What Next?

[Hetland]

I've spent this season learning about my camera, and later my strobe (I'm STILL learning, but you know what I mean). I still need to pick up a few odds and ends, but I'm pretty happy with my set up for now, and I'm not burning to spend big cash on changing my system out.

Special thanks to SeaYoda for some good advice, and a BIG Special Thanks to alcina for good pointers and wonderful photos of her own to inspire us all.

I'm coming to the point now, where I need objective eyes to help me improve. I'd like some brutal, honest opinions on things I can do to make better shots. I'm (mostly) happy with these shots, but I know there is room for improvement. Please advise and don't worry about slapping my ego around.

Shot at f5.0 I'm thinking I should have opened it as wide as I could and still have full focus of the subject...

Can't figure out what I could have done, but I feel like there was a better photo here and I did something wrong. Composition?

I'm quite happy with how this one turned out on paper, but I'm thinking I had too much flash, I would have liked to have gotten it a little sharper.

Thanks in advance for help.

-h

 

[Larry C]

The Octopus in the tire is a really nice shot. It's tough to get great focus with that much crap in the water. The camera tends to pick up the particulate. It looks like your best focus is on the foreground where the body and front tentacles are. Generally, you want to center your focus on the eyes. Your light level is fine, but you could easily adjust the color and contrast in Photoshop and improve the picture. Using unsharp mask can also make it appear sharper. Rather than opening the aperture, you probably could have closed it down some. I shoot most portraits at f5.6 and macros at f8.0. This will allow you better depth of field and darken your background. For wide shots, your f5.0 is probably fine, maybe even f4.0 with a longer focus.

To me the problem with the other two pictures is they don't really have a subject. They're neither macro, nor wide shots. Neither fish nor fowl so to speak. I would have moved to near minimum focal distance and shot with the snails as the subject and the colony as the background. That gives you better detail, better light and gets rid of the crud you see in the green water. Same thing with the Urchin. Maybe put the Urchin in the lower right and some of the interesting growth on the rock as a background. I'd like to see something else in the picture. If there are fish in the area, sometimes I'll wait for one to swim in front of a background like the ones you've shown and then shoot. Just keep shooting and see which ones you like best. Experiment with composition by cropping the pictures after the fact and by precropping in your head before shooting. When I first started, I took a lot of pictures like those as do most beginning underwater photographers. What looks good to your eye when you're at the dive site doesn't necessarily come out the same in your picture. You have to cater to the camera by getting either closer or farther back and learning to get the best picture in those modes.

Here's 2 minutes of photoshop on your Octopus. All I did was sharpen it a bit, darken it a bit, increase the contrast slightly, and I tried the Autocolor button, which adjusted the white balance quite nicely.

 

[Hetland]

Just what I was hoping for Larry. Thanks!

 

[paradicio]

Hey Hetland,

One of the most useful tricks I learned... When there is that much particulate matter in the water it's best to try to avoid open water in your pictures (unless you just can't avoid it), try aiming your shot up against a reef, wreck, or even a sandy bottom. It helps hide some of the back scatter.

Just like you did with the Octopus photo.

 

[Hetland]

Thanks Paradicio. I'm pretty much stuck with crappy viz and loads of particles (unless I ever get a vacation ) so I appreciate the tips on mitigation.

-h

 

[dvrbon]

Larry is right. Composition is key to good pictures. Go to the library or online and find articles on how to compose pictures. Don't labor over it, just have fun with it !

 

[paradicio]

Thanks Paradicio. I'm pretty much stuck with crappy viz and loads of particles (unless I ever get a vacation ) so I appreciate the tips on mitigation.

-h

Living in CA I have no idea what bad viz is like.

Another tip is (if you've got the strobes for it, my strobes have kind of a narrow beam), try edge lighting. Basically point your strobes outward slightly and light your subject with the edge of the beam. This will help minimize back scatter as well.

Enjoy, can't wait to see the next batch!