first real UW photography experience

[fire_diver]

Well, we got back late sunday night, and I had my film developed this afternoon. I must say I had mixed feelings. This really is alot trickier than land photos. my thoughts after this first ocean dive:
- photography on a drift dive is twice as challenging
- fish are tricky. VERY easy to over-expose those shiny swimmers
- I can not believe the difference a strobe makes, amazing!
- definately 400 speed film. too many of my 100 film shots look like night photos
- how am I supposed to pick out a shot at depth? My photos show corral color I NEVER saw with my naked eye.
- focus with a non TTL viewfinder is challenging when you are moving, your subject is moving, and you're waiting for the shot to be framed just right.

Oh well, at least the practice is fun!

 

[Diver Dennis]

What camera do you have? I'd be careful moving to ISO 400. Where you shooting manual?

 

[alcina]

Practice is fun!!

As you develop your skills you may find that 100 is better as it still tends to offer better colours etc - but whatever works for you is what you should use.

Just imagine if you changed to digital! You would have seen that coral, made the adjustments for exposure, had plenty of frames to get the fish in focus and decreased the learning curve significantly ON your dive

If it were me, I'd be shopping for an inexpensive digital that I could also use on land and grabbing the housing for it...but that's just me, I have no patience to wait for film to be developed!

Anyway, have great dives and pop some photos up when you get them scanned!

 

[Jamdiver]

Looking forward to your pics fire_diver and welcome to the u/w photography club .
I agree with going to digital, it makes the learning curve a lot easier to handle..

Instant review and all that..

 

[fire_diver]

What camera do you have? I'd be careful moving to ISO 400. Where you shooting manual?

Its a Sea&Sea MM2. All manual. I shot both 100 and 400 films on the dive. I changed rolls during the SI between dives. And yes I took all precautions of water, sand, debris, and re-checking the o-ring.

I also have to learn to slow down the shutter finger a bit. about 25% of my shots were ambient light only becuase I didn't wait 4 seconds for the strobe to re-load.

I may try to scan an upload the better shots tonight.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I'll change cards on SI sometimes too. I'm not familiar with your camera but you might try a bigger aperature. When I shoot, I'll use ISO 100 and 5.6 or 6.3 @ 1/80 to 1/125 for distance shots, depending on the time of day. Strobes really have no effect over 8' or so.
I'm pretty new to this too and the best advice I got was to get closer and shoot lots.
I echo what alcina and Jam said, digital is a lot easier with instant results. Good luck and we'll wait for your pictures.

 

[fire_diver]

Practice is fun!!

Just imagine if you changed to digital! You would have seen that coral, made the adjustments for exposure, had plenty of frames to get the fish in focus and decreased the learning curve significantly ON your dive

Yeah, I know. I kept thinking of the ease of the 8mp Oly I bought my wife for Christmas. It's hard NOT to take a good shot with it. not to mention being about to take 120 shots to a card, AND the erase feature.

I just cant talk the wife into taking HER new camera below the waves, and I dont want to spend more money on another camera system before I realize the potential of the on I have.

 

[alcina]

LOL I hear ya! I still use my Canon A75 3.2MP camera a lot coz I can't justify adding a newer one

But think of the cost of film + the cost of developing + the cost of more and more dives to learn instead of taking home good shots + the non-monetary cost of missed shots, extended learning curve and tossed images that could have been keepers. To me that's worth the $400ish it would take to get into digital...YMMV

Whatever you decide, I do look forward to seeing some shots!!!

 

[Diver Dennis]

Alcina, you've got some terrific shots! I very much enjoyed your gallery.

 

[Scubatooth]

fire diver

you say some of your shots look like they where shot at night is this looking at the negatives or the cd that the processor gave you? because if its the CD and it was done by the typical minilab machine i wouldnt judge the image for anything based on those CDs as the machines done typically really know how to handle underwater images. even if the negative looks alittle thin you can get a good image out of the negative if you have a good film scanner or know a lab that operator know how to work the machine on manuel.

personally i have experince with working with some thin negatives and slides and have been able to pull some (btw im using a nikon 9000 film scanner(at home) and from time to time a imacon 343 flextight scanner at school) great images but it took some finese and a good bit of Photoshop time to get it, which is more then most non professional labs would ever do.

if you need some advice or help on getting some good scans please let me know

FWIW

Tooth