Seeking feedback on my UW photos.

[doctormike]

 

[Stoo]

As others have said, one of the main "skills" of a photographer must be to learn to edit your pile. I've been shooting for about 1000 years and derive a certain amount of income from it. Out of every 100 images I shoot, I probably only consider 10 or 12 "keepers". That's not to say that the others are horrible, but they aren't my best. So step one... delete about 90% of what you posted.

Once you've done that, ask us to have another look.

You do have some decent shots, but try to get closer generally, and try to avoid shooting down.

Good start though!

 

[Sam Miller III]

Enroll in a local community college basic photographic course...…….
First semester- basic photography
Succeeding semesters
1) composition
2) lighting
3) editing

California we have community colleges located through out the state and most teach photography.

SoCal UW photographers are so fortunate that recreational UW photography began here over 60 years ago and we still have such great local historical underwater photographic resources
LA UPS - founded in 1957-first President was @dr.bills close personal fiend. Zale Parry
UPS SD - founded in 1960
O CUPS - founded in 1965 (OCUPS-Orange County UW Photo Society )
( I was a charter member of LA UPS and Co founder of O CUPS)

Remember - a photographer is judged by his best and his worst -- show and be remembered only by your best

Good luck,

Sam Miller, 111

 

[Stoo]

Remember - a photographer is judged by his best and his worst -- show and be remembered only by your best

Well put SM III!

 

[The Chairman]

Cut and paste works well here. Chrome has a few issues, but many users are reticent to go outside SB to view pics. I think mostly due to time, etc.

 

[Navymarkv]

Which ones were your favourites? I’d post again with say, 6 of those and you would get very good feedback!

 

[nippurmagnum]

Just took a quick look through your pictures, and noticed a few common areas where you could dramatically improve:

(1) You are almost always shooting down on your marine life subjects (fish, morays, etc.). You'll get much better results if you shoot either at eye level, or even better, from below. Look at the shark picture that I use for my avatar, and imagine how boring it would be comparatively if I was just shooting down on it.

(2) You are using a wide angle lens, which is fine for wrecks, but not so much for marine life, unless you get MUCH closer to your subject. I assume your wide angle lens is a wet lens -- if so, remove it when photographing marine life. And then get much closer anyway (assuming you can do that without harming any coral reefs or other animals).

(3) You mentioned that you are using a strobe, but many of your pictures of marine life look like they are not illuminated at all -- and I suspect that it's because you are too far away for your strobe to light your subject. You really should think about being not more than arm's length from your subject for good lighting.

(4) You are wisely turning some of your ambient light shots into B/W pictures. You should do more of that with shots where the color of the ambient light does not contribute to the image. Way to think about it is, does the color add to the composition? If the answer is not a clear "yes" then try turning it into B/W, and play with the contrast/shadows/highlights features of whatever imaging software you are using.

(5) Be more selective in how many shots you display. Quickest way to dramatically improve as a photographer!

 

[outofofficebrb]

(2) You are using a wide angle lens, which is fine for wrecks, but not so much for marine life, unless you get MUCH closer to your subject. I assume your wide angle lens is a wet lens -- if so, remove it when photographing marine life. And then get much closer anyway (assuming you can do that without harming any coral reefs or other animals).

I have a wide angle wet lens and leave it on for marine life. It's fine to leave it on...You just need to get much closer as mentioned. The only exception is if what you're taking a photo of is smaller, then you can probably go without or will need to crop it down, or use a macro lens if it is much smaller still, but more often than not, a wide angle lens will be beneficial because that allows you to get much closer while keeping it in frame and using your strobes as close as possible.

 

[CharlieDontDive]

you need to pare down your album, there are too many to evaluate to give feedback. Some are good shots but when reviewed against the totality of your album it is hard to tell if those shots were luck or not...but it seems like you have some elements of good composition in some of the photos.

-Z

Okay great, thank you very much. I think my fundamentals and instincts are pretty solid but I need to improve my knowledge of how cameras work. Still fudd'ing around on non-manual mode which I need to change.

 

[CharlieDontDive]

Just took a quick look through your pictures, and noticed a few common areas where you could dramatically improve:

(1) You are almost always shooting down on your marine life subjects (fish, morays, etc.). You'll get much better results if you shoot either at eye level, or even better, from below. Look at the shark picture that I use for my avatar, and imagine how boring it would be comparatively if I was just shooting down on it.

(2) You are using a wide angle lens, which is fine for wrecks, but not so much for marine life, unless you get MUCH closer to your subject. I assume your wide angle lens is a wet lens -- if so, remove it when photographing marine life. And then get much closer anyway (assuming you can do that without harming any coral reefs or other animals).

(3) You mentioned that you are using a strobe, but many of your pictures of marine life look like they are not illuminated at all -- and I suspect that it's because you are too far away for your strobe to light your subject. You really should think about being not more than arm's length from your subject for good lighting.

(4) You are wisely turning some of your ambient light shots into B/W pictures. You should do more of that with shots where the color of the ambient light does not contribute to the image. Way to think about it is, does the color add to the composition? If the answer is not a clear "yes" then try turning it into B/W, and play with the contrast/shadows/highlights features of whatever imaging software you are using.

(5) Be more selective in how many shots you display. Quickest way to dramatically improve as a photographer!

1- Less shooting down, got it. This is one of those things that I know, but always seem to forget when I get excited about a subject...

2- Wide angle lens is due to my focus on wrecks. Duly noted for critters, however.

3- I only started using a strobe very recently. I haven't even seen much in the way of wildlife since I started using it...I usually either dive at a quarry (almost zero marine life) or off NJ where I'm focusing on the wrecks themselves.

4- This is a great insight on B&W!

5- Yes you're probably right.

Thank you so much for the feedback, this is great stuff.