Sep 2024 POTM Voting Thread

[JoJosReef]

WHAT IS THIS FISH ITS SO FLIPPIN CUTE

In color. And yes, she's tots adorbs

 

[littlefoxx]

In color. And yes, she's tots adorbs

Ahh I love her! Super cute

 

[JoJosReef]

Ahh I love her! Super cute

You'll like this post:

The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

Skip the blue tang as they get too big and active for a 100 gallon, get a dwarf angel instead. My 5' 100 gallon has the following in it (and I still have a few more additions still planned but not purchased yet). 1 Skunk Tilefish (Hoplolatilus marcosi) 1 Razor Goby (Oxymetopon cyanoctenosum) 1...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[littlefoxx]

You'll like this post:

The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

Skip the blue tang as they get too big and active for a 100 gallon, get a dwarf angel instead. My 5' 100 gallon has the following in it (and I still have a few more additions still planned but not purchased yet). 1 Skunk Tilefish (Hoplolatilus marcosi) 1 Razor Goby (Oxymetopon cyanoctenosum) 1...

www.reef2reef.com

Oh wow! Thats cool you have a pair!

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I think what might help out with more participation in the future, is if some how we can pin not only the voting but the actual photo contest to the top of the home page. Most of the time I just happen to see the contest by chance. Just a thought. If I am reading the stats right, there are 1300+ members online right at this moment and only 115 votes total so far?

 

[maroun.c]

Best is to subscribe to the POTM Hashtag so you get a notification for any new POTM and Vote threads when posted.
Will check with the mods team to see if having the POTM pinned on all forums would be OK as it might annoy members not into photography ...
Pinning it in the photography forum is a great idea which we'll do starting next month POTM. Thanks

 

[tbrown]

I think what might help out with more participation in the future, is if some how we can pin not only the voting but the actual photo contest to the top of the home page. Most of the time I just happen to see the contest by chance. Just a thought. If I am reading the stats right, there are 1300+ members online right at this moment and only 115 votes total so far?

Best is to subscribe to the POTM Hashtag so you get a notification for any new POTM and Vote threads when posted.
Will check with the mods team to see if having the POTM pinned on all forums would be OK as it might annoy members not into photography ...
Pinning it in the photography forum is a great idea which we'll do starting next month POTM. Thanks

Sometimes the hashtag doesn't come across. Subscribe to the Photography Forum and every new thread will give you notification.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Willing to share the reasoning and hope you will take it as a constructive criticism.
I'll start by saying it's a very good picture anyone would be proud to take, and the o ly reason for it not to be on the finalists list is the sheer number of other pictures that fit the theme maybe a tiny bit better, some of my comments will be nitpicking bit with the need to drop the number of pictures so heavily one needs to nitpick unfortunately.
Starting with the picture before looking at the black and white side:
-picture is rather soft and better sharpness would help a lot here not sure if its the processing or the lense, not on PC to check the exif data to tell what camera or lense was taken, but normally this tends to happen with use of magnification lenses or shooting wide open on a lower quality lense, or it could just be the processing....
-Central position of the subject isn't really flattering, This is a bit cliche and many center framed subject look nice but imagine this site taken from a bit of different angle with the shrimp at the upper left corner of the shot looking at the viewer top down for example.
-You caught goodd eye contact so the moment was there however missed on focusas the focus hit on the coral right in front of the shrimp and the eyes are really soft so you don't really look at them and in such a shot focus has to e dead on the eyes to take ones eyes right there. more detail (smaller apreture) was needed to see more of the shrimp at the focus point and that all went missing.
- Air bubble between the arms takes the viewers eyes away from the center of the shot which is the eye.
-The antenna at the righ side showing flat horizontal and cut in the middle while the one on the left side of the picture is deleted from motion leads to an unnatural unsatable or unbalanced feel to the overall image, cutting the antenna in its middle didn't help as well.

Going to the black and white aspect

Black and white images were notorious and still are for grain whic even the best newest pro mirorless cameras can't replicate or come close to IMHO.
so basically looking at a black and white image histaorically these were very sharp pictures with high levels of grain (close to noise) which in a colored imge wouldn't be accepted. Quality black and white fim used to give very contrasty results which with the built in grain was a very specific appearance. the contracst allowed to see a quick shift from black to white and where near black would turn dark black so there was always a stepp contract in the pictures.

-I'm not sure if your shot was shot in black and white or converted to black and white, I presume it was converted as the conversion is overall flat due to lack of contrast, its almost flat gray hich doesn't really match the black and white theme. there are many black and white conversion actions or tools and some do provide a flat conversion but its not what black and white photographers recognize as a good black and white scale.
-Image as said above is too soft for black and white mostly because of the focus not being where it should, use of a large aperture or maybe jsut from distortion from glass I'm not sure however end result is far from the sharpness of a black and white pic.
linked to the softness i don't see noise to mimic Grain and that is the most aspect i would expect in a black and white shot. I'll allow myself to use an example from the submissions Picture 14 and 17 have crazy noise and that hard to describe feel for picture 17 where the pctopus suckers look so noisy to the point of annoying you , might be abit overdone in pic 14 but still fitting the theme perfectly. that would make it a bad picture if it was in color but for a black and white theme it shows that the photographer knew the needed points to match the theme and executed them rather very well.
its stil a reefing community and POTM stills trugles at time with people choosing to vote for the nicest or rarest aquatic subject so many would vote for your picture I'm sure. and all above is not to say your picture isn't nice on the countrary I pretty much love it despite the nit picks and even as is its a worthy picture, yet looking at all the above rationale I believe the correct choice was for other pictures to make the final cut.

I hope you take it as its intended as a constructive criticism, I thank you for participating and for the clear passion you have for that shot which is critical its one of the few shots that were very close to making the final list but which had to be removed to limit the number of pics in the voting thread.

Whish you good luck in future POTM submissions.
Maroun

Thank for that bit of feedback back on 14! Yeah I was on the fence with how I edited the photo! I’m liked it and also though maybe it was to much!

I soooo missed this thread when it went up! Great photos everyone!