May has arrived really quickly, and with it the One Four Challenge. When our host Robyn Gosby at Captivate Me posted on Monday, I thought “OMG, better get my act into gear!” Truth be known, I have enjoyed the break from photo processing, but have collected plenty of material to play with. So it is time to select an image to work on in the digital dark room for the next four weeks.
May Image
Those of you who follow our blog will know that of late we have been observing interesting creatures under the hulls of our catamaran. The image I have selected is that of a jellyfish, a Chrysaora wurlerra, taken at Waterloo Bay, Wilsons Promontory. You can see the shadow of our hull in the top left corner. This jellyfish is a type of sea nettle which normally does not frequent our Southern waters. In fact our sightings were the first recorded in the State of Victoria with Jellywatch, an organisation which records and monitors sightings of jellies and other marine organisms by individuals from all over the world.
Here is the original photograph:
Chrysaora wurlerra – Original
Week 1 Process
When you are snorkelling without a wetsuit among jellyfish, the framing can be a bit up-hazard, particularly because you are trying to get close while avoiding getting stung. Consequently we collected many shots of half jellies, quarter jellies, bits of tentacles, and speckled water with no jellies at all! In this image, the critter nearly did not have its full bell showing. And in addition, the water might look clear from the air, but through your goggles you see thousands of suspended particles which give the water a speckled appearance.
So my task for this week was to re-frame the jellyfish so it sat further up the image, and clean up the speckles. Here is how I did this.
- I knew that in Photoshop you could extend the frame and paint in colour to match the rest of the image, but I could not remember how to do it. So after a call to Leanne Cole for emergency tuition, I proceeded to:
- Use the Crop tool to extend the frame at the bottom
- Use the Clone tool to fill in the extension with water from above
- Re-crop the image in a 4×3 format
- Use the Spot Healing tool, to click on the most offending speckles and remove them. You do not want to overdo this, as the image can quickly look a bit ‘plastic’, but used selectively, it does a good job of smoothing out the spots.
- The finishing touch was to add my watermark along one of the tentacles.
Here is the result:
Chrysaora wurlerra – Week 1
What do you think? As always, your feedback and comments are welcome.
There are quite a few of us taking part in the May One Four Challenge. To see what other participants are doing, click on the badge below. Enjoy, and see you next week for the second instalment.
Sv-Anui 
Wow that is very clever!
Thanks Viki!
Wow Chris! Firstly such a great capture and the colours are wonderful!!
I’m sure you know I enjoy your underwater photography 😃
Enlarging the frame and repositioning the jellyfish works so well and I really like that you worked to remove many of the particles – although I must confess I really like them in the image 😜😜
What a fabulous beginning to May. Really lovely photo and processing!
Thanks Robyn – it was a good excuse to play with a picture I had written off but not deleted.
Glad you didn’t. I love it!
A thought for you too – Sometimes when an object is touching an edge of the image it can create more tension/excitement, perhaps making it more of a story?? You could try a panoramic crop too (in the same way as you did here) with the jellyfish touching an edge. Could be interesting? 😛
Looking forward to more Chris 😀
Interesting ! I like panoramic crops.
Really looking forward to you working within this image each week. It is a beautiful look at something I would probably never get to see. I like the extended frame, it looks very natural and the spot clean up looks great too. I love the colors in this image, good luck in the week’s ahead 🙂
Thanks Carrie for the feedback and glad to give you the chance to observe a creature you don’t get to see normally.
Nicely done Chris!! Love that jelly 🙂 Looking forward to seeing your next edit!
Thanks Sarah😊
My pleasure 🙂
The jelly looks so much clearer Chris, well done
Thanks Sue!
Jelly good Chris!
Jolly jellies to you!😀
Fantastic! Yet another reason to get photoshop! That’s a really clever idea!
By the way, regarding jelly sightings – we’ve been chatting about this – I found some really interesting material on our MOOC website that talks about them and why we’re seeing so many more recently. It’s here: http://worldoceanreview.com/wp-content/downloads/wor1/WOR1_chapter_5.pdf (It was under lecture 1.3). I hope you’re enjoying the course – I really am!
Cheers,
Ellen
Glad to see your name on the Course participants… Making a slow start but finding it good. Thanks for the link too! … And yes, get Photoshop… The image I am working with was nearly going to end up in the trash!
What a great job on the image!
Thanks Loré!
What an amazing creature to see – every jellyfish that I’ve ever seen has been more or less a jellied blob. I love the effect you achieved with Photoshop and the new framing is perfect!
Hi Eliza, they are fascinating and we had never seen this species before. Thanks for your feedback.
PS. The speckles in the original looks like stars, making the original intriguing in its own way…
You are right, it can be a bit like the milky way, and it’s a fine balance between having too many distracting bright specks and too bland a backdrop.
I’m with Carrie – love seeing this! Nice work on the post edit!
Thanks Janice for the kind feedback. Glad you like seeing these creatures. Sometimes the ‘ick’ factor is high with jellies for some people!
I’m way behind again but wow they are so beautiful – and a bit scary!
Hi Cybele! I can see you are on a mission and reading posts😊 Yes these can be a bit
I am behind these days even on my own blog- posting less. Still house hunting and now down with a virus or something arghh. I see you are busy with your adventures!! Lovely posts!
Yes I found I was doing too much – down to once a week except during one four challenge months. Look after yourself💕
Oops hit the wrong key… The jellies can be a bit scary but the are small and I love seeing them.
PS: I use the clone tool often. lol!
I had never used it to extend an image and fill in content so it’s a useful discovery!