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Hi @ellie
Let me be first and hopefully others will share their comments too.
First a comment on competitions: a seahorse is a good subject choice for winning contests: alongside whales, turtles and sharks, they just prove very popular.
Your seahorse has a lovely yellow colour, which has more appeal than a random brown or white individual, so that’s a good starting point, and I like how your directional, single strobe (or single video light?) lighting emphasises the bony plates covering the seahorse body.
If you had used a standard 2 strobes setup, the photo would just be about the seahorse’s nice colour, whereas your single-light brings in a 3-dimensional feel, making the subject more interesting visually. I also like how the seaweed partially constructs a frame for the seahorse, it helps with the composition.
Still, I don’t think it’s a competition-worthy shot as-is, but the following edits could make it stronger:
- Try & adjust the white balance: It feels like there’s an overall yellow cast, at least on my screen.
- if it was my photo, I’d crop it slightly from the top-left corner because a centered subject is too easy of an excuse for a judge to down-rate this photo.
Back to the lighting, perhaps your light comes a little too vertical. Personally I like the shy/mysterious feel it gives to the subject, but other viewers might find the eye contact to be lacking a little. You might want to try brightening up the eye in post. I’d love to hear other members’ opinions on that 🙂
One last thought if you get presented with a similar opportunity during the day: try lowering down the shutter speed to get blue water behind the seahorse. You can still enjoy the directional artificial light, but blue pairs so well with yellow 🙂