Tesselated Blenny

Here is a tesselated blenny coming out of his house to check me out. These guys are very shy and almost NEVER come out this far.

Nikkor 70-180 w/ a +1 diopter. F19@ 1/125th Dual strobes on full power.

FWIW, I think this may be one of the best shots (and most difficult) I have ever taken. I was using the right hand for shutter and the left for manual focus, leaving no hands to steady myself in the surge. Manual focus is hard...

Feedback on lighting and composition are welcome.

This shot has not been cropped or color corrected in any way, only resized for the web.

Cheers

James

Manual focus is hard

Who said it easy to be a photographer and especially a U/W one?

Why you needed a manual focus? I'm asking because I don't know the DSLR systems very well.

The shot is great, you cached the blenny very well and his colors are terrific on the dark background.

You are using TTL strobe, aren't you? The comment says full strobe power so that's why I ask.

What is the zoom setting and the subject distance? Since you shoot RAW, are you using the default white balance or are you modifying it? What is the in-camera white balance setting?

Have you settled on preferring the +1 diopter? If so, have you looked closely for chromatic aberrations? I ask because I believe you do not use an achromat. A good source for lens correction information is here. You can use panotools for chromatic aberration correction, but Picture Window Pro does it interactively. Since you may have to use a single element diopter, you may want to look into this.

I was using manual strobe at full power.

Since I was shooting an "assignment" covering almost 12 dives and would have about 4 hrs to prepare the images for the client I shot in 3000 x 2000 JPEG with auto white balance. I needed to have the CD-ROM ready when I left the boat.

I liked the 1.5x 2 element diopter that I borrowed last time much better, but it wasn't available for this trip. I am going to look into buying one. I would appreciate if you'd look at these shots and see if you can find any abberations using the +1 Hoya single element diopter:

http://www.reefpix.org/duoy2003/JamesWisem...e%206/index.htm

DOF is extremely limited w/ this setup - I wish I could increase it somewhat.

Cheers

James

Manual focus is hard

Who said it easy to be a photographer and especially a U/W one?

 

Why you needed a manual focus?

On of these days I am actually going to sit down and write The Great Gonzo's Guide to Underwater Photography. Successfully pulling off a decent underwater shot reminds me of the acts Gonzo used to try on the Muppet Show...

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I shall ride this motorcycle on a tightrope over a vat of flaming custard while standing on my head and reciting the oath of allegiance backwards in Pig Latin

RE: Manual focus: Not wanting to double guess James, but when shooting with macro lenses on SLR's, particularly with a shot like that where there is a lot of featureless background, the AF sensors can have a lot of trouble locking on to a subject and the lens tends to hunt around. This is even worse in surge, as you are constantly moving to and fro yourself, making it even more impossible to get a sharp shot. By using manual, you set the lens at one place and it will not change on you, then you watch through the viewfinder for the image to be sharp, and fire away.

This is one place where dSLRs have a huge advantage over film cameras, I have shot entire rolls of film and never quite gotten the shot I want, and I have no way of know this until I get back to shore

(Grammarians, I would like to point out that I am fully aware that impossible is a discrete term, and it is not actually possible to become "even more impossible" :ph34r: )

I was using manual strobe at full power.

 

Since I was shooting an "assignment" covering almost 12 dives and would have about 4 hrs to prepare the images for the client I shot in 3000 x 2000 JPEG with auto white balance.  I needed to have the CD-ROM ready when I left the boat.

 

I liked the 1.5x 2 element diopter that I borrowed last time much better, but it wasn't available for this trip.  I am going to look into buying one.  I would appreciate if you'd look at these shots and see if you can find any abberations using the +1 Hoya single element diopter:

 

http://www.reefpix.org/duoy2003/JamesWisem...e%206/index.htm

 

DOF is extremely limited w/ this setup - I wish I could increase it somewhat.

 

Cheers

James

I guess that clears up everything. That's what I get for assuming.

I figured you were staying away from the achromat diopters because of the clearance inside the port. You won't be able to see chromatic aberrations at lower resolutions unless they are really gross. The worst I've seen with my 70-180 are on the order of two pixels at full res. Lower f-stops are also required. I can provide an example of what to look for if you like.