Recent content by Wampatom

Name: Wampatom Title: Round Face Round Eye Equipment: Nikon D100, Nikkor 105mm macro, SB 80 strobe Place: Chicago, IL

Name: Wampatom Title: Make My Day Equipment: Nikon D100, Nikkor 105mm macro, dual 105 strobes Place: Cabarete, Dominican Republic

Thanks. I like this shot and I am glad others like it too. I have concluded I have no idea how the voting for the contest will go. I thought this particular contest had some of the strongest entries. This shot was taken in an aquarium that I keep using only sunlight. The backlighting...

The pictures look good. Some do have a focus or depth of field problem. I use a Nikon 990 some of the time and get good results on coral. For pictures of coral with the 990 I use aquarium lights with a tripod. Set the camera to aperture priority and use the smallest aperture (largest f stop...

Name: Wampatom Title: Grape Caulerpa Equipment: Nikon D100, Nikkor 105mm macro Place: Chicago, IL

Sharpening I sharpen as the very last step. Resize first. I generally use radius of 0.3, percent of 200%, and threshold of 3. If this is too severe I reduce to % to say 150. If I use stronger sharpening I only do it on part of the photo using layers. Darkening the background I find...

Hello Sanjay: Both pictures are quite nice. The blue tang is particularly striking. Here is what I would do to enhance it: 1) Since it is already cropped I would crop even tighter; 2) I would sharpen after you resize using unsharp mask in photoshop. 3) I would darken the background. I tried...

Name: Wampatom Title: Start of a Black Hole in my Tank Equipment: Nikon D100, Nikkor 105mm macro Place: Chicago, normal output fluorescent

Wow baby that’s one big leather.

Thanks. You are right I did use diopters. The main lens was a Nikkor 105mm f2.8 micro. I mounted a 50mm f1.4 lens on the front of it, in the reverse position, as the diopter. It is fun to try. I find things I can’t see with my eyes alone.

Both these pictures are closeups bordering on the microscopic range. The flatworm is backlit by sunlight bringing out the beautiful zoozanthellae. It is surrounded by an unknown type of algae on the glass. The caulerpa was shot with a red-purple mushroom as an out of focus background.

That would work. If it turned out that most people accepted critiques then you could change the contest to make it clear that any submission was subject to critiques. Critiques after voting would be fine, but I think it is easiest to write a critique when you first look at a picture. I...

Should we critique photos submitted to the photo contest, similarly to what is done on PhotoSig? I think it would be nice to get feedback on what people think about the pictures. As things exist the photos go into a dark hole and only the winner is discussed, generally only in positive terms...

Name: Wampatom Title: Arctic Damsel Equipment: Nikon D100, Nikkor 105mm macro Place: Chicago (same climate as Siberia)

Name: Wampatom Photo title: Caulerpa Christmas Tree Equipment: Nikon D100, Nikkor 105mm f2.8 micro plus reversed 50mm f1.4 Location: 39 gal, Chicago Comment: The angel would not stay on the top of the tree. Part 4 from the “beautiful flatworm series”.