My Best from Norway

Hi all!

I have spent the last few months in a commercial diving school in Norway. Luckly I had a few opportunityes to take the camera with me down under and have some FUN for a while!

I just finished going through the final pictures and here are a few of my favourites.

The whole set is accessible here.

All constructive criticism is most welcomed as always.

Hope You enjoy!!!

Cheers

Karel

This is my favorite. It's surreal. What kind of illumination did you use?

Did you illuminate this from behind?

Regards,

Andres.

I like # 6 as well

You have always a kind word for everybody , so I'm happy to do the same today for you .

Wonderful pictures with a way to manage light absolutely perfect ,even if I do not always understand how you do that !!

Thank to share

Domi

Thanks fellows!

Andres, the picture of the clams is lit by one DS-160, positioned far aside from the lens, so the light travels horizontal and leaves unlit parts between the clams. Tought it looked kind of cool..

Second image of the anemone is lit from behind with an ordinary UW flaslight.

And Domi - thank You for Your words, tough I seriously doubt my ability to light the subjects is anywhere close to perfect

Karel

great stuff! very nice use of lighting

I just realise that you use a G9 , congratulations !

How deep were you ???

I just realise that you use a G9 , congratulations !

How deep were you ???

Yeah Dominique - I just love this little P&S !!

I'm quite sure all these are taken between 5 - 15 m.

Karel

All constructive criticism is most welcomed as always.

I don´t know if this counts as constructive, but I think these are great pictures. I think you have some very creative and beautiful lighting on them. Have you used snoots to get the pinpointing of the light? Only one strobe?

Regards Bent C

Beautiful and not usual shots!

The lighting is great, beautiful photos!

Mike

I agree about #6. The lighting on the clams really works.

Great pictures, and as the others have said. I'm jealous of how well you have lit them!

the fact that you took them with your G9 further emphasised what a good job you have done.

Well done

Adam

Beautiful images, well captured.

Very nice photos indeed. Somehow what I am going to try to capture, now I have something to compare with:-)

Gassa

And Domi - thank You for Your words, tough I seriously doubt my ability to light the subjects is anywhere close to perfect

 

Karel

So ...as everybody say good lithning ..:)

Thanks everybody!!

Bent, I have not used any snoots etc. Pics. 1,2,3,4 and 10 have been all lit with the same flaslight You can see on the last picture. For all the rest I used one DS-160 with the original diffuser.

The thing is that I could not use my strobe for more than a month - they managed to lose my charger in the postal service. So I was (more or less) forced to try and get something out of very limited amount of light produced by the flaslight.

Regards

Karel

Hi Karel,

Absolutely stunning! I am amazed at the definition and depth of field that you have been able to achieve with the G9 not withstanding your creativity and lighting. Superb! More like this please...

All constructive criticism is most welcomed as always.

Hey Karel,

Really thought provoking set.

I think that the light works well on number 2 and number 6.

The rest not so much. There are some good ideas but need some need more refinement. You have to consider why you are lighting a subject a certain way. So that the lighting is consistent with the story/message/image you are trying to communicate in your photographs. It is not just a case of finding a subject and marrying it up with any funky lighting technique that you choose. As Ansel Adams said "There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept."

That said it is important to continually experiment with different ways of lighting subjects. Seeing how and learning how different lighting effects are achieved. This will give you ideas for how to use the techniques to create those finished concepts. I do and take many unfinished images along the way to producing the image I show.

For example, this idea has a great deal of potential

the light coming through the stalk of the anemone looks great. But the most attractive feature on the anemone (tentacles) is not lit. One factor that can help an image like this is to give a reason for the backlight - by having a model above the anemone with a torch. Now we know that it is not the model's torch that is creating the backlighting, but to the average viewer the image makes more sense. Also in this case the model will give the image more depth. It is about recognising the potential in an idea (good ideas are precious) and then really making the most of it.

Here is a similar example from my photography. On the first dive I was just playing around with back lighting various subjects. Seeing how they took the light and the effect of various factors, like distance behind the subject. By the end of the dive I had some nice pictures (the image on the left) and particularly like the ones of the crinoid. I had also learned where I had to position the off camera strobe to get this effect.

This is a nice picture, but I felt it was an incomplete concept. A bit too simple. I could do more with this idea. So I decided to re-shoot it on a late afternoon dive with more background and model + torch. I would have liked the torch to have been a little stronger so it really looked like it was what was lighting the crinoid. But I felt this was a good use of this idea. Some may prefer the first image, that's photography for you.

Alex

Great images... I love the lighting and I think they provide all of us with lot of new ideas.

Thanks also to Alex for his instructive post.

Best regards,

Juanma