Sergeant Baker

Blogged by Simon on February 24, 2010 12:04am | Last updated by Simon on February 24, 2010 7:30pm | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Thank you Apple – I finally have my mac back from repair after 20 days. It seems like an eternity since my last post, and I’ve been missing the backups to an Aperture library. It was about time to download everything that was slowly but surely filling up memory cards in the Nikon D300. There are a few goodies in the bag, and the first one I want to share with you is the Sergeant Baker (Hime purpurissatus).

This photo was taken at Long Reef, offshore Dee Why, Sydney. It’s a rocky dive site, about 20m deep here and attracts a mixed bag of small and larger marine life, passing by on the deep end sand bank.

Sergeant Bakers are local to Sydney – they like to sit around on rocks so they make a worthwhile target to try out new kit, like my Tokina ATX 10-17mm fisheye zoom lens. Here the lens is set to 17mm, with an estimated angle of view of about 100 degrees. At this focal length, you need to be less than half a meter away from the subject to get decent sensor fill, not an easy task with a fish that is waiting to bolt with every inch you approach.

Camera settings f/14, for 1/125, ISO 200 and +2.3EV manual flash. Post processing includes graduated neutral density filter in Color Efex Pro for Aperture (to darken the top), plus a second round of -25% brightness with a vignette filter using the same plugin. Reds were already well lit by flash, but have been saturated +20%, for a more pleasant color contrast. I also cropped about 30% of the frame to get better zoom. Yes – he swam away too early :)

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  1. Peter
    on February 26th, 2010
    1

    Kann man den essen?

  2. Simon
    on February 27th, 2010
    2

    Bin mir nicht sicher, aber laut dieser Quelle ja: http://www.diclib.com/cgi-bin/d1.cgi?l=en&base=coed&page=showid&id=5635

    (My dad wants to know whether they’re edible, the tentative answer is yes).

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