First Attempt: Comments / Criticisms?

[Canadian_Diver]

Well, this was my first attempt at underwater photography.

I know there's a few things wrong, but my budget is restricted until next spring. I have a baby on the way, and I just bought a whole bunch of new 'toys' for myself and my wife.... not to mention 2 dive trips this winter.

These shots were all taken on my Canon Powershot A40 (I know... old...) with no external light souce. The shots with colour were taken using the internal flash. I have a UK D8 that I want to make a diffuser for, and mount on an arm & tray. I found a few options in that area, but if you folks have some other sources to keep the costs down, it would be appreciated. I don't want to dump a ton of money in on this rig, as I'm going to eventually upgrade to something much nicer.

So, here it goes... any comments or criticisms are welcome.

 

[cdiver2]

Well, this was my first attempt at underwater photography.

I know there's a few things wrong, but my budget is restricted until next spring. I have a baby on the way, and I just bought a whole bunch of new 'toys' for myself and my wife.... not to mention 2 dive trips this winter.

These shots were all taken on my Canon Powershot A40 (I know... old...) with no external light souce. The shots with colour were taken using the internal flash. I have a UK D8 that I want to make a diffuser for, and mount on an arm & tray. I found a few options in that area, but if you folks have some other sources to keep the costs down, it would be appreciated. I don't want to dump a ton of money in on this rig, as I'm going to eventually upgrade to something much nicer.

So, here it goes... any comments or criticisms are welcome.

For your first shots you did good. I did notice a lot of the shots were looking down, not the best view see if you can get a slightly up wards view.

 

[PapaBob]

Canadian:

I second cdiver2. I do not use a camera with an internal flash, but understand that they have range and backscatter issues. You will be happier with an external strobe as far off camera as works. That said, the shots can be tweaked by doing some post production work in Photoshop. Low res attachments are tough to work with. If you want, post some of the pics in your gallery at a higher res (say the flamingo tounge, trigger fish, and christmas tree worms) and send me a PM. I will see what I can do to help. Totally optional with you, I thought I would offer. I am sure others will add some constructive comments. I hope your inital work gets you excited enough to try more.

---Bob

 

[Canadian_Diver]

Thanks for your comments! They are greatly appreciated.

cdiver - I had considered the position of my shots. I'm glad you confirmed my feelings on those shots. I would have tried for a little better positioning, but I was in some crazy surge on a few of those shots and a bit distracted working with a camera. I was concerned about damaging the reef, so I decided to keep it simple for my first camera-laden outing.

I will say though, it certainly improved my bouyancy even further. As I get more comfortable with the camera underwater, I'll be more comfortable to get better angles without disturbing the flora & fauna.

Bob, that internal flash will be 'permanently' off once I find a tray and arm. I had backscatter in some of my other pictures, but for the most part got lucky, having very few pictures ruined by it. My UK D8 doesn't come with a diffuser. Can one simply use some vellum paper and stick it on the inside of the lights' lens?

I might just take you up on some of the editting, and certainly appreciate the offer. However, I would like to learn / experiment some on my own. It doesn't help me if I need someone to edit my pictures for me all the time.

Am I excited? You bet. I wouldn't be planning to dump some big coin on a Canon Digital SLR, housing, and strobes in the next year or two otherwise.

 

[cdiver2]

As I said for a first time very good. You will learn as you go on that if you can not get into the position you want (ref the looking down shots) to leave them and look for shots where you can compose how you want. Take all the help in photo shop you can get, then work on the original photo and see if you can get the same or better results.
I personally find that getting backscatter out of photos is easy in photoshop, so don't give up on them give it a shot.

 

[Canadian_Diver]

As I said for a first time very good. You will learn as you go on that if you can not get into the position you want (ref the looking down shots) to leave them and look for shots where you can compose how you want. Take all the help in photo shop you can get, then work on the original photo and see if you can get the same or better results.

I personally find that getting backscatter out of photos is easy in photoshop, so don't give up on them give it a shot.

Thanks again for the great advice. I will definitely keep it in mind on my dive trip in November. Although, I might be doing a few wreck dives in August when I drive out to Lake Superior. I'll definitely have my camera for that trip.

As for the photoshop, I'll post the hi-res pictures this evening.

How do you go about getting rid of BS in PS? I archived all my shots, both good and bad (unless they were a complete write off with nothing to work with).

 

[cdiver2]

Thanks again for the great advice. I will definitely keep it in mind on my dive trip in November. Although, I might be doing a few wreck dives in August when I drive out to Lake Superior. I'll definitely have my camera for that trip.

As for the photoshop, I'll post the hi-res pictures this evening.

How do you go about getting rid of BS in PS? I archived all my shots, both good and bad (unless they were a complete write off with nothing to work with).

I use the clone stamp or the healing brush. Clone stamp, in your tools on the left side (looks like an ink pad stamp). Click on it then move the courser near some BS and ALT click then move courser over the BS and click. The size of the circle can be adjusted on the top bar.

 

[Charlie99]

As for the photoshop, I'll post the hi-res pictures this evening.

How do you go about getting rid of BS in PS?

I didn't do anything about the backscatter, which wasn't very bad, but here's what 10 minutes in Photoshop Elements can do for color correction of the available light photos. Most were just the enhance | adjust color | remove color cast; or were just a levels adjustment layer with RGB each tweaked.

 

[cdiver2]

I didn't do anything about the backscatter, which wasn't very bad, but here's what 10 minutes in Photoshop Elements can do for color correction of the available light photos. Most were just the enhance | adjust color | remove color cast; or were just a levels adjustment layer with RGB each tweaked.

Charlie esp #3 like that shot

 

[Diver Dennis]

Very nice Charlie.