I call it "....And Justice For All"

[gogregerson]

I've named this photo "...And Justice For All" since it killed all the subjects of the photo. Help me get better at picture taking. Give me some good, constructive criticism on this shot.

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/imagehosting/12477d582047f25.jpg

[morty]

I'd be tempted to name it "... and Justice for all." (because you already have the word "Liberty" in the photo) :)

btw nice macro shot!

[Hockeyfan]

What kind of star fish are those?

[gogregerson]

They are "Asterina anomala" starfish. These little guys don't get any bigger then a 1/4" but multiply extremely fast by fission (splitting). They have been known to eat both softies and hard corals(depending on the strain of starfish). I personally have not noticed this but have noticed them eating or at least killing my coralline algae. Now, this in it self wouldn't be a bad thing but these little guys quickly reach plague proportions and I fear they will run out of coralline and get a taste for Acro! Bottom line it's time to get rid of the little guys.

[latazyo]

I like the photo, to me the top of the penny and the stars appear to be out of focus (maybe you intended that, I dont know)

but its a cool picture

[gogregerson]

Ya, I was getting a reflection when I took the shot directly over head. So the shot was taken at a slight angle and was unable to get the whole penny in focus.

[latazyo]

bummer

I still like the shot

did someone throw that in your tank?

[hypoxia]

Yep, if you had shot straight down your plane of focus would have been more consistent. Good lighting overall, good focus. :)

[Turf]

I think if you were going to make the top edge out of focus you should make it even more extreme by increasing your angle even more (say 45degrees).

[gogregerson]

I'd be tempted to name it "... and Justice for all." (because you already have the word "Liberty" in the photo) :)

I like that, I think I'll use it!

bummer

I still like the shot

did someone throw that in your tank?

The shot was meant as a joke. These are pest starfish and the shot was setup in a small dish of water out of the tank.

I think if you were going to make the top edge out of focus you should make it even more extreme by increasing your angle even more (say 45degrees).

Good idea, that would have been neat.

[latazyo]

Ya, I was getting a reflection when I took the shot directly over head. So the shot was taken at a slight angle and was unable to get the whole penny in focus.

were you using flash?

maybe you could stage the shot under a lamp and shoot it straight on using the lamp light instead of flash


or even take it outside (sorry forgot you guys are in the arctic) and shoot it

[gogregerson]

No flash. Natural light.

[bunglito]

Just brainstorming here, maybe lighting from the side instead of from above would have limited the reflection and allowed you to shoot at a 90 degree angle. Or if that's not feasible try using the flash and adjust the exposure setting until it doesn't appear washed out. Since I'm not a big photo lingo nerd I've had the best luck by trial and error. Taking 5 or more shots of the same thing with different settings and the grabbing the best one. All of my camera settings show up in the "shooting information" part of the properties section of the picture so you can see what you used for that great shot. Good detail on the bottom of the pic though!

[morty]

Going with a smaller aperture will increase your depth-of-field, and give you more area that will be in focus. Of course you will have to also increase shutter time to get the same (proper) exposure, so a tripod or other means of keeping the camera still is needed. If you place the camera in aperture-priority mode, it will automatically choose the right exposure time. If you could get it down to something like f22 that might help a lot. (but I bet the "subjects" have long been tossed in the garbage :))

[bunglito]

Yeah yeah what he said! ^^

[AquaNuts]

I have in my tank too---don't know how to kill--have not noticed them eating my corals....only algae of sides