Hi, 

The photo below was not published and based on the feedback I have made a few edits. I would love to understand how I could improve the shot. 

This was shot at a depth of about 16m with a Nikon d850 with an AF-S FISHEYE NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED at 8mm f/10 1/100 sec ISO 200 with dual Inon z330 strobes.

Thank you in advance.

Hello, Nand Kapadia 

Welcome to our forum. What a  difficult image to take. I think underwater photography is the one area that seems so far to me. I love the deep blue but I cannot dive. So look at these photos with great respect. There may be different reasons for your image to be rejected. This unfortunately we do not know. Yet we might try other things like to give you different visions about your image. What I wish were different in this image is the black area around the sphere. I think there is a harsh line and this looks distracting to me. It is an abrupt distraction from the image. That is what I think so. I therefore took a snapshot of your image, a very tight one indeed , and worked on that. After the cropping I used neural filters and depth blur so that the background lost some detail but not too much. I wanted to keep some detail to give information about the background. Next I applied  a bluish hue onto the image as we are in the deep blue sea. Finally I sharpened your image with Topaz Sharpen A.I. What do you think about this interpretation. It is the first moment, the single first look that pulls you to the image or pushes you away. When you are pulled inside you take your time to analyse it. Have great light...

Cicek Kiral Senior Critic

Dear Cicek,

Thank you for your amazing critique. Shooting underwater is extremely challenging. When the subject is more than 5ft away from you, you start losing reds even if you have strobes. In addition, even though the water seems clear, often it isn't and strobe positioning becomes challenging as these small particulate matter reflect the light and you end up getting a lot of backscatter (small bright spots).

With this particular image, I was shooting with a fisheye hence the black border area around the sphere. I have used the neural filters and added a depth blur. Does this make the image any better?

Dear Nand,

Thanks for presenting your photo on the critique forum. I share Cicek admiration for underwater photography which can yield amazing nature images. I feel that in this case the Fisheye lens does not help the composition. Like Cicek I tried to crop it in such away that you maintain the beauty of the sea world, around the fish, with its vivid colors.

Hope you like it.

Kindest regards

Arnon S.C

Nand,

I don't mind the circular image.  A fish photo made with a fisheye lens - what could be more logical?   :-)   I did experiment, though, with one of Photoshop's 'Transform' tools.  With 'Edit>Transform>Warp', I pulled the corner out and then restored the center part of the image with the History Brush so a minimum of background is lost but the circle has been squared.   I also added a bit of Texture, Clarity, and Contrast to the subject to give it a bit more separation from the background. 

It's a wonderful photo in my opinion.  It's something we non-divers only get to see in pictures.  You must have been very close with such a short focal length.  It feels like we're right there in the water with the fish.  I like the expression - the subject seems to be curious about the photographer, and the big eyes add a cuteness factor. 

Thanks for sharing the photo with us here in Critique. 

. . . .  Steven, senior critic

Hi Nand  and thank you for given us a try with your wonderful image - I see Cicek Kiral and Arnon Orbach and Steven T have given yu some wonderful advice - One point I will re-enforce I remember this image from selectin the your name tag in the top right corner this alone could have been the reason for rejection. Please read FAQ it's against the rule to have Aany names on images in selection. - I would repost it without and I wish you luck great looking image..