First underwater photos - Thoughts all?

After much waiting and 'almost' diving, finally was able to dive earlier today even with the threat of a nasty cold front over the island.

Insights gained about diving with a camera -

Hmmm all knowledge gained above ground on photography quickly goes out of my head as I u/w become an overexcited dog chasing the 'ball'.

The ball in this case is whatever fish happens to grace my lcd's monitors.

Vaguely remembered little nuggets of knowledge as get closer, get lower, zoom with your fins etc.

All thoughts that I had prior to the dive of only photographing macro or slow moving objects went out of my mind, sort of became a free for all .

Messy and unorganized but fun .

Here are the results!!

Please check out the other pics in my galleries.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photog...ries.php?s=8543

http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photog...ries.php?s=8545

http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photog...ries.php?s=8546

My absolute favorite - excuse the backscatter wasn't able to remove it

Another hamlet

Gorgeous colors

Beautiful view

Brittle star?

Macro of a beautiful coral

Rather defiant damselfish that I noticed on the 2nd dive.

Hey Jam - I can see and read that you are enthusiastic and having lots of fun and that is very important. I hate to sound mean but the photos are exactly what you would expect from a beginner. There are exposure problems, focus problems and composition lack of interesting subject problems. No offense but it is pointless to discuss them all one by one aside from the 1st which is your favorite because it is your best composition shot, there is a clear subject filling the frame fairly but is very unsharp, not much color and the backscatter is extremely present. I would arguably say 95% of experienced photographers would delete these pics before getting back on the boat. Sorry to be blunt but maybe someday you will think better of me.

Passion is a big thing in anything to be successful, for me I read every single technical book to really understand how a camera works, then I studied tons of pics, then tried to copy the techniques. If you are not a book reader learn on your own kind of guy. I would really reccomend taking some kind of UW photography class or trip with a pro, there are lots of classes/teachers to find in lots are great dive areas. You enjoyment will increase ten fold when you start getting images that compare to the published stuff.

When you understand the technical part you can really focus on the composition part. You should pick up a Scuba magazine and compare their shots to yours and start to critique your own work. Look at the "Your best shot post" Go to the Website of Alex Mustard, Luiz Rocha, and many of the other guys on this site. Look at their pics then look at yours and make your own conclusions. You can get close to taking pictures like these guys but it takes dedication to learn the camera, education about what your are shooting, then whatever level of natural creative ability that you were born with is what separates the best from the best. Just like sports and music or anything creative. Use your enthusiam to learn and you will get better fast. Good Luck

Thanks for the comments photobeat.

Yes I am aware that the exposure, backscatter, focus and composition on most if not all of the pics are problematic.

Anyway I have been practicing with my camera lot topside and have actually taken some decent pics with it, u/w however........ well you know what happened .

Have been looking at pics of pro's and noting their techniques and composition and have actually got a bit of instruction from a fellow wetpixel member here .

It's a learning process, i'm not a pro I'm a beginner and I am happy with these photos for what they are.

My first u/w photos.

Thanks for the input, i'll try to put it into practice .

Regards

Never fear Jam things improve over time. I also started with a Point & Shoot and found it really hard to take pictures of fish because of the shutter lag.

I would suggest next time focus on stationary subjects which will give you time for composition and you can try different strobe angles to minimize back scatter.

I would also suggest picking one subject and take lots of pictures of it to further minimize other variables.

Something I am working on is trying to not take pictures from above looking down as it limits light and flattens the subject. Advise other kindly pointed out here.

I like you am a begginner and look for constructive advise to improve.

Happy shooting.

Those are great first pics Jam. Remember we all start somewhere. I remember taking my first ones underwater and I can understand how excited you are to see the first ones. Keep shooting!

Hi Jam. NOt a bad effort for a first time at all. First thing that strikes me is that your exposure is good all throughout. And you aren't afraid to get close. The biggest problem beginners have is not gettin close enough to the subject and therefore no colours in their photos and their subject matter does not fill the frame. You have nice colours on all of your shots and for the most part the frame is completely full. That is what creates impact and you have that, a great start! (except for that last damsel, a little zoom would have helped isolate the fish from the background and created more impact.)

Until you can get an external strobe, a few tips to cut down on scatter from the internal flash. In your shots 5 and 6 you have cut down on the inclusion of the background, that is key. Getting close to the reef and having a finite subject (the coral) means your strobe is not travelling past the subject and causing background scatter. Pics 3 and 4 have background scatter as opposed to foreground scatter and that can be easily avoided by similar framing as the last two shots. I think pic 3 would have really stood out if you had avoided the back ground and concentrated more on the colours of the coral, filling the frame with the coral would be great as that coral colour pops and you would therefore avoid the scatter.

Your enthusiasm is contagious and will really feed your obvious passion for your new camera. Get out and shoot as much as you can, and as you said, avoid the use of the zoom on subjects that don't need it (the corals) your depth of field will improve to help avoid some out of focus areas and use that macro function when you get really tight on the coral. For fish and such things zoom with your fins then use a touch of zoom for composition.

Best of luck

Hey Jam Somtimes I forget to look at the camera set up or I am not sure what that kind is. With point and shoot your camera has a lot of limitations and I am looking at the pics thinking they might have came from an SLR - (which I suppose is a complement to you) Only under supreme conditions and in the hands of a great photographer will your camera get the results that I am talkinga about. - GO see Alex's post on the s3 camera and look at the gallery you will see what I mean. Maybe we need an SLR critique or have guys type the setup used a little more obvious, anyway take my critique down a notch and keep having fun.

As noted in my signature I shoot with a Canon Powershot A610 with the Canon WP-DC90 housing.

Regards.