Just returned from Stephen Frink photo class ........

Hi All,

We watched in awe the week before last as hurricane Charley churned across the Caribbean, plowed over Cuba, then, headed for the Keys. My fiancee and I had been signed up for months to attend the first-ever Stephen Frink Digital Photography Course, slated to begin on August 14 in Key Largo. We were really looking forward to it; but, for a while, it looked as if it wasn't going to be. Thankfully, residents of the Keys were much more fortunate than those of Punta Gorda and Charley passed safely to the west. The weather was great, and the course went as scheduled.

Twelve of us attended, some coming from as far away as California and Washington DC. I discovered Steve has an almost cult-like following and the majority of the attendants had taken his film courses (some several times) and accompanied him on various liveaboard dive trips. Despite this, nearly all were digital newbies. Several had not even gotten their new housings wet prior to arriving in Key Largo.

We were required to bring our own housed, digital SLR cameras, and the gear that people brought consisted of various Nikons (D1X, D100 and D70's) and Fuji S2's. These were carried in housings primarily from SeaCam and Sea and Sea. My L&M Titan housing and an Aquatica were the odd ones. Interestingly, there were none from Subal. (It was also interesting that most of the S2 users had chosen that camera because of its TTL compatibility; however, by the end of the week, invariably they were setting their exposures manually.)

The week-long course was a photograph's boot camp. It consisted of morning dives followed by afternoon classroom sessions. The dive boat would leave the dock at 8:00am each morning for a two-tank dive, returning between twelve and one. The afternoon sessions began around 3:00pm. This format was similar to previous film photography classes Steve has taught. However, in those the students had a little time to relax before they'd meet to present slides that had been shot the day before and processed overnight. This time, we had barely two hours to clean up after the dive, grab a bite to eat AND download and review our morning's shooting (as many as 150 to 200 images for a photographer with a high-capacity CF card and a nimble shutter finger.) From these we were expected to select eight to 12 images, prepare them in PhotoShop and have them ready to discuss in class. That was the idea, anyway. Actually, it didn't happen quite that smoothly, and some of the sessions ran on into the evening as we grappled with PS and struggled to get our selected images ready to show. Nevertheless, it was very enjoyable and educational. Steve critiqued our work with diplomacy, and provided a detailed introduction to all aspects of underwater digital photography. He discussed makro and wide-angle techniques, image conversion, work flow, monitor calibration, camera maintenance and printing and so on.

I found it interesting that Steve is shooting almost exclusively digital, now. He shoots film only when a client specifically requests it.

Throughout the week Mike Haber and Mike Mesgleski of Underwater Camera Repairs shared their own expertise with us and provided comic relief. Mike Haber (also known as "Shark Bait") fed a school of nurse sharks while we clicked away, and got bitten on the hand for his efforts.

The week concluded with a "week in review" party where everyone presented his/her favorite images from the weeks shooting. It was great fun and a nice way to wind up the week.

I really enjoyed the course I would recommend it to anyone interested in getting into digital underwater photography, or honing their skills.

John

Hi John,

Thanks for posting. A friend of mine went on Stephen's "Shark Shootout" last year and he really loved it. It sounds like you had a good group.

Cheers

James

I also was at the class. (I was the "Lone Aquatica"). John summed up the week very well, especially the tight schedule. I did Stephen's film only class a couple of years ago, and recall having time for a siesta between lunch and class. Not so this time! Most days I had upwards of 3 Gigabytes to upload from my Microdrives to the hard disk for processing in Photoshop.

And yes, I bought my S2 to get TTL. By day 2 my strobes were set to manual and remained that way for the rest of the week. Oh well...

I wanted to do the Shark Shoot OUt this year, but Steve told me that it's not happening this year (sob) I am trying to rearrange a scedule now to get out on another Bahamas trip to see some sharkeys.

Giles

Like the last sentence of the previous post... TTL is a wonderful marketing tool but in real life, especially u/w, using manual is both easy and efficient.

Add to this the incredible latitude of RAW format (compared to slides) and... the soon to come added dynamic range...

My $0.02

Michel

John, thanks for sharing your report. I am glad the weather was kind to you and you had a great week. Inspired by your, Bruce's and Michel's comments I have started a new thread about giving up TTL at

http://www.wetpixel.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic...ic-t-6199.phtml

Not to step on Steven's toes, but do you guys mind sharing the mindset re: shooting in manual vs. TTL? Guess I don't know what I am mising because people alwyas talk about having ttl available, but I have only ever shot manual strobes. Had it worked out I would have ended up with the ICU unit for the A300, but alas, not to be.

Chris

Not to step on Steven's toes, but do you guys mind sharing the mindset re: shooting in manual vs. TTL?

