.

There was a dark reflection down the front of the glass from the opening in the light tent, and I forgot to bring the 'flap' to velcro into the gap...

Anyway, editing was in the gimp:
- Slight rotation,
- Levels/curves/levels/curves select background, levels curves, manually edit mask for background, levels.... You get the idea. It was pretty close to white to start with, but because the subject was so light it had to be done selectively.
- Select the fish, USM to bring out scale detail, sauration boost.
- Select the 'darker' reflection on the glass and tint white slightly to make it less obvious.
- Spot edited some droplets off the glass rim
- Scaled, sharpened, saved for web..
- Phew.

A lot more editing that I'd normally do on a photo, but because the 'test' one came out so well I was determined to enter with this idea.

Now, over to the voting. :-).


Post challenge:

Post with setup/test shots is here

Statistics
Place: 19 out of 155
Avg (all users): 6.1154
Avg (commenters): 7.5217
Avg (participants): 5.8409
Avg (non-participants): 6.3167
Views since voting: 1739
Views during voting: 375
Votes: 208
Comments: 32
Favorites: 1 (view)

Please log in or register to add your comments!

AuthorThread
 11/13/2005 07:34:05 AM
Nice. :-) Remindy me to my screen saver (Mopy Fish), as far as I know, Mopy is a parrot fish, too. I did not know anyway, that in real life they have the same nice smile. Great capture, I like this!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/08/2005 04:29:59 AM
Posted some info on this here
 11/07/2005 02:27:14 AM
Great shot Chris! He almost looks like he's got a smile on his face. I can imagine this image being featured in an article about keeping tropical fish in too small tanks!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/07/2005 12:32:33 AM
This is a lovely entry. Congratulations on your top 20 finish.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/07/2005 12:11:20 AM
Thanks for all the comments folks...

Just for the record, the glass is huge, it holds an entire 750ml bottle of wine, and the parrot fish could actualy move around quite well, although he only spent about 10 minutes in his room with a view. :-).

Cheers, Me.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
11/06/2005 11:28:30 PM
Look at the face !
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/06/2005 10:43:53 PM
amazing picture, this should score really high....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/06/2005 10:18:35 PM
Returning for comments:
What a capture and what a beauty. Very well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/06/2005 09:16:52 PM
Stray reflections really detract from this image, imo, but overall I think its great idea and an excellent effort.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/05/2005 09:45:35 AM
great capture!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/05/2005 08:11:35 AM
Disturbing, but nice :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/04/2005 07:14:06 PM
Nice soft color mood.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/04/2005 10:51:44 AM
Too Cute! Very nicely done. Love the color and simplicity. Great rule of 3rds.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2005 10:30:53 PM
Wow, Ive done this with Bettas before but never a parrot fish. Cool. I hope you didn't leave him in there too long..LOL 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2005 04:01:14 PM
Poor guy - buit nice picture !
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2005 10:43:35 AM
LOL....Nicely done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/03/2005 04:28:13 AM
Hehehehe...poor fishie!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2005 12:57:52 AM
Gorgeous pic!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/01/2005 11:14:19 PM
Great Shot. Maybe saturate the fish for a little more drama.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/01/2005 02:25:10 PM
I laughed when I saw this, but probably shouldn't have. I think that the lighting is great and the idea is superb.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 10:17:31 PM
Neat concept and composition
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 07:45:12 PM
the wild thing is that the fish actually looks happy in its little room. great photo moment! wish the background weren't so white...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 07:42:24 PM
Heh, I almost did a shot like this. Good for both of us I didn't. If I have one complaint, it's the fish looks a bit washed out. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 05:13:35 PM
Great title... and a great image. 9.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 04:30:29 PM
this works, but are you sure this wasn't an outtake for light on white.. maybe a little too light on the glass stem, but it is a pleasant image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 01:35:08 PM
nice. that fish is a star now!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 12:05:29 PM
LOL Gret shot, it is a tad bit too bright (wishy washy?) tho and would be better with a bit more contrast and les brightness, make it pop more. Good luck!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 11:59:33 AM
Awesome. I love this...... A little mre contrast would of worked for me. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 10:39:44 AM
nice!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 09:11:04 AM
Oh my gosh! that poor fish. Hopefully it didn't have to stay crowded in that glass for too long! :-) Nice, simple composition.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 12:45:18 AM
awww it needs a bigger home!!! Great shot tho.. now get it out of that tiny glass!!! giggles..
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2005 12:22:55 AM
Wonderful! The fish appears to be smiling! Great use of negative space. Very clever.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 05/02/2025 12:43:00 AM EDT.