Hey, this is my first time submitting a picture into any contest, and I was looking for any and all advice and/or criticism about my picture “gray angel scales.” I’ve just started taking pictures with my point and shoot, and I love it, but I want to make my pictures as good as possible without draining my bank account on expensive gear (I’d really like a dSLR, but the cost is so high!)
Thanks!
Aidan

Hey Aidan and welcome to digideep. As you know your picture is very greenish
and the bubbles are a bit blurry, but it’s a good one for the start, because the
bubbles make it dynamic.

You could enhance you pictures and getting it more colorful without going bankrupt
with filters. Magic Filters can help to boost colors without a strobe. There is a
article here, which explains how it works. You can get them over here.

For the composition, try to get the fish from the front next times . Its more
pleasant to the viewer to see the face instead of the a* .

-lars

Hi Lars, hello Aidan,

can we have the picture posted in this discussion so we do not loose track
of what you are talking about? I think if that happens, we will also have
more users voicing up there feedback.

The photo looks like a frantic effort to take a photo of a fish swimming by you when you weren’t quite ready.
Either that or there was adiver below you blowing bubbles your way.

I would have thought even the internal flash qould have helped with this shot. I am thinking either the flash
was off .. or you had taken so many shots before that it wasn’t ready to fire yet. With close up shots like that
I would have had it turned on.
Also, if you can’t manually set white balance (read ur manual for that) then setting it to cloudy will help also.

5 Step guide to getting better photos.
1) Relax
2) Don’t chase after subjects let them come to you
3) Shoot slightly upwards (if and where possioble)
4) Always remain within arms length of your main subject (3ft-4ft)
5) Compose .. make sure you fill the frame and position the subject .. whatever works for the subject. stick to the rules at first.

In this particular photo I think Lars is wrong in saying a filter would help it .. ok it may improve it a little bit ..
but theres no light to help a filter .. it may even make it worse, I would suggest learning how to use your
camera before adding a filter to learn how to use also.
Don’t be discouraged in the early stages. Underwater photography is very different yet very similar to land
photography. The light works in very different ways, but rules of composition are the same (pretty much).
Cameras aren’t designed to work underwater .. even if they have an underwater mode (thats just another
white balance setting) You have to learn how the light works underwater and learn how to compensate for
that.

It’s interesting because you can see the scales, you’re very very close to the angel fish.  But it does look like it was taken in a hurry...i have so many pictures like this!!  I get too excited and snap the picture too soon.  The ones that come out the best for me are when I find a sea creature who is being fairly still and really take some time first before pressing the button! 

hey everyone thanks for the advice. I plan on posting more of my pictures (I think some of these are better). Thanks!

Ok, here’s my second picture. I think this one is much better than the angel fish, and I was wondering what you guys thought about it. Thanks!

Looks indeed muche better, but unfortunately the fin is cut.

/lars

Thats a good shot ... great composition .. great attitude in the image

I think it would look even better in black and white with some high contrast.