Florida dive

Just got back from Florida. Here are some of my photos. Let me know what you think.

Sandy

Sorry my batish didn't post properly the first time. Reposted.

I must admit morays make terrific photographic subjects. As a result there tends to be a lot of them around. Its making your shot stand out from the crowd.

Your spotted moray shot is lovely. If you'd have had twin stobes then its left side would be as clear as the right. Still I just love the expression.

The green moray looks huge. Could have benefitted from flash though.

Here's a spotted one I bagged in the Maldives. The white sand was giving me overexposure problems but I still enjoy this shot.

Mark

That's a great shot of the squirrelfish looking straight at you!

Love the spotted. They can get cranky sometimes.

I agree with Marks comments.

Thanks for the feed back on my photos. I agree I need to look into a second strobe. I'm not quite sure how to set that up though. I'm still a newbie. I have the Aquatica A995 with a Nikonos sb105 strobe. As far as a second strobe any recommendations? Does it hook up with the sync cord somehow or do I just get a strobe that has a slave setting. I'm trying not to get too complicated. I hate to admit it but the more "moving parts" and setting I have to deal with the worse my pictures turn out. I tend to live by the KISS principle. It seems to work best for me. Any suggestions?

I agree morays make great subjects. The tend to stick around enough to try many exposures and angles. Great for a newbie like me!

Sandy

Depending on how many ports you have. You can get one dual sync cord if you only have one port and hook it up that way or, if you have two ports you could use two separate cords.

Hi Sandy,

One strobe is fine as long as its pointing at the subject, allowing for the coverage and adjusted the output correctly. Not sure what happened with your green moray but still, it's fully recoverable. I think adjusting the contrast levels would start to bring it back.

The Toadfish? - strobe was not positioned far enough out, but what a nice find eh!

That said the compositions where possible are ok portraying the subjects habit and your technique has advanced, but I still like your example of a Whitemouthed Moray from Kona.

The squirrel & peppered moray are great.

Hi Sandy,

 

One strobe is fine as long as its pointing at the subject, allowing for the coverage and adjusted the output correctly. Not sure what happened with your green moray but still, it's fully recoverable. I think adjusting the contrast levels would start to bring it back.

 

The Toadfish? - strobe was not positioned far enough out, but what a nice find eh!

 

That said the compositions where possible are ok portraying the subjects habit and  your technique has advanced, but I still like your example of a Whitemouthed Moray from Kona.

 

The squirrel & peppered moray are great.

I'm not sure I understand when you say the strobe was not positioned far enough out. Should I have had the arm extended more to the side or overtop. I had shortened my stobe arm for a little while until I get the hang of aiming it. This seems to be a problem for me. Is that reflected in the picture? I'm also unsure when to use the diffuser?

I appeciate your feedback.

Sandy

Sorry I should have been more specific!

The strobe output footprint is infront of the subject: The strobe needed pointing out a little further. Remember focus distance with camera and strobe are different - your camera is focusing on apparent distance but your strobe must be focusing 25% further back on the actual distance of the subject.

Position your camera and single strobe for optimum coverage of the subject. Positioning of one and pairs of strobes is very different. The correct position will allow shadows to create a 3D rendition helping the subject to stand out. Wrong position creates a yin/yang harshness.

The Toadfish would have benifited from spot focusing of the strobe: This is done simply by extending the arm over and above the camera and pointing it down at the subject, you may need to bracket to begin with but its simple to master and you create a spotlight effect around the subject, but your strobe should still be far enough in front of the subject as not to create a harsh shadow below it.

Using a defuser balances out the output for a softer light, good in turbid water for reducing bs and prevents burn in or hot spots on multi coloured subjects.

Remember when photographing dark skinned moray such as greenies & giants that you need one or two stops more open than you think. Moray skin absorbs a lot of light and reflects very little, you need to compensate on the strobe/sensor or the camera.

Hope that has helped

All I did here was hit 'Autolevels'

Cybergold,

Thanks so much for the instruction. I can't wait to get diving again to try your suggestions and work on improving my images. The fix you did on my green moray looks awsome. I don't have Adobe photo. The image editing software I have is MGI Photo suite. I don't have your knack for color and lighting. I'll have to work on that.

Thanks again,

Sandy