Winner March 2010 Photo of the Month! - Matt in Houston

[imagirlgeek]

Congrats to Matt in Houston, winner of the March 2010 POTM!

[ssrprelude]

Congrats Matt! Beautiful fish.

[cichlid1409]

awesome pic matt, congrats!

maybe now you can retire and let someone else win a couple. :mrgreen:

[Airjammer]

Congrats!! Great pic!

[Matt in Houston]

Thanks for all the compliments and the votes!

Also, I purchased the NX2 software since my trial expired and I wasnt able to post process the picture. Im still learning the software but I will show the cleaned up and less cropped version tonight when I get home from work...I think its a cleaner, sharper image and shows better perspective.

Thanks again,

Matt

[Mzungu]

Congrats, Matt! Great job, again! :)

[Cesar]

congrats

[Matt in Houston]

Here is Lou the way I like him in the image...a little less cropped and sharper. You can even see that his is missing a piece of his barbel, which was nipped by a tank mate when going after some surface food. No worries though it has already grown back.

Also, someone asked in the March POTM thread about the technique I used, being the mirror image looked digitally made which of course its not. Its just a matter of using different colored bulbs and taking many shots to get the perfect one as he swam under them. In addition I turned my filter output down as to not disrupt the surface so I could get a good mirror, and also I took the pic just after feeding so I could catch Lou as high at the surface as possible. I shot from a steep upward angle to catch the mirror effect, as was my plan from the start. The D700 really is an amazing full frame camera. I'm loving it but I still hardly know how to use it, there is so much to learn.

Lou said to give all of HFB his thanks...at least I think he would if he could talk.

[cichlid1409]

the color on that one looks alot richer, not as washed out. that arrowana looks sweet.