Underwater Photography Tips

Newbie Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

Joe, your pictures are fantastic! clapping

I'm just getting started with underwater photography and your pictures are very inspirational. How long have you been taking pictures underwater?

I have a Sealife DC300, but it just has the built in flash. If I get the separate flash will my pictures look more like yours? I don't know about all those f-stops and shutter speeds, can you possibly convert that to sunny/cloudy, kinds of settings for us newbies? newbie

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:51 pm Post subject:

crouman,

I recently purchased the Sealife dc500 elite set that comes with the camera, housing, digital strobe and wide-angled lens, all in a great travel case. To get good u/w shots with vibrant colors, and to reduce backscatter, you really do need an external strobe (flash). Sealife makes 2 external strobes that are compatible with the dc300. The SL960 and the SL960D. I have the SL960D and it has an adapter that covers the built in flash and transmits the flash via a fiber optic cable to trigger the strobe to flash. For more info check Sealife's website.

Hope this helps,

John

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:20 pm Post subject:

Thank you crouman ? and

As John said, using an external strobe is absolutely critical in minimizing backscatter and obtaining natural looking lighting. I truly appreciate your kind words about my images but you really should seek your inspiration through the work of people like Cathy Church and Steven Frink who have devoted most of their lives to underwater photography.

I have been shooting and teaching underwater photography for about 20 years but during the last five years I have not shot much underwater and am only now making the transition from film to digital. I'll keep posting images and sharing what I learn but I can't make specific recommendations for presets on all the various makes of cameras. The best thing to do would be to practice as much as possible and see which ones work the best for you. I can only share what settings I chose with the equipment I am using.

Photography is a form of art and self expression so the most important thing is that the images you take most accurately depict what you were feeling at that moment in time. The technical aspects of your imagery will improve over time as you gain experience and make equipment upgrades. Being extremely comfortable in the water and intimately familiar with all the functions of your camera gear will tremendously increase your percentage of quality images. For example, I saw three Eagle Rays on that last dive but by the time I turned down the strobe and adjusted the camera settings they were long gone. I need to be able to do that in a matter of seconds. Later that evening I spent almost an hour repeating over and over the sequence of settings I need to make for that particular transition. That is part of the level of dedication that is required in order to increase your percentage of quality images on any given dive.

I would be happy to offer some general tips that would apply to any equipment:

? Get as close to your subject as possible. The wider the lens, the closer you will be able to get to your subjects. The more distance between you and your subject, the greater the backscatter, loss of light/color and image distortion.

? Never use a flash if you are more than 3 feet away from your subject.

? Always try to shoot upwards and include the sun in your images whenever possible; avoid shooting down at anything.

? If you have an external strobe, detach it from the camera and hand-hold it as far above and to one side of your subject as possible without underexposing the image.

I?ll continue to post general tips and suggestions on a regular basis. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:53 pm Post subject:

Joe, thanks for the information, some of it I am familiar with but I didn't know about not using a flash if you were more than 3 ft away. As for detaching the strobe, I don't think I have the coordination to do that, but maybe getting someone else to hold the strobe out would work. On our camera you can detach the strobe so maybe we will try that on our next dive trip. Makes me wish that I could go out and try out some of these techniques now. That is the one thing about underwater photography for the most of us, it is not something we get much practice time at. Thanks again Joe.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:36 pm Post subject:

Joe,

Beautiful shots. Thanks for sharing them. How deep were you with the last shot and was it taken in the morning to get alot of angled sunlight? The sun really provides some great backlighting to create the sihouette effect allowing you to reduce the strobe intensity.

Nice job.

John

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:05 pm Post subject:

Thanks John. Very Happy

We were at about 90 - 120 feet for all of those shots - I added a few more. You need to be below 100' or so on a clear day for the sun to appear as a small ball on the top of the image and silhouette the reef structures. It was around 11:30 when we did that dive; anywhere from 10-2 will work to achieve the sunbursts on a sunny day, it's all a matter of positioning. The hard part is finding an angle that compliments the subject and still allows an upward shot; that, and getting your mask and mouth full of water from being upside down. Very Happy

Newbie Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

Joe, I have seen Cathy Church and lots of other pro photos in the dive mags. I've never seen any photos as good as these. I'm going to be there in October. How much would you charge for a private lesson? I know you are busy, even just one dive. I'll pay for your dive and whatever you want to charge me. I've got a Sealife DC300, and I'm getting a strobe. Is there anything else I need? I'll do whatever it takes.

