Looking for Caymans suggestions

On 11/3/2022 at 11:50 AM, calbeardiver said:

Wide Angle is really about the composition above all else.   Really benefits from human subjects to give it scale and focus.  I think you just need to log some dives and subjects and see what you like.   

I'm doing a circuit around Cebu in December.  That will be the variety tour - there are islands for macro, ones that are known for whale sharks and threshers, swarms of sardines, and everything in between.   Great for the diving bit, but it may be a challenge to get dialed into any particular type of shooting.  

Oh I have thousands of bad wide angle shots to pick from!

So much of WA imagery with divers is getting the diver in a position that it contributes positively to the image. So facing the right way, fins/legs in an elegant position, eyes open, bubbles nicely emerging above the head..... simple. 

The 'rule' of thirds is often helpful-  where you want the foreground object, or where you want the lines of the ship to run.   Both of your examples I think exemplify how center placement can often be displeasing.   (though I do enjoy making fish in the foreground look more massive than divers in the background)   

Having a trained model can be great, though I've never had that luxury.  My wife is whatever the opposite would be.   But how divers interact with a wall or a wreck is somewhat predictable, so you can try to anticipate them going to where you want.   Their use of lights to illuminate also lends to good comps, and just having them lets you give scale to the grander backgrounds.   

My GH4 housing had a very useful level to turn off the flash, great when it true open WA where the strobes add nothing but can slow down shooting rate.  Burst mode gives more chances to get the fins and bubbles in a nice way.   I don't think the R5 does, but at least I was able to jump to a flash trigger.   

When reviewing my wide angle shots, I'm often reminded of the old Ansel Adams quote "There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept".

I rarely have a good concept when taking the image in the first place.  I'm just snapshooting.    For macro I know what I want, how to get there and how to post-process it.