painting a lionfish......

[peeper]

Revisiting my favorite critter, the lionfish, I got this image.....technically, it was okay by me......i liked the exposure, the fish's placement.....and that he was a decently in focus subject......what I wasn't so happy with was how he blended into the background coral and generally how blah the scene felt with it's browns and blacks and not much else......

bringing the coral down was fairly simple......just dabbing at it with the burn tool till it started losing exposure and began to shrink away from my buddy.....
I then decided it was time to toy with his color.....although the coral behind him was pulling away nicely, the fish still blended too well color-wise.....i guess that's good if you're a fish.....but, it was unappealing to me on this rainy saturday....
I placed a high pass layer on the top of the background and began to sandwich in layers of little daubs of blues, oranges, yellows, and reds over different parts of his body until he really lifted off the background.....these layers I set to various blending modes...
I know it's not perfect, but I did do what I set out to......give the scene some interest and separation.....i know it's nowhere near his natural coloring, but, I kinda like it....

did I go too far?

 

[PASM]

I like it. Making the background more subdued has improved it, IMO. Good job.

 

[Snakeguy101]

I think you did an excellent job with it. Honesty if you were to show my the finished picture, I would not know that is was photoshopped at all (which is how it should be!).

 

[Undo]

I love the second one. Great job!

 

[Frequency]

Second one is excellent

Regards

 

[fokker]

Big improvement.

 

[peeper]

I think you did an excellent job with it. Honesty if you were to show my the finished picture, I would not know that is was photoshopped at all (which is how it should be!).

that made me smile....

 

[D-B-J]

looks awesome!

 

[EricD]

Spot on job.....:thumbup:

 

[peeper]

thanks, folks....shooting that fish is harder than it looks.....he's so deep! and he always points the short side to the lens....

 

[Photo95]

Just done put your hand in there haha.

Looks good

 

[peeper]

Just done put your hand in there haha.

Looks good

hahaha....you put your hands in there......he's extrodinarily friendly and wants to know everything that's going on in or out of his tank.......

 

[Redfish]

I fear lionfish. They are starting to become a nuisance in the gulf

 

[altitude604]

great post work! big improvement. lionfish are so cool! one day i wish to have a nice big saltwater tank.

 

[Robin Usagani]

not bright enough for me on the subject. I would also boost the color.