Variegated Lizardfish

Blogged by Simon on February 01, 2010 8:59pm | Last updated by Simon on February 17, 2010 6:45pm | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Variegated Lizardfish (Synodus Variegatus)This is a photo I originally really liked but never published – it involved a bit of work with Aperture’s dodge and burn to help it over the line.

I found this Variegated Lizardfish (Synodus variegatus) at 20m depth in Wakatobi, sitting almost upright in the water. Unfortunately the surrounding rock formation made it difficult to approach and I ended up with a portrait photo, less than ideal light, a bright background and a slightly overexposed subject.

Before going final this photo was rotated counterclockwise and all background on the left was gradually burned to total black in Photoshop using a fuzzy brush, then followed up with Aperture’s dodge and burn around the edges of the tube filter feeders. I probably could have achieved the same with an even higher aperture setting on the camera and proper strobe positioning, but once again post processing comes to the rescue. Aperture filters applied here are: Low Key (Color Efex Pro), Remove Color Cast (Color Efex Pro), plus crop and standard level and saturation adjustments. Camera settings f/22, exposed for 1/60s, ISO 200.

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