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:33 pm Post subject:

crouman,

I wouldn't presume to speak for Joe, or even as an experienced u/w photgrapher, but I'd suggest a wide angled lens for the dc300, rechargeable batteries for the strobe, a spare memory card and spare camera battery, if you do not already have them.

I just started with the dc500 and just took my first u/w shots in GC a few weeks ago, so I am far from an experienced u/w photographer. I'll be posting them shortly, but my avatar was one of the shots from the recent trip. If I learned anything, taking good u/w shots is hard. Peak performance buoyancy and getting close to the subject with sufficient lighting is key. Take lots of shots with different angles and settings, as more shots will likely be bad, than good.

If you can, consider stopping into Cathy Church's shop, as she also offers private lessons. You may also wish to get in a 2 tank dive on the West or North if you haven't already done so.

Although I haven't dove with OF, I've heard nothing but great things about them. You're going to love it.

Just a few thoughts.

Enjoy!

John

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:32 pm Post subject:

Thank you everyone so very much for all your kind words and encouragement. Very Happy

crouman - I am flattered by your request but I do not teach photography anymore. In fact, with digital underwater photography, I am a just a beginner. Everything John mentioned is excellent advice and Cathy Church is far more qualified than I to provide personal instruction. You will find a coupon for Cathy Church photo instruction in Activity Guide when you arrive. Wink

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:57 am Post subject: Little Cayman Underwater Photos

Amazing Photos...rival pics I've seen in Scuba Diver and Sport Diver Magazine Exclamation

You must have a professional rig.....Many thousands of dollars invested in equipment I gather...Could I ask you what kind of setup you use?? Confused

Make/Model/dual strobe...ect please

I have a digital fuji finepix440 takes great above water pics...small and just right 4 me anyway. There is a housing that the manufacturer makes for a few hundred, but I'm almost sure the flash on the existing camera would not do the job. (unless I was using the Macro function) Can you elaborate on this, or should I post in different area?

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:04 pm Post subject:

Joe has posted all the details you have asked about in this thread, located in the Diving section

Char

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:38 pm Post subject: Thanks Scubachar

I will check out the thread....Thank You!

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject:

Underwater Photo Tips

Part II ? Be prepared, experiment and have a plan

In my last post I gave a brief overview of some of the basics for underwater photography. I?ll now elaborate a bit more on some of the previous tips and move on to some slightly more advanced techniques.

Shutter speeds, f-stops, strobe settings, exposure values? it?s enough to boggle the minds of even the most skilled underwater photographers. In addition to all the challenges of land photography, the underwater environment poses even greater obstacles; a confluence of capricious movements exacerbated by perplexing light and color gradients. And yet for all its complexity, underwater photography is among the most rewarding and fastest growing hobbies among tropical travelers. With the advent of today?s affordable and relatively easy to use digital cameras, even novice divers and photographers can now capture impressive underwater images with just a minimal investment of equipment and training.

The first and most important step in capturing good underwater pictures is developing absolutely perfect buoyancy control skills and becoming extremely comfortable in the water. If you are constantly struggling to adjust your gear and maintain neutral buoyancy it?s unlikely that you will capture any spectacular images. Adjusting your BC, clearing your mask, monitoring your gauges and staying close to your buddy should be almost involuntary functions and not constant distractions. If you are at all unsure, taking a buoyancy control clinic from any of our Recommended Dive Operations will yield the best investment towards ensuring the most enjoyment from your dives while improving the quality of your underwater images.

The second step is to be completely familiar with the features and controls of your photography equipment. If you do not own your own equipment, consider renting or buying from Cathy Church here in the Cayman Islands. Besides offering the best duty free prices on all camera equipment, you will receive a free lesson from Cathy Church, which in and of itself more than warrants the purchase. The average photographer will learn more from Cathy in a day than they would over the course of dozens of dives without instruction. I?ll continue to offer tips that should be beneficial regardless of what equipment you are using but there is no substitute for a lesson from a professional instructor using your own camera gear.

