As always, great photos Ken and Claudette! I really liked LJS when I dove it... filmed 13 species I had never been able to locate and film here in Catalina waters.
San Diego - A 9/11 I will never forget (pt 1)
- Thread starter Mo2vation
- Start date
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OP
I shoot everything in RAW (well, only the UW. Topside I shoot JPG's) and I shoot everything in Manual mode. I set the ap and the speed. The cam is in Auto Focus, continuous focus (I move, it keeps the subject in focus.... best feature ever for UW). I use spot metering.
I use old discontinued cameras (Nikon D200's) in old discontinued housings (Light & Motion Titans.)
For macro shots, there is very little post processing. My work flow usually looks like this:
1) Upload shots to Computer (MacBook Pro 17" Unibody these days, with 31" Cinema Monitor) into a folder with date and location
2) Make two sub-directories in folder: TIFFs and Webshots
Then the ruthless self editing begins.
3) Out of the, probably 170 shots I took, 156 made it home. I now cull out the possible keepers. This gets it to about 50 or 60
4) The winners are in "Sets" of 5 or 6 shots each, usually. Sometimes I'm one and done (like the bogus nax pic). There's the Medusa #1 set, the Medusa #2 set, the Fringehead set, the Octo set, etc. You get the idea. 2 to 5 shots of each critter.
5) I start culling the sets. I had probably 20 sets, some were boring or just not good enough. I finished with about 10 or 12 sets - some with 2 or 3 shots, some with 12 shots (the flying Hermi)
6) Pick ONE shot from each set
7) Look closely - as focus acceptable? Did I light it right? Does the composition say something... now I start negotiating with myself. This is the hardest part of the process. For example - the floating Rosie. I don't like the way the shot is lit (see that big shadow on the left?) I spent a long time (for me, that's about 6 or 7 shots... maybe two minutes or less) working this guy. But in the shots where I bounced the left strobe to eliminate the shadow - the lighting is perfect, but the critter had is Rhinophores (those antenna things) all pointing funny - so I didn't use them. I compromised on the lighting to get a better composition of the critter. Makes sense?
8) Now I start processing. I use Photoshop CS4 Extended (whatever that means...) I bring it into PS in RAW. Do I need to crop? Usually not. Then I will work on Contrast, Shadows & Highlights, I despeckle, I may pickout some random schmootz, I will generally move the black up about 2 to 5 clicks (my strobes are so warm black becomes black-gray), sharpen to taste and that's it. In Macro, I don't need to White Balance.
9) If the image is super clean, I save a full sized Tiff in the Tiff sub-directoy. If its not super clean, I just resize to 900 pixels wide, save for web (72 DPI) in the Webshots sub-directory.
I shot probably 170 or 175 shots on Saturday. I posted what, maybe 14 or 15 here? Of those, the Nax doesn't even count its such a bad shot - but its a funny memory.
That's really it. No magic. No Photoshop voodoo. I'm not very good with PS. I don't add stuff (like sunbursts or a turtle or whatever) or take anything bigger than schmootz out of the shots.
The more you mess with a shot, the more messed with a shot looks. I prefer to do it all in the camera - exposure, AP, lighting.
-Ken
I enjoyed seeing the pics. Thanks for posting 
OP
I'm using Ikelite DS125's. I've had these things for at least 5 years or so. Details of the rigs are here: Link to Deathstar
I'll often bounce on whatever I can. Light travels in straight lines, and sometimes its tough to get the subject lit so there is no shadow behind them or under them. There are times when shadows are good - showing relief on furry nudi's, accentuating structure, etc.
Sometimes you want no shadow. So I'll bounce off the grotto the critter is in, I'll bounce off my buddy, I'll turn the strobe around, compose, close my eyes and bounce off of my face if I'm off to the side.
Whatever it take to get the light into the places I want it to be.
Another way to get stuff to float is to light from the BOTTOM or the INSIDE - like my Light Table Nudis. Some shots below - putting a super powerful dive light under the kelp, ratcheting down the key lights (your strobes) to a dribble and letting the Kelp and the Nudi glow.
Have you ever shot a Nudi from the bottom? Through your Mask, or a piece of glass?
There are all kinds of ways to get interesting stuff... Just gotta think differently than composing a Nudi or a cuke or a fish or whatever top down like everyone else...
-Ken
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2ndjetty
Contributor
Amazing photos Ken. Do you have a website with more of your work?
Also, do you mind if I ask what lens you're using with the D200? Thanks! Macro I'm assuming...
- Brent
Also, do you mind if I ask what lens you're using with the D200? Thanks! Macro I'm assuming...
- Brent
OP
Thanks, man. I have lots of sites with my shots. Here on SB in my posts, over on The Dive Matrix in my posts and galleries. I have SlugJunkie I'm just getting off the ground. www.kennethkopp.com has a bunch. They're all over the place, I guess. I'm not a facebooker, so they're not there. I'll be at DEMA with some of my stuff, too.
Lens selection depends on what I'm gonna see. But you never know, which is why I take two rigs down, usually. A macro and a wide angle. We're on scooters, deco bottles, dry suits and stuff - so there's a lot going on.
My go-to lens for Macro is my old skool Nikon 105. I love that thing. It enables to stay far enough away from skittish critters (read Zebra Gobys and Juvi Treefish) that I won't spook them. The down side is on a D200 its a 157mm - the thing is a telescope. So anything bigger than a couple of inches and I gotta back off until I'm in the next zipcode. That puts way too much water between me and the subject. So now I have to throw more light, shoot slower, introduce haze from the water, etc, etc... But for the sub-rice kernel to about an inch, this lens is money. Plus, as a long lens you get that intimacy as your subject is sharp and all the stuff around it is softly fading out of focus. No way I get that crazy Fringehead shot above with my 60mm.
I love the Nikon 60mm for the bigger Nudis and close up stuff. The 60mm would have been PERFECT for the Medusa shots. I'm dying over here, because I know how much better those shots COULD have been, you know? I was at least 3 or 4 feet away because they were so big. The 60 lets me get right on top of the subject, and its a LOT sharper than the 105. Those Medusa shots would be laser sharp with the 60.
My go-to lens for W/A is my Nikon 12-12mm DX. Love that lens. I usually use it with a +2 or a +4 diopter. Its sharp, versatile and super clean. Its a pantload of cash, but its totally worth it.
I also have a 10.5mm Fisheye that I'll use for really, really big stuff. I like it in bright water, but locally its a bit tough, as you need to get so close. It took awhile to learn to light this lens. If you see racoon mask on a diver, its likely someone shooting with a fisheye. You need to get the light thrown onto the subject so it fills their mask - but its a challenge with this lens as to do that you need to back off a bit, and your instinct is to get close enough to fill the frame....
Those are the 4 lenses I shoot everything with. Macro is about 85% my 105. Close up is about 85% my 60. Wideangle (CFWA, especially) is nearly all my 12-24. Big stuff I'll shoot with the 10.5.
-K
DiveTheGalapagos
Contributor
Wow, thank you so much. I loved your dive report and PHOTOS!
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