Before Magic!

On my recent Red Sea trip I finally got the chance to do some proper before Magic shots, which I post for interest.

This is the reef (Magic Pinnacle we call it these days) where Peter took the original Magic shot. Any way this year I took a before shot of the same spot, without a filter and on Auto WB.

Just for comparison here is the Magic shot taken by Peter:

One of the things we always comment on with the Magic shots is that they look like they are lit. Peter and I (and all the gang on the Workshop) really got some great stuff on the recent trip. Also the Magic shots tend to have better blues because the filter acts as a barrier to the blue light, making the water comparatively darker.

We also shot the same reef with the new filter, on the same dive as the before magic shot above and it is even nicer than the original magic shot. The new filter "Auto-Magic" is designed for compacts with only Auto WB - so it provides great colours with point and shoot simplicity.

I'll add a few more as I bump into them as I go through my Red Sea shots.

Alex

I would love to see more before and after shots but the before on this one is so much farther away not sure it is a good comparision but the bottom one sure does look lit along with a little PS work on it. What was the depth on shot two (the after)?

The "after" looks great, but isn't the "before" shot taken into the light, and the "after" shot taken in the same direction as the light? Is that a fair comparison of the filter's affect?

Don't get me wrong, I am a filter fan, but apples vs apples would be good.

Hi Alex

Will I even get the chance to buy a magic filter from you guys to try out?

Still waiting.

Wags

Wagsy, I ordered mine from Ryan at ReefPhoto Arrived last month.

No use waiting for those gadabouts Mustard and Rowlands to get you your toys...

Unfortunately Melbourne weather has curtailed my enthusiasm for playing in the water. Any room for me and my girl at your place in Exmouth?

What are the exposures in the two shots? the magic filter must darken the water by several stops if there's no lighting on the "after" shot.

Cheers for that, I check it out.

Hey Kelly's is in Melbourne right now for a few days....shopping....

We have a spare bed if you come over, Whale Sharks have gone but the Manta's are around and Whales are starting to turn up heading north.

We have a spare bed if you come over,and Whales are starting to turn up heading north.

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At the airport you will know who he is because he will be the guy named Eric....

What .....you lost me there Mike....Eric?

What .....you  lost me there Mike....Eric?

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I think Mike is referring to the luck that two of wetpixel's Eric's have recently had with whales...

Cheng in Africa and Hanauer on some big rock in the middle of nowhere.

Your offer is very tempting

Yea, anthony is right, i think on Eric Hanauers whale video thread he said he was going to change his name to eric...

Sooooo....

How about that Magic Filter!!!! (to get this back on topic.. hehe)

Here is a shot with Magic Filter and strobe.... i love the blues....

Must of missed that one..

Nice shot Mike....that's it I have to get one for the D70 now.

Great shot Mike!

Who says the D70 can't sunball.

Great shot Mike!

I understand that you prefer the blues with the magic filter

including shoting with strobes?

Here is a shot with Magic Filter and strobe....  i love the blues....

 

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Hi Mike,

So should I assume that the foreground, strobe lit reef subject was much less pink in real life? Either that or you've done something super clever to stop them going "uber" magic filtered, i.e. pinkish.

The result is nice though. I'm just interested to hear what the original colours were like.

Thanks,

Martyn

Actually thats the proper colour. Relatively little PS work there.... You just need to set the WB on the subject with flashes going off

Mike,

All due respect, but the Tubastraea faulkneri polyps in the foreground of your image do look a bit overly red/pink to me. For comparison, here s a shot with 60 mm taken in Komodo a few days ago. The color seems different to me. I suppose may be regional variation in the color, but I don't think I've ever seen orange cup coral that red.

But I also very much like using fill strobe with the magic filter. Here is one from Komodo. The technique - using reciprocal filters on the strobes - is a bit tricky, but it sometimes works!

Frogfish (Robert Delfs)

What color strobe filter are you using with the Magic?

I've been using a Cyan filter on the strobe in conjunction with a CC20 Red but have a Magic on the way.

Tried cyan on previous trip. The gels I'm using now are more blue, and seem to work better in the water/light conditions I usually have here.

Here's another example where I think this approach worked, but I've got lots of other examples where it didn't - main subject too red, too blue, too something else. The ranges of depths, strobe-to-subject distances and perhaps other variables as well (time of day, exposure setings) where everything cancels out seem to be fairly narrow.

Frogfish (Robert Delfs)