Totally unjustifiable purchase - but isn't that what we're all good at doing? Although I shot other subjects as well, here are a few anemone fish from the Red Sea a week or 2 ago

1. 

2. 

3. 

All resized to 1500px and sizes lowered to around 700-800kb to see what, if any, IQ hit posting them takes

Mike

Stunning photos.

Which lens did you use?

Give us a feedback on uploaded photo quality

 

Thanks Davide, 

I think the IQ here is pretty representative of what I see in photoshop. Obviously a little hit due to lowering the quality to around '70' to get a reasonable image size. (I know nothing about how effect much posting large photos has on a forums hosting allowance)

I think there is plenty detail available for people to be able to offer genuine critique on composition lighting as well as the technical side

Looking at the 2nd picture - which is in my mind the sharpest - I don't think there is much of a negative affect. Happy to send you the originals via email if you want to do a test at home. 

Gear wise Sony A1, 90mm lens, 160 degree objective

Hardest part for me was getting a sharp image with a blue background as you shoot at really los shutter speeds and clownfish rarely stop moveing

Mike

51 minutes ago, Pooley said:

I think the IQ here is pretty representative of what I see in photoshop. Obviously a little hit due to lowering the quality to around '70' to get a reasonable image size. (I know nothing about how effect much posting large photos has on a forums hosting allowance)

I think there is plenty detail available for people to be able to offer genuine critique on composition lighting as well as the technical side

Looking at the 2nd picture - which is in my mind the sharpest - I don't think there is much of a negative affect. Happy to send you the originals via email if you want to do a test at home. 

thanks for the feedback.
We tried to find a compromise between file size and quality. We were waiting for feedback from users that have the original photos on their desktop.
As you wrote, knowing that the final size is 1500 pixels, surely the algorithm in Lightroom or Photoshop is better than the automatic one in the forum.

With these pics: justifiable purchase. What kind of light did you use?

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. 

I've shot recently with EMWL-1 160deg. objective, and I noticed that I needed to 'cool' down the image because of a yellowish hue.. did you notice the same?

(the attached pic is already corrected)

 

Very nice! Ive been trying to justify that purchase for a bit... I may try to rent and see how I get along with it. haha. Thanks for posting.. 

I think the best quality wise we will get on the forums, is We adjust to 1500px on the long side @ 72-96dpi, this will keep it from hitting the compression on the server. 

1 hour ago, fruehaufsteher2 said:

With these pics: justifiable purchase. What kind of light did you use?

Thankyou. 

I have 2 retra pro's mounted near to the front element way out in front of the camera, just slightly behind the lens. I changed the angle they were pointing a couple of times. 

I bought 2 large inon float arms just before I went as the kit is very nose heavy and they were a very useful addition

Mike

1 hour ago, pcremone said:

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. 

I've shot recently with EMWL-1 160deg. objective, and I noticed that I needed to 'cool' down the image because of a yellowish hue.. did you notice the same?

(the attached pic is already corrected)

 

First up, that's a lovely photo, well balanced composition. 

Yes a little cooling down was needed. Nothing that's a problem shooting in RAW though

Mike

1 hour ago, RichN said:

Very nice! Ive been trying to justify that purchase for a bit... I may try to rent and see how I get along with it. haha. Thanks for posting.. 

I think the best quality wise we will get on the forums, is We adjust to 1500px on the long side @ 72-96dpi, this will keep it from hitting the compression on the server. 

Cheers Rich - I wish I knew of somewhere that rented this gear, could have saved myself a small fortune!

Mike

Why? Just why would you post those?! My bank account can't take anymore. Seriously, they are absolutely amazing!

13 hours ago, Pooley said:

Thanks Davide, 

I think the IQ here is pretty representative of what I see in photoshop. Obviously a little hit due to lowering the quality to around '70' to get a reasonable image size. (I know nothing about how effect much posting large photos has on a forums hosting allowance)

I think there is plenty detail available for people to be able to offer genuine critique on composition lighting as well as the technical side

Looking at the 2nd picture - which is in my mind the sharpest - I don't think there is much of a negative affect. Happy to send you the originals via email if you want to do a test at home. 