The choice of shooting modes had nothing to do with Steve. It's just that after a couple of days of shooting and careful analysis of the results, the ttl guys seemed to realize that digital ttl isn't all it's cranked up to be.

I think it's ironic as hell to shell out 1500 bucks for a high quality digital camera with multiple auto modes, and then have to make all the adjustments manually. But that seems to be the way it is. I have always been forced to shoot manual with my D100, but I've had it in the back of my mind that I might one day get a Nikon SB80 or similar strobe in a housing. However, especially after Alex's comments on his new thread, I probably won't. I suppose if Ikelite were to come out with an iTTL compatible strobe, I might consider it, but I'm really pretty happy with the results I'm getting now.

John

I think it's ironic as hell to shell out 1500 bucks for a high quality digital camera with multiple auto modes, and then have to make all the adjustments manually.  

It's an interesting exercise to look at the shooting details of the images in advertisements for those $1500 high quality digital cameras and see how they were taken... Many of them are in a manual/semi-manual mode.

Last Saturday Stephen Frink showed his student pictures to a group of about 250 scientist attending, "CONECTIVITY, science, people, and policy in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary."

After a couple of days of looking at pictures shot by scientists that left some photo technique to be desired. It was indeed refreshing to see such upbeat colorful pictures. Your Trumpet fish and Jawfish shots were included. Good Job.

Splash,

Don Kincaid

Last Saturday Stephen Frink showed his student pictures to a group of about 250 scientist attending,  "CONECTIVITY, science, people, and policy in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary."

After a couple of days of looking at pictures shot by scientists that left some photo technique to be desired. It was indeed refreshing to see such upbeat colorful pictures. Your Trumpet fish and Jawfish shots were included. Good Job.

Splash,

Don Kincaid

John - Thanks for the kind words, and thanks so much to all of the class members who allowed me to show their images at the Connectivity conference. I gather there was much talk in previous days at the conference about potential stress on our reefs, both locally and globally, and it was with great pride that I was able to show how much we have left worth protecting in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. There were some extraordinary photos captured by the group in just a week's time.

The class was my first all-digital seminar, and was exciting to me as well. The work flow was perhaps exhausting, but hopefully rewarding for all.

As for the comments about TTL and the other thread it has spawned over on the D-SLR forum, all I can say is that on the very first day we take photos of exposure slates under as controlled conditions as is possible in the ocean. We try to get a series of brackets from F-5.6 to F-22 in manual, and for those cameras able (Fuji S2), in TTL. Theoretically there should be a large spread for each manual aperture setting, and also theoretically the variation should be minimal with TTL. Yes, the background should be different because it is a different aperture after all, but the strobed foreground on the exposre slate should be uniform from F-5.6 to full power output on the strobe, whatever F-stop that might be.

As it turned out, the S2 shooters who saw the results of this test chose to shoot manual for the rest of the week. I don't think it was a housing issue because the three S2 shooters had Seacam, Sea and Sea, and Aquatica housings. Inon, Sea and Sea, and Ikelite strobes were also used. For whatever it is worth in deducing your own conclusions.

This is Art Prest. I too was part of the class and had a great time while learning a lot. I was using a Fuji S2 in a Sea & Sea housing with dual Inon 220 strobes. Although my exposure tests in TTL mode with the dual Inons were very consistent I decided to switch to manual exposure mode and not use TTL after the first day. I found that my pictures improved dramatically after I got over my nerousness of having to think about exposures underwater. I did find that the biggest improvement came after I adjusted the LCD on the camera to more closely match the image on the PC. Up until then I was underexposing my pictures because my LD was to bright.

Art makes two good points. First, his Inons and S2 were pretty consistent in the TTL mode, so maybe some strobes read the circuitry better than others. For those who are getting accurate TTL with their S2s it might be interesting do a straw poll to find what strobes seem most reliable. But without empirical testing it is hard to say. An exposure can be good in TTL or it can be good in manual, but not necessarily good BECAUSE of TTL or manual. It can be the shooter's skill, or simple synchronicity of distance/F-stop/strobe power/reflectance. In some ways it is sort of a moot point for all but S2 shooters as TTL does not seem to be an emerging option in D-SLRs except with the manufacturer's housed speedlights.

Art's second very good point regards the camera's LCD. What looks good in a camera store (bright) may not be what is likely to give a balanced histogram, and therefore proper exposure. We find it very common that the factory tweak on the LCD gives underexposure when it looks right on the screen. Making the LCD a bit darker by means of a custom function is probably a closer representation of a good curve on the histogram. In my experience with D100s for example, a -2 on the LCD control is closer to reality.