U W photography for dummies ??....

[mermoose]

I am extremely fortunate that our group leader, Ken Knzenik @ Island Dreams has agreed to help me. I have seen his work and it is great ! Thank you all for your comments and ideas. I also really like the "laundry" exercise...I even have little stuffed sea critters that have been gifted to me over the years. I am thoroughly reviewing the owners manual for my camera for the first time in my life. The link to basic photography listed by The Deuce is really a big help. My needs are very basic and I would recommend that sight to anyone in a similar situation. Lots of good info, easy to understand.
BTW, If anyone knows anyone interested in selling a fisheye fix housing for the S100 I would appreciate a referral. They are discontinued and out of stock everywhere. I know there are other housings, but this is preferred. And, yes I posted on the classifieds. Hoping maybe someone is upgrading or needs some quick cash...
Thanks again gang !

 

[Hatul]

The hard part I find is knowing what settings to use: do I use Tv, Av, or P ? Should I use Jpeg or RAW. What software do I use? How do I deal with shutter lag and things are moving?

 

[cageybob]

Like most have said, the school of hard knocks is your best teacher. For some reading material, I highly recommend Maria Munn's book
Amazon.com: Underwater Photography for Compact Camera Users: A step-by-step Guide to Taking Professional Quality Photos with a Point-and-shoot Camera (9781118345559): Maria Munn: Books

Maria is member on this forum and is very passionate about her craft. I have dove with her in the past. We met in Malaysia (Mabul/Sipadan) and I witnessed her results first hand (ended up as a model in a few). Extremely talented. Her book is very good read for beginners and someone with some degree of experience to help get better.

 

[maria munn]

Hi Bob and Mermoose,

Thanks so much for giving the thumbs up for my book, I'm really pleased that it has helped you both to get creative with your own compact cameras.

Here are a sample of images taken in Lembeh, Raja Ampat and Malaysia with a point & shoot camera using natural light, macro & wide angle lenses and sometimes with just one external strobe. The leaf fish was taken with a Canon S95 just using the camera's macro mode and one external strobe, the mimic octopus was taken with the S95 using the camera's underwater mode just using the camera's macro mode as well. The frogfish was taken with a Canon Ixus 980 (990 US model) with an INON Macro Lens and one external strobe. The cuttlefish shot was taken with a Canon S95, INON 165-AD Fisheye Lens and one external strobe. The schooling fish was taken with a Canon Ixus 980 (990 US model) with an INON 165-AD Fisheye Lens and one external strobe and finally the cave shot was again taken with a Canon Ixus 980 (990) with an INON 165-AD Fisheye Lens. The strobes used were either an INON S-2000 or my friend's INON Z-240. All were taken in JPEG mode and the only photoshop work I have done is to the mimic octopus and the schooling fish shot were there was a little backscatter that crept in. The rest seen are all as they were taken at the time in the camera, no editing or even cropping whatsoever. I have created this collage and flattened the layers to produce just one image.

Hope this helps and if you are reading this and have a compact camera and would like to take these kind of shots, I offer tailor-made tips for £9.95 which will give you an indepth camera guide to the settings you should use to get these kinds of shots to whichever destination you are off to.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and happy diving.

Maria

 

[coralcruiser]

I can't get the images to open.... any one else having this issue?

 

[Tigerman]

To give some idea of how few pictures get good - especially when youre starting off and maybe some inspiration...
This is 4 years worth of dives and as youll see from the filenames, over 3500 shots taken. Still this is only my initial pick and its going to be narrowed even further down before I consider which ones to put into my album..
Flickr: EvenALie's Photostream

Also notice that some of the pictures has serious color issues compared to others - thats because Ive forgotten to shoot raw and only had the jpegs to work with. All these pictures is taken with a Canon G7 in an OEM housing and all the pictures except the ones taken at night is shot with no flash and auto white balance, but whitebalanced in lightroom afterwards. Whitebalance is also the only thing done to these pictures.

 

[maria munn]

Hi Coral Cruiser,

I'm afraid that each image won't open as I have created a collage of different images and put them together into one large background and then flattened the whole image. I have now edited my post to show what different accessories I used for my compact camera in the hope that it will help Scubaboarders more.

If you have any more questions, just let me know. Always happy to help.

Have a lovely weekend.

Maria

 

[samplin]

Hi Maria

Are you planning any photo/seminar trips?

 

[maria munn]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the question and would love to help you more.

I'm planning a week's photo trip to Mabul and Sipidan in October, confirmation of the trip will be this week with possibly an extra week's workshop in either Lembeh or Bali. Am totally open to ideas if anyone else who is reading is also interested.

I am giving a talk at the London Dive Show in two weeks' time called "Getting Creative with your Compact Camera." I'll make a podcast of it too.

Have a lovely weekend and if I can help with anything else, just let me know. You will definitely be taking beautiful shots in no time with your set-up Joe.

All the best,

Maria