First UW Shots - advice needed

First time poster so hello strangers. I appreciate any honest feedback and advice. These are from Kona and are my first attempt at UW photography. I'm heading to Maui in January and would like to know where I went wrong on some of these shots to get better results next time. I think my biggest problem was not knowing what setting to have my strobe on. I have a Canon A95 with a YS90 dx strobe so I have to shoot the strobe on manual. I shot in manual mode on the camera usually around f5-f7 (forget the exact numbers) and 1/250. It seemed the camera wanted to overexpose hence the fairly high f-number. I don't have photoshop, but did some enhancement in a low-end tool that came with the camera. Thanks in advance to your feedback, this is a great site.

I felt this one was pretty decent. Maybe a little too dark. With my current setup, I couldn't get any closer and focus.

This one I felt would have been real good except for the overexposed coral in the forground. The lighting was overall good. Would a difuser help with this problem?

Loved the composition of this shot, but couldn't quite get it lit the way I wanted.

I really wanted one of these shots to work with the sunburst, but seemed they all came out over or under exposed.

Maybe a little closer would have helped.

Had to crop pretty heavily

Welcome to wetpixel.

Actually i think you have done a pretty good job. You have a nice eye for composition and you have avoided the beginners tendency to shoot straight down or not get close enough.

You have some great colour on all the shots, so that means you are pretty close and that is good. f5.6-f7 is a good starting point. If you need to shoot at f3.5 or f4 to get the proper light then you are too far away and won't get the colour saturation that makes the photos pop.

So you have done well there.

The one shot with eel and overexposed coral can not be helped with a diffuser. Basically you have two subjects in the frame that need to be exposed differently because they are at different distance from your camera. To get the proper exposure on the eel, which you did, you will blow out the coral. The best way to avoid this is not to get the coral in the frame in the first place. When looking through the viewfinder, look everywhere, not just the edges. The edges are what is your "negative space" and often is what makes or breaks a great photo. The best thing to do is take several different shots from several angles, that way hopefully you can avoid the white coral.

As for the sunburst...higher shutter speed will help to control that to a certain extent. I would suggest if you were at 250 for that one then you need to go to 500 or 640...

Hope that helps

M

I agree with everything that Mike said. A higher shutter speed would improve a lot that photographer's silhouete agains the sun. Also, if you position in an angle which it doesn't hit the white coral directly (aiming it to the top of the frame for example), it would help on that shot. But Mike's suggestion is better!

These are excellent for a first timer!

Luiz

Thanks for the tips. I worked on the shutter speed as well on the sunburst shots (even as high as 2000). With practice, I'm sure I could improve that type of shot. Good advice on the eel shot. Truth is, being new, I was really looking for focus and basic composition. Many of the things I didn't even notice until I started working with the pics later. A couple more questions if anyone is still out there listening...

I am looking at buying a wide angle (wet) lens for my next trip. I can get the 105 degree Inon or the 165 degree fish eye lens. If you were only getting one, which one would you get and why? Great site. Thanks again.

Hi, I am a fan of fish eyes, to me the wider the better, so I vote for the 165 degree. But they are harder to use because the coverage is so large that sometimes unexpected things (fins, etc.) appear in the photo.

Luiz