Orange Cup Coral Macro

For the past three years, since I first dove the USS Duane slightly after dawn, I had wanted to dive this wreck at night. That dawn a few Orange Cup Corals were out - and you could see the wreck was covered. I suspected the boat looked like an orange ball at night.

Boy was I right.

Finally the opportunity to dive the Duane at night presented itself last Friday, and as I descended down one of the mooring buoys onto the wreck I couldn't wait to see what awaited me.

I hit the main deck at about 85fsw and was surrounded on all sides by open Orange Cup Coral as far as I could see at night. The Duane at night is just a big Orange ball - and it is spectacular. For 30 minutes I took photos of the coral, until I was sick of it. I then spent my swim back to the line we were ascending on looking for other subjects - I found only one - and that not a good one. I didn't even care....

An incredible dive. I love these cup coral images. Click here to see the Full Cup Coral Gallery at DSI Of the ones posted here, I am most fond of the second image of the coral polyp facing the camera.

Details on camera settings:

Fuji S2Pro

1/125 @ F13 or F16

105mm Macro lens

I flooded one of my SS200's a couple of weeks ago, so have been shooting a SS200 and a SS50. Not an easy combo to shoot, so images are either TTL if both strobes and 1/2 power if a one strobe shot.

Side lighting is definitely the way to go w/ Tubastraea species. Way to go on some of these shost, very nice!

Did you know that in the Indo Pacific, they have BLACK tubastraea (T. micrantha). I'd image that would make one heck of an awesome (and hard) subject to photograph.

I don't have too much "critique" other than to say "way to go," you can check these off your list Paul.

Cheers

James

Beautiful! I like the composition of the first one better. The second one is good also but the "subject", the one

in the middle has parts of it out of focus.

You mind if I "Piggyback" on your post Paul? :-)

At the offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, the oceanic water and strong currents stimulates the tubastraea to open during the day. Here is a semi-wideangle shot taken with the Coolpix 5000. Not as good as your S2/105 Macro, but I think the blue water and background subjects make this one of my favorite "consumer digicam" shots:

Why don't you come out for the Coral Spawning trip in August Paul? I doubt you have those shots in your Catalog yet...:-)

Cheers

James

Marriard, fantastic shots. The colour & lighting on these is amazing. Its difficult to tell whether some of the shots would be better in landscape or not?? I could just see one of these in a frame on a wall. I wonder how well the orange would print? Have you tried printing these yet?

Mark

PS James nice shot too. Have you tried cloning out the rig shadows?

While the second shot is striking, I think the first is a more appealing image. the reasons:

1) the negative space about 1/3 of the image from the top accentuates the subject. The background is supportive, not competetive

2)More of the subject is visible, making it easier for me to envision this subject in the marine environment. I would imagine the second image might be more confusiong to a non-diver.

3) The lighting in the 1st image is a little softer, and accentuates rather than overpowers. Softer lighting works with these beautiful subjects

The only thing that may have made this 1st photo better, might have been to shift your strobes to a point above the subject. It looks light your more powerful strobe was on the lower left, and I find it distacting that the light comes from below. James' photo shows similar lighting, so I'd offer similar critique. Try to simulate the position of the sun, it is more natural to the viewer.

Fantastic photos!!!

I actually prefer the third. The others are great shots, but in the third, the coral immediately draws your eye in. The only thing that might improve it IMO would be to crop it a bit to remove the OOF top coral, which is very bright and slightly distracting.

The main subject in the first would stand out a little better with more DOF, as it is, it blends into the background a bit too much.

Shots I'd be happy to call mine in any case.

James, I like the compostion on your shot a lot, and I especially like the contrast between the orange of the coral and the deep blue water. You've picked a tough shot to light properly though. On the one hand, the upper coral is a bit dark, and takes away from the overall effect. BUT, moving the strobe up to the left would just de-emphasize the lower portion, because of the undercut. Hard to tell where the strobe(s) is, but maybe move up and to the right a bit, and try to light both sections at once? Other than that, nice work again.

Beautiful! I like the composition of the first one better. The second one is good also but the "subject", the one

in the middle has parts of it out of focus.

Excellent point (and your comments have come up in a few other boards with mutual readers).

Right now I am too close to these images - I have been wanting to do this dive for three years to photograph these subjects, and now that I have I have (and they came out well) I am very happy.

I think I am going to take a few days away from these images, reread everyones comments and then reassess next week.

Thank you everyone for your comments. They are very enlightening.

M

Love these!

The first has a wonderful composition, with the primary coral standing out of the supporting cast. I like the second also, mainly because closeups of these cup corals are so beautiful. The tentacles that are closer and soft don't bother me that much; I don't find them very distracting. If they were obscuring something more primary that needed to be sharp, I'd feel differently. It's also really hard to judge when all the tentacles will be in the best position, as they are munching and eating constantly. The only very slight improvement that I might suggest for the second would be to rotate the composition just slightly so that the mouth of the coral isn't so straight up and down, an angle would "feel" better (to me).

If I were you, I think I'd find it hard to stay away from this dive. How great it must have been... (but I love cup corals)