Advice please! Fish in water.

[zetec]

Have just returned from a trip, taken a few photos and was lucky enough to see dolphins. Below are a few I have taken, I am quite pleased with the result, yet I feel I could do better. Any pointers.

[GetCarter]

I'm guessing you took these through the window of a dolphinariam, right?



>> Edited by GetCarter on Saturday 13th November 18:09

[FourWheelDrift]

Advice.

Dolphins aren't fish, they're mammals.

[zetec]

GetCarter said:

I'm guessing you took these through the window of a dolphinariam, right? >> Edited by GetCarter on Saturday 13th November 18:09

Correct.

My mum loves the pictures and wants them as her desktop on her laptop, yet I am not too pleased. How could I make the pictures better as they seem out of foucus?

[zetec]

FourWheelDrift said:

Advice. Dolphins aren't fish, they're mammals.

[GetCarter]

zetec said:

GetCarter said: I'm guessing you took these through the window of a dolphinariam, right? >> Edited by GetCarter on Saturday 13th November 18:09 Correct. My mum loves the pictures and wants them as her desktop on her laptop, yet I am not too pleased. How could I make the pictures better as they seem out of foucus?

First response: well number 3 looks fine to me - unless you fancy donning a sub and spending many hours in the sea, I suggest ya' mum lives with it.

Second response: add contrast, crop, get rid of digital dust and possibly even greyscale in photoshop (that blue isn't real).


Looks like a good trip!

Steve

>> Edited by GetCarter on Saturday 13th November 18:32

[zetec]

Cheers!!

Allthough I am happy with the pics, they lacked a certain, crispness. Perhaps a play in photoshop (in which I am a complete div) could be an answer.

[simpo two]

zetec said:

Allthough I am happy with the pics, they lacked a certain, crispness. Perhaps a play in photoshop (in which I am a complete div) could be an answer.

No 2 is the best composition I think, but as you say, it's not sharp - perhaps the water fooled the AF? I don't think PS can do much - normally you could reduce the effect by making the image smaller (like the b/w one above) but for wallpaper it has to be large.
I fear you'll have to go back with manual focus!

[fatsteve]

zetec said:

Cheers!! Allthough I am happy with the pics, they lacked a certain, crispness. Perhaps a play in photoshop (in which I am a complete div) could be an answer.

PS is a godsend with these types of images (ie where a quick saturation tweak will bring out the best).

Load the image into PS and bring up the hue/saturation window (Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation), increase the saturation to about +25 and reduce the lightness by about -30. If this still looks abit flat then desaturate it (like GetCarter has described).

I find I have to play around with the hue/saturation when the sky is particularly bland / grey, it's amazing what detail is captured in the image, but not visible. H/S can sort this out quite nicely.

Also cropping the image (as GetCarter has described) can transform the image, since it add a new focus on the image (3rd's rule etc..)

HTH

Steve