Pygmy Leatherjacket

Blogged by Simon on March 08, 2010 11:23pm | Last updated by Irene on March 10, 2010 8:55am | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Pygmy Leatherjacket (Brachaluteres jacksonianus)At first I thought this is a juvenile animal because of the relatively small size and shortish features, but nothing could be further from the truth. While browsing one of my fish id books (Australian Marine Life by G. Edgar), I came across the Pygmy leatherjacket (Brachaluteres jacksonianus) which looks like a near perfect match.

I photographed this little guy on our weekly night dive in the bay, while he was seeking shelter next to a large anchor chain. Small fish like these don’t like to venture out in the open (source: Finding Nemo), so I had to wait a minute until it had enough distance from the chain to get good enough negative space. The background in this image isn’t perfect, but just good enough and luckily needed no artificial blur.

The shot was processed in Photoshop with a dodge brush to model some of the light spots, and then in Aperture with a cross balance, and then a desaturation filter which gives it the pale, washed out look. Camera settings: Nikon D300, 60mm macro, ISO 200, f/16 for 1/320s in manual mode.

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  1. scott gietler
    on March 11th, 2010
    1

    hey Simon – I really like the look of this shot, I love how it’s almost black and white. I wish the fish had more “room to swim” in the photo

    Scott

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