Opinions Please?!

[newphotographer]

I've been photographing underwater on about 15 dives now. I would appreciate it if anyone would be willing to glance through my gallery and let me know what they think. What could I do better? What kind of mistakes am I making across the board? Are my exposures correct? Can you recommend any helpful general tips? Any tips to help me improve would MUCH appreciated. I'm shooting with a Sea & Sea DX 1G with a YS110 strobe. I do mostly beach diving off of Fort Lauderdale, so the visibility isn't ideal. If I'm posting in the wrong area, just let me know. Thank you ahead of time!

 

[stillhope]

I'm not an expert at critiquing photos, but here are some comments. I thought your compositions were generally really good. But often the focus was not crisp and the colors were muddy. If you work on those two things, your pictures will improve dramatically.

One other note: your "blennie" picture was interesting, except that the structures surrounding the blennie were correctly exposed, and the blennie itself underexposed. You should correctly expose the center of interest, and if the lesser important parts are overexposed or underexposed, that's the better compromise -- it draws the eye to where you want it to go.

You seem to have a remarkably good eye for composition, I look forward to seeing more of your work as you sort out some of the technical issues.

 

[SCOOBA PHAN]

I agree with Stillhope on the focas and color. I think you can improve these quickly by getting closer to the subject and by using an upclose or wideangle lens. You hear get closer alot and you think you are doing it , but you can always get closer and i think you can. I always thought i was close enough, but the more i took the more i realized I could get closer. A good lens is great also. kKeep shootin'. Tom

 

[gustele]

I agree with the other people. I am shooting myself with the same equipment and get better results. I don't know what settings you are using. I was not satisfied with this camera till I switched to manual with ISO 80 or 100 as maximum sensitivity. My shutter is always on 1/125 sec to get sharp images with moving objects. The flash is on TTL although the TTL-function is not working. And indeed getting as close as possible. You can shoot excellent macro with this camera and strobe by zooming in completely, choose a very small diafragm (f/12), switch to the macro setting and let the camera determine focus. The problem with the manual setting is that the LCD-screen will be mostly dark, but the autofocus is quite good.

Check for my photos at Picasa Web Albums - John. Tarpon City is not the best example and neither are the pictures of the Mediator because these are taken without flash with ambient light under lower than normal visibility.
You can also follow the link to my dive website in my signature.
If you have additional questions, feel free to ask.

 

[newphotographer]

Thanks for the time people, I really appreciate it. I look forward to heeding the words of advice and improving my images. When other divers ask me about underwater photography, I use one word...challenging! Challenging, but fun. I dive pretty much the same 2-3 shore dives around Ft. Lauderdale 1-2 times per week and the camera really helps keep things interesting!

 

[Doc Harry]

Are you doing any processing/cropping of the photos in Photoshop? Or are those unprocessed images?