First dive trip with UW housing

Hello everyone, I was finally able to get my camera underwater last month, and I would like to know how you thought I did.

First a little background on me:

I'm a hobby photographer thats been shooting travel / landscape images for the last 3 years or so, and I've gotten the technical aspect of photography down pretty good. Good landscape photography is pretty difficult in that you have a scene with lighting you cannot control and that is extremely high in dynamic range. To combat this you have to be a dab hand in post, so I've got a good amount of experience with that.

I don't know much about fish, or anything underwater yet, though I love being underwater, and being able to see the wildlife so abundantly, and being able to shoot underwater was absolutely a blast (I wish i could "fly" on land!)

The fact that I don't know anything about fish / underwater creatures or their behaviors has been a bit of a crutch I think. Knowing behaviors would lead to more interesting images I think, but I've got what I've got so far, and only time will allow me the knowledge of behaviors anyway. I'm very interested in the subject however, and I was hoping I could lean on you members here to feed this interest.

I was hoping also that you guys could look at some of the images i have complete here, and some more on my smugmug site and give me an overall idea of how you think I'm doing.

I'll post a link to the page with all the images I have so far, and I'll post a few here for those that don't want to go outside the forum. Thank you in advance for any insight you can give

Link to the rest

(I didn't put this in the critique section because it requires a single image for critique, I'm hoping for an over all opinion, so it doesn't fit there.)

ISO 800

Focal Length 100mm

Aperture f/5.6

ISO 6400

Focal Length 100mm

Aperture f/8

Exposure Time 0.004s (1/250)

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ISO 800

Focal Length 100mm

Aperture f/5.6

Exposure Time 0.004s (1/250)

ISO 6400

Focal Length 100mm

Aperture f/8

Exposure Time 0.004s (1/250)

I've included the EXIF for these images just for review purposes. I know they probably aren't the settings you would use.

Wow! For the first time with a camera u/w you did a fine job! They all seem to be colourful, sharp and well-exposed. Nice work. I'd also point out that you did (in most cases) exactly what is most often recommended by folks that know fishes - get down on their eye level. I realize the lionfish image is a take that most can appreciate despite it not facing the beast. I really like the cornetfish image.

I'd say now you're faced with the challenges we all are... timing (right place, right time), patience (for the "peak of the action" as Martin Edge says) and trying to blend in while getting close enough to the subject looking back at you!

Lee

Wow! For the first time with a camera u/w you did a fine job! They all seem to be colourful, sharp and well-exposed. Nice work. I'd also point out that you did (in most cases) exactly what is most often recommended by folks that know fishes - get down on their eye level. I realize the lionfish image is a take that most can appreciate despite it not facing the beast. I really like the cornetfish image.

 

I'd say now you're faced with the challenges we all are... timing (right place, right time), patience (for the "peak of the action" as Martin Edge says) and trying to blend in while getting close enough to the subject looking back at you!

 

Lee

Thank you Lee Having a background in photography already really helped in combating the challenges of shooting underwater. Also helps with composition. Proper shooting kids / pets / animals on land is the same as shooting anything underwater, so shooting at eye level was pretty natural for me, and tbh, i didn't even think about it. I can see how new underwater photographers that don't typically shoot on land wouldn't know to shoot at eye level though.

The LIionfish was an aesthetic choice for a shot, as you assumed, but I'll be honest again, I simply wasnt able to get a shot I was happy with of these elusive creatures. I saw many many lionfish, but they always hide, and NEVER seem to swim level... they're always sideways / upside down, backwards... This was the best I could do lol. I do have some other shots that arent "too" bad, but nothing really great.

I'm glad to see that I'm not doing anything glaringly stupid underwater. When you don't really know much about the subject its easy to miss the subtleties of the subject, which is why i'm here asking about it.

I'm glad you like the cornetfish shot (yea! I can stop calling it "that really long fish" lol thank you for identifying that one for me) It wasn't particularly easy to get as it was a night dive and my AF isn't everything it could be, in low light. I was actually really impressed with how well it did perform though and was happy that it was able to hang on to that eye. The fish was turning when i got the shot, so it really had to work to maintain focus and I've got a whole round of similar shots while it turned and almost all of them have the eye sharp. It does help that it has a big high contrast eye too.

My UW photography is finished for another year though, so I'll have to see what shots i do have then see what I could have done differently and next year, Hopefully I'll be able to get even more interesting shots Thank you again for your words.

I agree, impressive results for a first outing. Contrast, color and lighting are very nice. Bummer that you are in the same one-trip-per-year situation as me. Though I have on a few occasions been able to sneak in a last-minute trip in December. Keeping my fingers crossed for this year, especially with a full week of -20+C in the forcast.

Bart