Gear wise Sony A1, 90mm lens, 160 degree objective

Hardest part for me was getting a sharp image with a blue background as you shoot at really los shutter speeds and clownfish rarely stop moveing

Mike

Looking at the images they look pretty nice as presented, however something odd is going on with the scaling.  When I view the image on my monitor the last image is 256mm wide.  If I click on it, it displays bigger and is 292mm wide.  To compare I went into Photoshop as I know it displays pixel for pixel and a 1500 pixel image there is 350mm wide, while a 1200 pixel image is 292 mm wide.  It would seem to me that the recommended pixel dimension is 1200 px to fit the column width at least as it scales on my display in Firefox.

I can't notice too much difference between the image in line and the larger one when I click on it, but the image I suspect is not one that will suffer too much from compression, other images may fear differently.   I'm viewing on a 27"display 2560 x 1440 pixels.

As far as quality goes the biggest impact will come re-sizing the images - I don't notice much difference between a 50 and 70 quality image in most cases.

Ideally it should display in line at native pixel dimensions for best quality - 1500 pixels is clearly too wide to the column here but it does display nicely if you click on the image.

 

Great images and it makes me wonder what that lens can do in video!

9 hours ago, waywardriley said:

Great images and it makes me wonder what that lens can do in video!

Take a look at this 😉
 

https://youtu.be/MxjbnBCYiMY?feature=shared&t=77

 

Edited January 21, 20241 yr by bghazzal

12 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Take a look at this 😉
 

https://youtu.be/MxjbnBCYiMY?feature=shared&t=77

 

I watched it with my eyes closed because I know I can't afford it! ;)

Terrific images @Pooley !  Thanks for also sharing info on the EMWL.  
I’m planning to do the Northern Red Sea this November.  
Question - How is the fish life overall that time of year?  
I’ve heard the big schools of fish are in the May-Aug time frame.

19 hours ago, ChipBPhoto said:

Terrific images @Pooley !  Thanks for also sharing info on the EMWL.  
I’m planning to do the Northern Red Sea this November.  
Question - How is the fish life overall that time of year?  
I’ve heard the big schools of fish are in the May-Aug time frame.

 

thanks Chip, 

 

You are unlikely to get big shoals during November, they are normally early summer time.  

 

Are you going to be land based or Liveaboard? A lot of the Northern Liveaboard routes include a fair bit of wreck diving - great if that's your thing, but not my preference. 

 

For the North I prefer the reefs  where there will still be small  to mid-sized subjects to go for. No muck style  diving, but plenty of gobies,  blennies shrimp, a few nudis etc on the small side, going up to blue spot rays, Napoleon's, etc as the largest species. If you can get to Dolphin House  at sha'ab el erg there is a resident dolphin population there, but 50/50 on if  they want to play.  

 

If you were to consider the southern Red Sea you've got 2 main  routes- Brothers, Daedalus and Elphonstone, that can be done from Hurghada  or Port Ghalib, or even  further south for St Johns type routes.

 

The Brothers Daedalus Elphinstone  itinerary has excellent chances of shark sightings, I hadOceanic white-tips,  hammer and a thresher, but they kept  their distance from me-others has the oceanic up close  and personal. Good chances for turtles and the rest of the regular Red Sea  residents. 

 

Going  further south  has more beautiful coral. Only available from Port Ghalib. 

 

let me know what you fancy most and I'll make a recommendation

 

Mike

 

 

14 minutes ago, Pooley said:

Are you going to be land based or Liveaboard? A lot of the Northern Liveaboard routes include a fair bit of wreck diving - great if that's your thing, but not my preference.

Hi Mike - thanks for the great info.  I’m on a liveaboard.  I do like wrecks which is why I chose it.  I’ll also do some touristy things around Cairo, etc. which will be more comfortable at that time.

 

Bummer about no big schools, but just means I’ll have to go back again.

 

What did you see for both water and air temps?

 

Ok, North should be good for you then, a few wrecks plus probably some sites at Ras Mohammed, and the Straits of Tiran plus a couple of local reefs. 

 

Don't be tempted to spend too long in Cairo, once you've seen the pyramids you're pretty much done and there are far nicer areas to go to. 

 

Air temps will be up in the low 80's probably with water being high 70's. I have a 5mm wetsuit, no hood or gloves and have never been cold in the water. There was a diver from Sacramento this year just in a t-shirt.

