Coral Grouper

[Bruce Enns]

Al Forns' various fish posts have inspired me to go back and re-work a few of the images I took with my first dSLR on a trip to Wakatobi resort in Indonesia in September of 2006. This was taken with a Canon Rebel XT in an Ikelite housing with two strobes (Ikelite DS125 and DS50) using E-TTL. Canon 60mm EF-S macro, AV mode, ISO 800, 1/200sec, f/16

The colour of this fish causes some colour shifting at the 'Save for web and devices' stage (even after converting to the sRGB colour space from ProPhoto RGB). Even after desaturating the red (-16) and the yellow (-25), the intensity of the oranges bumps back up considerably in this dialog. I think this is now a reasonably accurate rendition of the true colour.

This is a Coral Grouper (Cephalopholis miniata) in among a bunch of brown sponge(s).

C&C welcome and thanks for looking!

Cheers!
Bruce

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Bruce,
Nice image. Colourful as expected from the sea. It would have been great if the right top corner would not have had that gap in the brown sponge. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Harshad Barve]

Simply beauty , I like the way presented
Harshad

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bruce Sweet image One of my favorite groupers !!!

I like the clean bg, no back scatter and pose.... these guys are not easy, don't stay till for long !!!

Peter the colors of the fish are actually like the original If I had never seen one I would probably have made the same correction !!! Colors UW are wild and some the reds and oranges are not believable !!!!

... big thanks for the fish !!!! :)

[Robert Amoruso]

I like the diagonal the fish makes in the image Bruce. BG and surroundings set him off very well.

[Stu Bowie]

Striking colours on the grouper, and like the angled position in the comp. Well captured.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great image Bruce. I love the colors and Epinephelus (relatives of this little fellow) are such endearing fishes. If I had to pick, I would remove the specks under the chin to clear up the sponge. Otherwise the diagonal comp and oranges/browns work perfectly together.

Did you ever dive The Cod Hole off Lizard Island in Far North Queensland? One of my best dives ever. The Potato Cods (E. tukula) practically knock you over to get to the feed.

[Bruce Enns]

Thank-you everyone for your comments. Akos, I did do a bit of clean up on the sponge, but decided to leave that bit under his chin...probably more because I was tired on cleaning up than anything else. That is one thing that usually needs a fair bit of attention in UW shots, all the little bright white sand/coral bits that litter the place.

No, I've never been diving in Austrailia...hope to some day, and to spend a year or so seeing the country as well!

Cheers!
Bruce