Babies

[BenBotha]

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm Macro
F 10
Diffused flash
Iso 500
1/200
Barnacles about 3-4 mm diameter.
C and C welcome.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Intriguing image. The angled light direction really gave depth to the ridges of the "main subject". Maybe a tad bright in some spots, but not too bad. Not crazy about the one in lower left corner just skimming the edges...perhaps cropping a bit left and bottom to make it better "anchored" to the frame edge would work well. I bet you get some really neat patterns when looking directly down at a straight angle!

[BenBotha]

Slightly tighter crop and exposure a little darker.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Ben

[Jonathan Ashton]

A different image, I would suggest however that the primary subject may be a limpet as opposed to the barnacles? The light is rather strong I don't know if it is recoverable in the raw conversion but I would try to lower the highlights if possible. I think the composition is better in your second post.

[BenBotha]

Thanks, I reduced the highlights and exposure. Thanks for the help.
Ben

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes this is better again in my opinion. The detail is better in the barnacles and the limpet.

[Arthur Morris]

Interesting image and great tips above. This might do very well as a B&W...

[BenBotha]

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions. All are appreciated. IMO the last post significantly better after the tips.
Ben

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ben. Yes, the third image is the clear winner here. You might also consider selectively toning down some of the bright areas in the OOF portion of the background and cloning some of the spectral highlights - to make the light seem a little less harsh. A few little tweaks will take the image up another notch or two.