critic needed on first time photo

[WILL2002]

i took this photo last night so i could hopefully get some help learing to take photos with my wifes digital camera (sony 3mega pixal digital camera) how did i do for my first time? any critisizem accepted good, bad, or indifferent.


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/67557green_zoas.jpg

[edwing206]

pic looks good to me, but what do i know, i have a 2mp camera

[MCary]

Looks pretty good for a 3 mega pixel camera. But it needs work.

Areas are out of focus. Front and back. The camera must have focused on the center. Couple of zoos have strong highlights. Can't really do anything about that with that camera. Could be fixed with photoshop.

Composition wise, zoos have a pattern. I like the it when zoos fill the entire screen most of the time. I would have elliminated the back ground and rocks.

So, if I was being critical as you asked, I would say, if you wanted to show a picture of some beautiful Zoos you succeeded. If you wanted to show a beautiful picture you fell short.

Mike

[WILL2002]

edwing206 & mike - thank you

mike, i appreciate you being honest, i draw a lot and i love to here peoples critic on my work. as for what you said i am going to work on the beautiful picture part (i'm still learning my wifes camera and trying to get a hold of my dads old professional camera) i would like to eventually get good enough so i can use the pics to draw from and that's why i asked for help.
thanks again.

[VoidRaven]

You've got a nice subject but you do need a bit of work. Please take my comments with a grain of salt because I am by no means a good tank photographer. But anyway....

The Depth of Field (DOF) is off in the pic. Looks like the camera opened up to about f/2.8...maybe f/4...to get the shot. You've got unfocused zoas in the foreground that I find distracting but that's due to the focus point and f-stop. If it is a point and shoot you really don't have much control over the f-stop so maybe try a different camera setting/shooting mode. Try moving the focal point a little more to the "front" of the zoa colony (point closest to you but not the closest point....is that making sense???).

Color is nice on the shot though.

You have a weird "halo" or reflection or something in the shot. Not sure what that's all about.

You also chopped a little off of the top of the zoa colony. Try to get the whole thing if possible. Instead of a horizontal shot, try taking the shot vertically next time and see if you can compose it differently. You might get some nicer results.

For a first pass though not too bad. My first tank shots were beyond horrible.