Thanks!

Finally a place for me,

*packs all his stuff and moved in*

Since I got the honour for the first post besides echeng, please bear with my pictures and give me some lenient comment, I had lots of room for improvement.....

OLYMPUS CORPORATION C5060WZ 12.06.2004 at 08:02:00

M - Manual f 8.0 1/750 s 80 ±0,00 EV 70 mm KB (14.3 mm Real) 768 x 576 Pixel 72 x 72 dpi 2.0:1 --

Automatic Spot metering On --

I am also a beginner, have been looking at the forum for sometime now.

I have used film camera's underwater <P/S SeaLife>, but now have digital.

Oly 5060 , Ike housing, DS125 and S&S WA

Hi Goondoo

Your scorpionfish looks like a pretty grumppy fish. You have a good exposure, and I think your picture illustrates well how scorpionfish are masters of camouflage and how easily one might put ones hand on one (ouch) not realizing it's even there. Pictures like this are always interesting, especially to non-diving friends who never seen this "living rock" before!

If you wanted to show more of the "facial expression" and less of the "camouflage ability" you might want to try to find a spot on the bottom next to the fish where you can get really low with your camera and so that you could get a water background rather than a sandy background by shooting horizontally or even slightly upwards. This would help to isolate the fish's features which get a bit lost with the sandy background. Just make sure you don't settle down of frumppys wife of cousin... getting stung by those spines will ruin your dive for sure!

Hi Goondoo

 

If you wanted to show more of the "facial expression" and less of the "camouflage ability" you might want to try to find a spot on the bottom next to the fish where you can get really low with your camera and so that you could get a water background rather than a sandy background by shooting horizontally or even slightly upwards. This would help to isolate the fish's features which get a bit lost with the sandy background. Just make sure you don't settle down of frumppys wife of cousin... getting stung by those spines will ruin your dive for sure!

Very well said... thanks for the guidance... had never never thought of that....

However, I was diving in the visibity of about 3m... and the water is kinda yellowish green instead of deep blue or deep green... The particles in the water caused darkness after we descend more than 7m. Just wanna be sure if it is still a good choice to use the water background given such conditions.

Really appreciated your very kind comments.

There are certainly some "gurus' That probably could tell you more about low viz water than I can, as I my experience is msotly in very clear water. I would probably do two things in "mucky" environment. first, be careful with how you place your strobe. Try to get the strobe away from your lens, and thry to aim it from an angle rather than head on. This will help you avoid ligting up the particles in the water and they will be less noticeable. The other thing you might want to try is to make your waterbackround black rather than "greenish". Thois you would do by setting a small aperture. I don't know if your camera can do that beacuse I never held an oly 5060. However, if you can't but have different "presets", the try one that would set the aperture to a small number (most often landsacpe mode, something with much depth of field). This should make the background go black and give you isolation. However the strobe positioning is probably where you want to start. Would be curious to find out where you shot this fish...

There are certainly some "gurus' That probably could tell you more about low viz water

 

However, if you can't but have different "presets", the try one that would set the aperture to a small number

First, let me say that my reply here does not indicate that I am one of the Guru's you speak off!

The 5060 has manual capabilities, so for a black "water" background I would recommend a much higher shutter speed (1/500+) instead of a reduced aperature. This will get rid of the ambient background and allow the strobes to take care of the foreground.

There are certainly some "gurus' That probably could tell you more about low viz water than I can, as I my experience is msotly in very clear water. I would probably do two things in "mucky" environment. first, be careful with how you place your strobe. Try to get the strobe away from your lens, and thry to aim it from an angle rather than head on. This will help you avoid ligting up the particles in the water and they will be less noticeable. The other thing you might want to try is to make your waterbackround black rather than "greenish". Thois you would do by setting a small aperture. I don't know if your camera can do that beacuse I never held an oly 5060. However, if you can't but have different "presets", the try one that would set the aperture to a small number (most often landsacpe mode, something with much depth of field). This should make the background go black and give you isolation. However the strobe positioning is probably where you want to start. Would be curious to find out where you shot this fish...

Actually, I was shooting with 2 Sunpac strobe by with F8 and 1/500 speed. I guess I will try even higher speed next time.

The shot was taken in Batam, Indonesia. I went with Diveriau.com

Thanks...