First attempts at underwater photography

[Marcus Wendel]

Hello all,

I've just returned from St Lucia where I took my first steps into the world of underwater photography. Obviously I have little idea about what I am doing at this stage but I've created a simple blog where I have posted some of the photos and videos I took and I would appreciate some feedback and suggestions on what to work on but keep in mind that I am very much a beginner and am finding it difficult do to the most basic things
The address is http://www.divingiguana.com/

I am using a Sea&Sea DX-GE5 with the flash Sea&Sea YS-Q2 and I got a suggestion about the "Underwater" action for Photoshop Elements so I've used that on the images.

/Marcus

[DIVENSNOOZE]

Hello all,

I've just returned from St Lucia where I took my first steps into the world of underwater photography. Obviously I have little idea about what I am doing at this stage but I've created a simple blog where I have posted some of the photos and videos I took and I would appreciate some feedback and suggestions on what to work on but keep in mind that I am very much a beginner and am finding it difficult do to the most basic things
The address is http://www.divingiguana.com/

I am using a Sea&Sea DX-GE5 with the flash Sea&Sea YS-Q2 and I got a suggestion about the "Underwater" action for Photoshop Elements so I've used that on the images.

/Marcus

Hi, tried your web site but cant seem to send an email. Anyway just to say my husband is out at the moment but he uses photoshop and a couple of other software - one is free to download. Will find out when he returns. Have a look at our photos and videos on YOU TUBE. Go to www.youtube.com and in search put DIVENSNOOZE and our videos will come up. Have a look at Hurghada 2011 Dive Video. If interested will let you know the software etc. We find the music is the hardest bit to do!!!
Regards Chris - from the UK

[Marcus Wendel]

Thanks for the reply, I will check those videos.

/Marcus

[LCF]

Well, I hope some of the much more experienced (and better!) photographers here will give you some feedback, but as a relative camera newbie myself, I can pass along some of the things people have told me.

First off is that a lot of your pictures are taken from above, shooting down. Sometimes that's all you can do (as with the peacock flounder), but photos are almost always more dramatic if they are taken from below, shooting up.

Second, I think it would help to get closer to your subjects. Remember that by the time you get to ten feet, you've lost the red -- so if the light from your strobe has to go five feet to the subject, and five feet back, the red is gone then, too. If you want the strobe to bring out the colors, you have to get closer.

Finally, there is a thing called the "rule of thirds". If you divide your photograph by drawing lines that divide it into thirds horizontally and vertically, where those lines intersect are the places that are of most "impact" in the picture. If you can place the object of interest at one of those intersections, the photograph will be more visually pleasing.

Hope those minor tips help. Spend some time searching "underwater photography tips" -- there are some great websites with information and ideas.

[Marcus Wendel]

Thanks for the feedback, the first two points I will definitely try to work on in my future dives. The last one definitely makes sense too but I think I will try to address the first two ones first so I don't overwhelm myself during the dives :-)

/Marcus

[Mo2vation]

Hey buddy

The most important thing to ask yourself with every shot is "what am I trying to say with this shot?"

Is the shot part of a dive report - where its an average shot, but an important part of the story, or is it a shot of a rare creature, or simply that extraordinary shot that will stand on its own?

We all shoot in what I call 'series' - taking many shots of the same subject or subjects within a specific scene. We stop, we pop, we move on.

You need to ruthlessly self edit until you can get to only one shot from each series - then frame all of those scenes within the context of the dive, and dump the ones that don't spin your head around.

You need to get to the point where you only show your very best work. Every single time.

Go on a dive with a group of friends... look at their dive reports or their blogs or their Picasa pages or their face book pages. Hundreds of shots... tons of shots of the same series. There is way too much show up and throw up out there.

Once you get the technical stuff dialed in (composition, color, focus... in that order) - you can begin to move from photographer to artist by learning to dismiss 90% of your stuff as unworthy, then taking that 10%, lopping off 50% of that and truly only showing your best stuff.

Focus on the technical stuff for now - the eye will come.

Work on composition - This includes shot selection. What makes this organism, this structure, this thing worthy of your time, your gas, your NDL? Is the critter 'doing' something or just sitting there? Do you have a good angle on it? Will the finished shot look nothing like the hundreds of cookie cutter shots you see in all the photo rags and photo competitions? If you can say yes to two of those, take the shot. If not, move on.