Now more than ever in the digital age - more is more. All photography ? whether on land or underwater is a game of percentages; the more you shoot, the more you learn and consequently, the better you become. There is some truth to the old axiom: ?the only difference between an amateur and professional photographer is the professional throws away more pictures.? While sheer quantity is not an adequate substitute for professional training and experience, increasing the overall number of photographs will certainly increase the number of favorable images; of course, this does not mean shooting the same subject from the same angle with the same settings over and over again but rather experimenting with varying camera settings, angles and lighting. Some of my favorite pictures were that last ?just in case? shot I took before moving on to the next subject. Simply snapping a single picture of everything you see along the way that interests you during the course of a dive will produce the least (and often no) number of really impressive looking images.

Always include at least one ?safe? shot of every subject that contains:

- An upward camera angle

- Auto and TTL settings if your equipment offers it and you are able to switch from manual with your housing. If this is not possible, use your most consistently reliable settings

- A primary subject that is no more than 2 feet from a 15mm lens or 3 feet from a 20mm lens

With few exception, every named dive site in the Cayman Islands boasts a particular feature or two that makes it unique; the divemasters at our Recommended Dive Operations will always explicate the various areas of interest during their briefing and point them out to you during the dive. For example, at Big Tunnel there is the main tunnel, which is surrounded by several smaller caverns and tunnels; there are also areas rich in orange Elephant Ear Sponge that are often populated by various species of angelfish. In this case, a realistic goal would be to plan on capturing the main features of the tunnels and sponges, from various angles using a variety of lighting and camera settings. Tunnels and caverns require special lighting techniques and settings, which I will go into in greater detail in subsequent articles; for now, use whatever settings you are comfortable with and by all means experiment with different angles, camera settings and lighting, the latter being the most important. How much strobe you use and where you position it can mean the difference between a dull, lifeless, washed out shot filled with backscatter verses an ultra-clean dramatic image with intense colorful highlights.

No professional photographer uses the same settings, angles and lighting on every shot; if you want to capture impressive looking images you are going to have to try different things. Eventually, you will discover a basic set of settings, lighting and angles that work best for certain shots and a different configuration for others. Even then, unless you are extremely lucky - count on taking at least 3-4 different shots of each subject. When you get home and compare them on your computer you?ll be glad you did. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:01 pm Post subject:

Joe Stebbins wrote:

Thank you Ravenchylde - Yes, I've had above and below water images published for over 20 years, mostly underwater shots in Skin Diver and Rodale's, plus of course our own publication and most of the local publications here and in Hawaii. I've only been shooting digital for about a year above water and less than 3 months underwater. I've still got a lot to learn. Very Happy

I know what you mean by just jumping into the digital age of photography,

for the past 20 years I've been using Pentax K1000 fully manual camera, and understand all what it takes to photograph above water, just purchased a small pocket sized digital camera prior to last vacation. I must say the technology is great, and not having to carry around 3 different lenses and being able to see the photos right away.

I'd like to ask you question......would you consider buying a u/w housing for a small digital camera?

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:13 pm Post subject:

Ravenchylde - Many of the smaller cameras produce surprisingly good results. I?ve got my eye on an inexpensive Olympus for Peggy to use exclusively for underwater macro photography. It?s eight mega-pixel, which is higher than my Nikonos D70 but the lens quality is not nearly comparable. With cameras ? particularly underwater, almost everything is a trade off, requiring some kind of compromise. I?ve spent thousands on my camera gear and it still has many shortcomings. For one thing, I can?t change from manual to auto with either the camera or lens settings once the camera is inside the housing; I have to commit to one or the other before the dive so I always leave everything on full manual. With many of the smaller inexpensive models there are no manual settings so most housings give you access to all of their preset features.

The one thing I can?t emphasize strongly enough is that no matter what camera and housing you decide to use, be absolutely certain it can accommodate at least one external strobe. Ideally, it should be compatible with Nikonos sync cords, which will enable the greatest flexibility in choosing and upgrading your strobes. You may end up spending more on the strobe than the camera but that would be a good investment in the long run if you maintain compatibility with Nikonos as you can upgrade your camera and housing without having to replace your strobe(s). In the smaller, entry to mid level cameras with poor to fair quality lenses, one of the biggest drawbacks is their ability to reconcile the various extreme light and color paradigms prevalent in the underwater environment. Strategic placement of an external strobe with variable settings will allow you to overcome many of the shortcomings of the lens and compensate for the lack of manual camera settings.

So the short answer is yes, I would definitely use a smaller camera in a housing, provided it could accommodate a quality external strobe. I also recommend getting the widest possible lens available for that size camera and settle for nothing higher than 24mm.

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