Out of the Dark Depths

[ktuli]

This photo has now become the wallpaper on one of my monitors at work.



And here's the SOOC version:



I took the shot rather quickly (obviously) and didn't have much time to frame it as I would have liked. I was just about to throw it away when I tried the crop above and did some extra PP on it to cleanup all the backscatter (floating particulate in the water that reflects the strobe lights back and look like snow) and to exaggerate the darkness a bit more.

Does the PP work? Do you see anything I could have done better? C&C appreciated.

Thanks for viewing!

- Bill

[FrankMi]

Hi Bill, it looks like the tail fin was lighter and may have had a bit more detail but the clean up of floating debris is much better. I wonder if it would have been worthwhile to retain more of the bottom detail?

[Glenn NK]

Looks good to me - I like it with everything else dark - adds to the scary mood (although it's not dangerous).

Glenn

[Bobobird]

Fine job there. Looks great.

[Steve S]

Nice shot bill, i kind of like the original, with the same crop. I like the background with the particals.

[ktuli]

Hi Bill, it looks like the tail fin was lighter and may have had a bit more detail but the clean up of floating debris is much better. I wonder if it would have been worthwhile to retain more of the bottom detail?

Frank, the slight loss of tail detail was an intentional decision. On a night dive, that is how things really look - you get your circle of light from your lights, and then everything just seems to come in from the darkness. Since they're silent, things can come out of the darkness and really surprise you (nurse sharks are one thing, but when we had a 10 foot reef shark do the same, it was a bit unnerving!). So the fade to obscurity of the tail was intentional.

Looks good to me - I like it with everything else dark - adds to the scary mood (although it's not dangerous).

Glenn, Thanks! Yeah - that "scary" mood was what I was going for. I wish I had one with the aforementioned reef shark, but alas, that encounter was so fleeting that my wife and I actually had to confirm with each other that we actually saw it. :O

Fine job there. Looks great.

Thanks Bobo!

Nice shot bill, i kind of like the original, with the same crop. I like the background with the particals.

Steve, maybe I'll consider doing that crop without all the additional PP. I've been trained to hate backscatter so much that I'm surprised to hear someone say they actually like it...

- Bill

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bill,

Unlike the other thread where I preferred the wider shot, I prefer the tighter crop here (and lack of backscatter).

Even though I have never dived, I 'got' the bit about things looming into the light (from the dark) just by looking at it.

Cheers,

[ktuli]

Hi Bill,

Unlike the other thread where I preferred the wider shot, I prefer the tighter crop here (and lack of backscatter).

Even though I have never dived, I 'got' the bit about things looming into the light (from the dark) just by looking at it.

Cheers,

Sounds like 'Mission Accomplished'.

Thanks Dave!

- Bill