Work on color - shoot in Raw whenever you can. If you don't have raw, spend a dive with a color bar chart, and take it to 20, to 30, to 40, to 50 feet... take shots in all your settings (especially white balance) - see how far your strobe reaches, how it diffuses. Write down what you did, come back up and process them to the best of your ability until the colors look like you want them to look. Then remember... at 30 feet I need to change WB to X000 for Wide Angle, and at 50 feet I need to change WB to Y000 for Wide Angle. If your camera has pre-sets, set them for WB by depth.

Work on Focus - the best composed, most color-correct shot will be a toss away if you can't maintain focus. Fortunately, focus is the least technical and really, the least artistic piece of the big 3. Yes, yes - artistic focus, moving the focus point around the frame, dramatic DOF... all of that is artistic. But simple center-of-the-frame focus eludes diver after diver. Your subject may be moving. You're getting pushed by surge or swell... Does your cam have continuous Auto Focus? Learn to use it. If not, work on overcoming pulling stuff out of focus by watching the focus lock bars in your VW. Work on your DOF skills on land with your computer keyboard. In W/A, it hardly matters as you'll usually be wide open.

Remember to always (when in the water) shoot and process in the highest resolution possible. I can't believe how many 'bigfoot' shots I see on the web... the web is 72 DPI... you come DOWN to that... don't shoot in that.

Get the technical stuff down. Be disciplined. Dedicate entire dives to metering and taking shots in every possible setting for Macro - the do it again for W/A... get to know how your rig performs underwater. Get the colors dialed in, learn to be uber selective in choosing your subjects, compose them to maximize their impact on what you're trying to say with the shot, then get the focus down.

Get the technical stuff dialed in (aka: the boring stuff)... put in the time, the rest will follow.


-K

[LCF]

Ken, WONDERFUL post -- good for the OP, and good for the rest of us, too.

I've gotten vicious about my photos. I'd say 75% of what I shoot hits the floor on the first run-through. The rest I go through slowly and look at, and about half of those get thrown away. The rest I play with -- cropping and some minor adjustments -- until I decide they are as good as I can make them, or they are gone.

I am no artist. Ken's an artist. Scott Lundy is an artist. Peter is an artist.

But sometimes I dance a little bit . . .

[Mo2vation]

The stuff we don't post, we go to school on. I'm the Seve Ballesteros of underwater photography. Dude could not hit a ball straight... so he became master of the save, and won a few majors along the way. I am the master of the save.

Most of you don't know this - I'm a gardener. A remarkable, gifted gardener and landscaper. I come from a long line of architects, designers and engineers. All of them had a passion for the garden. I'm the guy who grows things.

I had to put gardening down.... I moved into this home specifically to assist me with walking away from it (think: lots o cement... although the last two years the itch is returning and now its all about container gardening... another story for another time).

I figure can come back to it when I'm old and small. Right now I'm too strong, have too much energy and would rather focus on things like diving and flyfishing and photography. Gardening and landscaping isn't going anywhere.

The rose curator at the Huntington Library (Chica is smiling... she's heard this story a hundred times) HIS name is Clair Martin. He has a quote I just love, in the context of a misbehaving or underachieving plant: Prune with a shovel.

I will spend enough time on a stinker to learn what I need to learn... but a stinker will never see the light of day. I will always prune with a shovel.

Thanks for the photo luv Lynne. That is very high praise.


-K

[Marcus Wendel]

Many thanks for those suggestions, I will definitely try to work on those areas.

/Marcus

[b1gcountry]

I can't really add anything to what Ken said, so I'll say something different. I get a lot better pictures if I bring a camera with and make picture taking the lowest priority task on the dive. That means I enjoy the dive first, and then only bust out the camera if there's something I really want a picture of. I wind up taking less pictures, but all of them are interesting in some way. If I go down and try to make camera work my #1 priority, I wind up trying to get a good picture out of something I shouldn't have even bothered with. I guess I just get better results when I don't try to force it.

Tom
PS, My best shots still aren't as nice as Ken's throw-aways, so take my photo advice with a grain of salt.

[Marcus Wendel]

That is a good suggestion, thanks.

/Marcus