Finally Got A Photo!

[This Old Spouse]

Better?
 

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Nice photos TOS. What camera are you using?

 

[This Old Spouse]

Thanks! It's a Canon PowerShot S3 IS. 

 

[Ruskull]

Yes TOS, much better in my humble opinion.  You could always use that 2nd photo as an avatar!  
 
You should look at the photo and slowly, slightly, squint your eyes and the tiny dots disappear while the background gets darker.  That's the effect you're looking for.  

 

[This Old Spouse]

I understand (I'm a photo editor) but I don't want to lose the focus in this case. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Joshwainwright]

Thought I should offer some of me mediocre skills. Here's my attempt at cleaning things up:
 

Ew, just need to sort the edges! Didn't notice them

 

[This Old Spouse]

It looks good. But the one problem I have with this is that it no longer looks "real." 
 
I spent I don't know how many hours, days, weeks, cleaning up historic photos for several published books, and this was the problem I found a lot. If you try to take away all the squiggles and dust particles and cracks by using the despeckle or dust and scratches filter, a lot of the detail is lost and they start to look like they're coated in plastic.
 
Please don't take this as a put-down! Just sharing what I've found over the last several years. I really appreciate your efforts! I just need to spend some more time with my camera's manual so I can get some of those stellar shots ...

 

[Joshwainwright]

Or get a DSLR  
 
Personally, I think it looks loads better and I've started now so I might as well finish cleaning it up. Then it's bed time!

 

[Joshwainwright]

 
There you go anyway, off to bed now
 
I understand you think it no longer looks real but all I've done is cleaned up the noise, which was probably due to you using your camera on automatic and the low light - which you can't avoid. You should look in to getting an affordable digital SLR camera, they're great, and of course not only for taking photos of your fish
 
The best thing you can ever do with any camera is start shooting in manual. Learn about shutter speeds, ISO and apertures and you'll be getting some amazing photos in no time!
 
Sorry for going off on a bit of a photography tangent, shooting in manual is kind of the cycling of photography. Just not as essential