 

Sounds lovely but there is a but, in that it can get windy that time of year so there is a chance of getting cold as soon as you get out of the water. Best bit of advice I'll probably ever give on these boards is get straight out of the water, put your camera down, and there will likely be showers on either side of the boat. Go straight into them with a spare pair of dry shorts, shower and dry off before anything else with your gear. You can thank me later!

 

If you're going out of Hurghada a much nicer place to stay is El Gouna which is only 20 mins north of the airport. Give me a shout when you have some specifics 

 

Mike

12 minutes ago, Pooley said:

Don't be tempted to spend too long in Cairo, once you've seen the pyramids you're pretty much done and there are far nicer areas to go to. 

The Coptic museum has a terrifying collection of circumcision knives through the ages.

From Hurghada shore based, I have always enjoyed Gota Abu Ramada for fish portraits. Its usually a check dive, beginner and last dive of the day. It can be very busy, with the advantage that the fish are very used to divers and don't need much effort to stalk. Awkward for wide angle, too many stray divers in the background.

Unlikely to be on the agenda for a liveaboard.

Edited January 29, 20241 yr by John Liddiard

3 hours ago, Pooley said:

Air temps will be up in the low 80's probably with water being high 70's. I have a 5mm wetsuit, no hood or gloves and have never been cold in the water. There was a diver from Sacramento this year just in a t-shirt.

Thanks Mike for the awesome info!  It’ll be an adventure for sure.  Good call about Cairo.  I’m hoping the new museum will be open by then, but it’s a moving target for sure.  I was told about the Valley of Whales (or something like that) where there are giant whale skeletons in the sand.  Sounds cool.
 

13 hours ago, ChipBPhoto said:

Thanks Mike for the awesome info!  It’ll be an adventure for sure.  Good call about Cairo.  I’m hoping the new museum will be open by then, but it’s a moving target for sure.  I was told about the Valley of Whales (or something like that) where there are giant whale skeletons in the sand.  Sounds cool.
 

the new museum is open. We were there in August last year. The display of Pharaoh mummies is incredible. Check out on YouTube the ceremony that was used to move them. 
 

Aside of Giza, the citadel of Salah El-Din is worth a visit and the Hanging Church 

2 minutes ago, TimG said:

the new museum is open. We were there in August last year. The display of Pharaoh mummies is incredible. Check out on YouTube the ceremony that was used to move them. 
 

Aside of Giza, the citadel of Salah El-Din is worth a visit and the Hanging Church 

Terrific news!  I’ll def look it up.  Thanks Tim

On 1/28/2024 at 8:16 PM, ChipBPhoto said:

Hi Mike - thanks for the great info.  I’m on a liveaboard.  I do like wrecks which is why I chose it.  I’ll also do some touristy things around Cairo, etc. which will be more comfortable at that time.

 

Bummer about no big schools, but just means I’ll have to go back again.

 

What did you see for both water and air temps?

 

 

Hey Chip,

I was last November there and the sea was toasty warm (26-28, like in Cayman last Jan) but the year before when I also went, it was a few degrees cooler (23°C). Air temp can vary a lot but note that it is often very windy. I'd bring a sweater and a shell jacket.

 

Cairo will be materially warmer. Do visit the coptic area, and if you do the pyramids, don't buy the ticket to go in; not worth it! If you have several days to spare, try the Black and White Desert and bring a mini tripod, you'll get fantastic pictures of the sky at night (milky way) and the desert!

 

Hope all is well!

Alex

 

Edited January 31, 20241 yr by waterpixel

7 hours ago, waterpixel said:

 

Hey Chip,

I was last November there and the sea was toasty warm (26-28, like in Cayman last Jan) but the year before when I also went, it was a few degrees cooler (23°C). Air temp can vary a lot but note that it is often very windy. I'd bring a sweater and a shell jacket.

 

Cairo will be materially warmer. Do visit the coptic area, and if you do the pyramids, don't buy the ticket to go in; not worth it! If you have several days to spare, try the Black and White Desert and bring a mini tripod, you'll get fantastic pictures of the sky at night (milky way) and the desert!

 

Hope all is well!

Alex

 

Hey Alex - thanks for the great info and tips!  Egypt has been the top of my bucket list all my life.  Diving in the Red Sea will be it even more amazing!  Hoping it is more Cayman like this year for sure.  There’s a reason I live in warm South Florida.  Looking forward to it!