Silhouetted Diver behind a Giant Sea Fan

I love when an image setup comes together.

These Giant Pacific Sea Fans where pretty common on our trip out to the Coral Sea in early October. I had Mae hover behind a suitable one on this dive and then played with a few camera settings to get the effect I was looking for.

I like it :-)

You can see more of this giant Coral at the Giant Sea Fan Gallery at DSI

Enjoy,

M

Hi Paul,

I like the composition and the exposure.

But you seem to have some of the "green water" syndrome that Chris Bangs has brought up. I have also seen this in some of my images as well. I believe a visit to the channel mixer is in order, try to pull down the green a bit, IMO.

Cheers

James

I loved the picture and the rest of the puctures in the gallery!

I know it's a bit of a Cliche .... but would the diver pointing a torch (that's a light for you americans ) have a bit more impact?

Love the shot though!

Oh, sure, just what we need for a touch of realism - a light (torch)...

It seems that every shot in every dive magazine featuring a diver has a light, or a pink mask and a wide eyed expession casually examining a grouper (or similar docile hand fed fish).

I like the shot the way it is.

Regards,

I would have preferred the fan lit but the diver the same.

IMHO

I would have preferred the fan lit but the diver the same.

I completely agree,

light the foreground for texture .. get the diver higher up as a silhouetted figure.

and in my personal preference ... widen the angle and dont have the diver tucked behind the sea fan havet he diver as an etirely separate entity.

then you have a killer photo.

oh and the blue does need to be bluer i agree especially if it is meant to be tropical water.

Giles

I would have preferred the fan lit but the diver the same.

I completely agree,

 

light the foreground for texture .. get the diver higher up as a silhouetted figure.

 

and in my personal preference ... widen the angle and dont have the diver tucked behind the sea fan havet he diver as an etirely separate entity.

I'll play with the blues later - I have a personal like for the color as it is which is why I didn't change it much. However I can see what a few people have said about the green in it and I agree it should make the image more appealing.

The other comments from you and Yah are kind of interesting. I think both of you are suggesting I shoot this as the traditonal lit fan and silhouetted diver image positioned above and away from the fan (an image of which I have a whole case full of slides and CD's worth of images). In fact I did shoot this particular fan this way and it produced what I would consider the usual nice image.

Also Scuba Kiwi suggested a torch/light which is another standard tool. I think this would have produced a very different feeling image to this one, and is something I do want to try next time to see what exactly that image will feel like (even though no one would ever use a torch in this situation if they were just diving - it is an art effect I am looking to create anyway).

However I wil say that this shot was setup sepcifically to do something different (i.e. Have the silhouetted diver clearly visible behind the silhouetted sea fan) and the image turned out how I envisioned it before I got in the water.

I also tried to light the fan and leave the diver in the same position. With these shots I lost the diver (i.e. she wasn't visible in the image) as the light needed to light the fan also lost effect of the silhouette. I would love to achieve this image - so any suggestions on how this might be done sucessfully would be appreciated. I am certainly going to try some ideas of my own when the next opportunity that presents itself.

Thanks everyone for their comments and thoughts so far and I look forward to hearing some more.

M

Paul: you mean you didn't want us to just say "great shot" like on some other forums? :-)

Cheers

James

Sorry, ScubaKiwi (is that you, Viv?), but I'm with Marriard (and Donauw) on this one. I think the "diver-with-a-torch" looking at the seafan (or whatever) has become a cliche, something to try to stay away from.

I think I would have gone for trying to light the fan and pick some color and detail, but I like the dark silhouette Paul has gone for here too, and the heightened contrast with the bright water behind it.

Looking at this image, it strikes me that what would have been really interesting might have been to set the strobe way down so it doesn't illuminate the sea fan, aimed so that it could fire a detached slave strobe held by another diver next to or in a cranny on the wall on the left, illuminating Mae. So you'd have the sea fan close subject dark and in silhouetted against the light water, but a bit of color and detail on the diver further away.

Robert Delfs

Paul: you mean you didn't want us to just say "great shot" like on some other forums? :-)

I prefer to get the advice and ideas although I'll take both.

There is a lot of good ideas I have seen on this image alone - I like rdelfs ideas on lighting the model and leaving the silhouette of the fan alone. Now I just need a couple more assistants to carry some slave strobes and improve my underwater coordination of multiple divers.

I have been plaing lately more and more with non traditonal image compositions and ideas including some experiments with filters that didn't work out the way I would have liked and shooting macro subjects with the same ideas as Close Focus/Wide Angle images which is a real focus and lighting challenge.

I love digital - I can shoot all the traditional shots and still have the shots left to experiment.

M

But you seem to have some of the "green water" syndrome that Chris Bangs has brought up.

I think the color is just fine. I don't agree that the background needs to be very blue. To my eye the color looks more REAL than many wide-angles I've shot on Ektachrome.

Sorry, ScubaKiwi (is that you, Viv?), but I'm with Marriard (and Donauw) on this one.  I think the "diver-with-a-torch" looking at the seafan (or whatever) has become a cliche, something to try to stay away from. 

I did say I think it's a cliche

but I also think it kind of adds a focal point, hey! he asked for opinions I'm giving mine!

The shot below is one I've taken and it kind of shows what I mean ... and no my name is not Viv

I like it! And I won't bust your chops about the green water Kiwi, 'cause I'm betting it really WAS green.

Wait until I post some wideangle shots from San Diego - now that's green...

Cheers

James

Sorry Scuba-kiwi. There's another underwater photographer I know who uses that handle (or something very much like it) on another list, so I thought you might be the same person.

I like the photograph too. The beautiful physical situation - that chasm - also looks like one in which the diver might actually be using the light for good reason. I think my objection to models posing with lights applies mainly to shots where it's readily apparent that the model is holding a lit lamp purely as a prop for the image.