Pics from the Similans with D2X/10.5mm

I just got back from a quickie 4 days trip to the Similans/Bon-Tachai Island and Richeliue Rock. I did 14 dives, 13 with 10.5mm lens and a nightdive with 60mm. I had very little experience with 10.5mm in the past but figure this would be a good place to practice. Unfortunately mother nature did not cooperate very much. The first 2 days at the Similans were overcast with light rain most of the the time but visibility was 30+m. The sun finally made a little appearance on the third day at Koh Bon and Koh Tachai.

The fourth day at Richeliue Rock, the sun was out, the sea was calm but visibility was the worse I ever saw there, about 5-7m only

Oh well... at least I had some practice shooting wide angle in my preparation for Yap in a couple of months.

As a side note, while chasing this jellyfish, I was apparently the only person on the boat who missed seeing a manta. However, I just shrugged that off and figure Mike V. will have plenty of chance to show me mantas in February

The Similans

East of Eden, the Similans

There are a few more photos on my website from the trip as well.

Enjoy!

Any tip on using 10.5mm would be appreciated. I ended up using 2 8" arms on each strobe, found F9 to have about the ideal DoF espcially for macro wide angle. Both DS125 strobes were set on 1/2 or full power most of the time. I definitely need those DS200

Beautiful shots Boi! I don't think you need any tips on using the 10.5. How about giving us some tips? The jellyfish is my favourite.

Very nice collection, The jellyfish is great.

You have posted three different types of fisheye shots, Boi. They are all nice. Here are some critical comments to help you with the 10.5mm

The first one of the jellyfish is well lit. If it had been a sunny day you would have had a blue sky and this shot would be beautiful. So nothing to change here.

The second shot is more close focus wide angle style, with diver silhouette and underexposed rich blue water. Your lighting is fine here. But compositionally it is all over the place. First you have cut the seafan in half and also the silhouetted diver should be higher in the frame to draw the eye across the picture. This sort of image is much easier to set up when you have a dedicated model.

This is by no means a great shot (you won't find it in any of my galleries on my website) but it gives you an idea of how to use the frame better with this sort of subject matter:

The final image is a more standard wde angle shot. That shows great colour and plenty of life. This shot is fine, but a little dull as it does not really have a main subject. Also when you are lighting a scene like this with flash, it is important to keep the main subject matter parallel to the lens to get an even exposure. This is why the fish and corals on the left are too bright and the corals on the right are too dark.

The way you overcome this is to increase the power of your right side strobe. Easy. But you have to remember to do this underwater. This is also a reason why TTL is not ideal for UW shooting.

Hope that this helps,

Alex

Fabulous, esp the first one.

Thanks for all the compliments guys! Alex, thanks very much for the feedback. I definitely will have to work a lot more on lighting and composition for wide angle shots.

Except for a few dives here and there with 12-24mm and once or twice before with 10.5mm, this is really the first time that I try to concentrate on wide angle instead of macro. Any more criticism, insight, tips would be appreciated!

Trying to signal a passing by diver to move up in the frame was a bit difficult

Incidentally, I was quite amaze at the resolution of the D2X. When I blew up the picture, I could tell from the silhouette of the fins who the diver was since I knew it was one of the people on our boat and luckily there was only one person with scubapro fins hoding a small video camera setup on board

That jelly is unique, the water on top looks like gel (ly). I like the red fan too, very....mood altering, strong, dark colors.

I love it. Especialy the first one!!

I get more and more impress about the rich blue water color.

Why i can get it??? (Cruing) is that Similans water or is the great D2X

Again I love them

Good comment. Thom Hogan has a wide-angle example on his website which demonstrates good composition. He says you need "near, middle, far"

Cheers

James

I agree with Signore Hogan's theory, but the problem in underwater wide angle is that you only have two layers of lighting.

Foreground flash lit and everything else - ambient (blue). I guess you can create middle with silhouette reef or diver and then far as blue water or surface. Or you can use a filter .

Alex

Great stuff - The 1st one is just killer - love it.

Like alex said - cutting of the fan is a no no and tell the diver his legs are too far apart - If your good in Photoshop I would select that diver and turn him around the other way . Still.... a nice pic.

The third one I just would have gotten lower and much closer shooting upward.

Nice Jelly.

On the second shot, Alex is spot on. I would go a farther on a limb to say that I would get closer, shoot up more and make the veins of the base of the fan prominent in the foreground and let the fan move outward to the divers, who should be higher and to the left more. There are two divers right? You can really get some dramatic shots by getting close and still maintaining a wide perspective. Harder to do than it looks, though.

The third shot is what we call a salad bowl shot, no one specific subject. Here, you can focus on one aspect of that reef, get closer, and use the other life and water as your negative space. Maybe not as horizontal, too. A slight angle might bring some depth to the pic.

Joe

One more think I like is the Blue!!!!!!!!!

I just love it. I do everything to juats take one photo with this kind off blue