A micrantha photo

["Umm, fish?"]

A fun photo I thought I'd share:

[ReefDoctorMicromussas]

I love it

["Umm, fish?"]

Thanks!

[salt newbie01]

WOW! Thats incredible - Very nice pic.
What kind of camera are you using??

["Umm, fish?"]

Thanks! It's a Canon 20D with the Canon 100mm macro lens. This coral doesn't reflect much light, so I had to use a ring flash to get enough light to freeze the tentacles. Any time I tried to take a picture of this one before I got the flash I just wound up with a blurry mess.

[divecj5]

Incredible image Bertrand.....as always Really incredible how the ring flash (I'm assuming you use this a lot for macro) really helped to bring out the color and get the detail in the shot.

Really makes me want to save my money for a the 100mm 2.8.

["Umm, fish?"]

Well, thanks! (Bertrand is the guy who said the quote. My name's Andy. ) I'm mostly happy with the ring flash, but I'm still learning how to use it. With some things it really helps me record them the way I see them. With others, it brings out the browns and I have to post-process a bit to get them back to what I see. Not that big a deal--I shoot in RAW so I have to post-process anyway--but still something I have to learn.

I love the 100mm lens. I hardly ever take it off the camera.

[divecj5]

Sorry Andy I also shoot in RAW and it's always nice to have the ability to adjust the color of the image and bring it back toward the way it was when the image was recorded.

[mothra]

Hey since you guys are talking cameras, has anyone used Adobe's new photoshop-like program (name slips my mind) that's designed specifically for editing RAW files?

[GreshamH]

that's designed specifically for editing RAW files

sounds like PS to me

[mothra]

Found it! It's called LightRoom.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

Photoshop is a general image editor, this is designed specifically for RAW (lossless) image editing.

["Umm, fish?"]

It looks interesting, but I can't really see spending any money on it. I do a lot of image editing for the books I typeset and I have not once been given a RAW file, unfortunately. My photo database will display RAW files, and I just pull them out and edit them. So, I can't see spending any more money on image editing software when I have photoshop here.

Unless you know of any compelling reasons why I should....

[mothra]

If you don't work with RAW files then there's probably no reason to get it. I think what Adobe is getting at is, with better editing software RAW files might become more appealing to professionals or folks seeking the best possible image quality.

I don't use RAW myself, mainly because it's clunky and, IIRC Photoshop has very limited editing capability for RAW (enter LightRoom). I have not downloaded it, but they are offering the beta versions for free.

[Ti]

Looks cool

["Umm, fish?"]

Well, I do work with RAW for my own photos, but that's just hobby stuff.

[xinumaster]

Very nice.