Back from Dahab - Critique It!

Hi everyone,

I'm now back from Dahab. I didn't have too much time there to take photos because I was at dive courses, (Now I am not only a freediver but also a advanced open water scuba diver. Welcome to the Dark Side:-) ) but I have some...

At following link you find some exampels, of photos that I am not happy with.

Dahab UW Photos

All photos are taken with available light and urpro filter and inon UWL-100 lens with domeport between 0 and 20 meters. Most of the dives I used following settings:

Macro Mode

Manual Fixed Focus 31 inch

Iso 64

RAW

F3,5 1/100

Some photos have a line because it took me some time to realize that if you put on the filter on land some air will be traped inside due to the very good sealing. I have learnt that leason...Anyway, I would love to get your opinion and reactions about the photos - recommendations about settings or work flow etc. For the first time I've used raw format and I must say that it is very easy to fix the photos afterwards, especially to correct white balance if there is sandbottom on the picture.

Follow some photos that the white balance is corrected.

What a great series Lambis!!

You're blues are superb and I love the shot on the top left with the hand close to the lens.

The shot in the up left corner is great.

In most of the shots in the gallery (very unique and looks great btw) the colors are good except few that there are too much red, e.g. the 3th shot.

I like most the free divers shots some of the are great.

The best two are top left and top right - where you have shot with the light rather than against it. This is key to getting good images with available light. It will also help your blues. Get the sun behind you and shoot down.

Alex

Thanks for the respons

In Red Sea, Dahab was very windy most off the time. I can say that the pictures that i have taken ther was not all the time under control enviroment

Scenario 1. Place BLUE HOLE. Freediving

The visability in blue hole was not good. The water is full with sand particles and to take photos off a freediver competition is not easy.

All the time I have fighting to freedive , control myself not to touch any freediver and try to find the best position. Offen is the sun in front off me, offen i must take photos again the sun and the Olympus pt015 housing is not the fastet one for change settings.

Example follow picture. How I can improve it?. It is direct from the camera. I have many off them and I see that they have noice and they are not as sharp as i whant

Scenario 2. Place the Canyon, Bells, Ilsands. SCUBA Lessons

I try to learn to scuba dive:-) I like it. I see how mutch easy it is to take photos when scuba dive. The light is mutch better and dont change a lot. Mutch more control (But i have use mutch air.. in one dive I have done Buddy breathing :-) )

Anyway some pictures are not what i like to be. like follow

Photo 1: The photo is lite dark. I have done White Balance using the sand but I can get rid of the magenta water on the top left.

Photo 2 & 3: To dark

Photo 4: How to fix the Hallo around the sunball?

The last 2 are: a pufferfish in 15 meters deep.

1 lionfish on my first Night dive lesson and my first night photo with the internal flash of the olympus

Great photos!!!

I noticed a couple of things

Dahab0605382: looks overexposed. It seems that the sun was behind the subject, i.e. the camera was pointing toward the sun. You could move to the left a bit (so the sun is over your left shoulder). Alternatively you could underexpose the shot, which would make the surface have a more saturated blue colour and the corals more saturated. The lionfish seems to be running away - they can be approached more closely if you move very slowly. The yellow coral often looks washed out so when it's in the foreground the photo should usually be underexposed. (Easy to say!)

Dahab0605500: gorgeous composition and great timing. The sand is overexposed and one should probably develop a "knee jerk" reaction to underexpose the photo whenever there is a lot of sand

in the foreground.

Dahab0605197: wonderful, wonderful photo.

Thanks for the input

All the photos are make when i was freediving. To move very slow or stay still in the middlewater is imposible. You have to take the photo an accent or deccent.

I try to follow the obectiv and shoot on the move and when i say move it is 1-2 meters per second. It is easy to frame and take time for a photo when you are scubadiving. You can just stay and wait for the momment. In freediving you are

like a moving all the time. BUT i like it.

What i have done wrong with many photos was the the aperature was 3.6

I think 5.6 will be more suitable next time

BTW...develop a "knee jerk" ?? I dont get it:-)

I noticed a couple of things

Dahab0605382: looks overexposed. It seems that the sun was behind the subject, i.e. the camera was pointing toward the sun. You could move to the left a bit (so the sun is over your left shoulder). Alternatively you could underexpose the shot, which would make the surface have a more saturated blue colour and the corals more saturated. The lionfish seems to be running away - they can be approached more closely if you move very slowly. The yellow coral often looks washed out so when it's in the foreground the photo should usually be underexposed. (Easy to say!)

Dahab0605500: gorgeous composition and great timing. The sand is overexposed and one should probably develop a "knee jerk" reaction to underexpose the photo whenever there is a lot of sand

in the foreground.

Dahab0605197: wonderful, wonderful photo.

It appears to me that you have a strobe problem (over exposing) or a no strobe (underexposing) problem. Also try bracketing, try changing your F-stop (take three pictures of the same thing and advance your F-stop from say 5.6 to f8 then f11). You will have to experiment to find out what F-stop to use in certain conditions (such as bright light or no light)

I dont use strobe and yes .. sometimes I underexpose my pics.

About Bracketing... I was thinking before of that

Normally i use Aperature priority F8 So I could over ana underexpose my pics with Bracketing.

I think that I have done a better job in Crete. New photos are online now on www.apneaimages.com

Anyway...becauce I freedive every other manual option is not valid for me. Lack off time & air :-)

It may not always be possible, given the circumstances that these photos were taken in (free diving), but if at all possible, shooting with the sun in the back, lighting the scene, would make a tremendous difference.

Also, if you shot them in RAW, it is possible to correct the exposure on some shots (e.g. brighten up underexposed shots) using your RAW conversion software, using the "exposure compensation" slider. This minimises "damage" to the original data captured by the camera.