Anyone out there into Digital Underwater photo?

[The Repro Kid]

Howdy, is anyone out there into digital underwater photography? I am, but find the conversations to be had on this subject on scuba or freediving forums to be somewhat limited in scope. I'd like to exchange ideas with (pick the brains of) true professionals on this subject instead the usual amature fare you find on the scuba boards. Uh-oh... I hope none of them see this ;)

[big pix]

What under water camera gear do you have.........and can you post any pix's

[The Repro Kid]

I have some pitifully underpowered equipment. I have my old Olympus 2040 which is a 2.1 megapixel camera. Compared to some of the shots I've seen lately from newer models, The CCD on my camera is ultra noisy, and shows an incredible lack of detail.

I haven't used it much lately because it is now sort of depressing.

Here's a nice shot of a leopard shark. This guy was about as big as they get, between 4-5 feet. The photo was hopelessly underexposed, but you can by the opportunity shot that I didn't have time to fix my exposure. I tried to rescue in photoshop but there was not a whole lot I could do.



I'm not sure if this attachment worked. I hope it shows up. Anyway this guy proceeded to swim right up into my face but instead of snapping again I tried to fix the exposure, wrong move, it scared him and he swam away.

I haven't updated my underwater web page in over a year but you can see older photos at

http://dmendoza.net/uwphoto/index.html

[fotoasylum]

The cool thing is your learning.... and that is more important than anything.... nice shot.....

[The Repro Kid]

Thanks.

(I have to write more because the Forum-bot is telling me my message is too short)

[Grendel]

What under water camera gear do you have.........and can you post any pix's

:mad: shoot!! I met a guy in August when we were down in Jamaica that does this professionally. He was from Toronto and was down there on vacation with his wife. He dove almost every day to take pics. I wish I had his info handy!

Love your stuff tho!

[jasonv]

ey there repro kid, nice shot there. it just need a little lighting to give more color quality on your pix saw this unique underwater pictures. i'm not quite sure though if his using a digital camera on this one. the quality of the pictures are awesome. hope this would help on some info. here is the site. http://www.underwatercalendar.com/

[The Repro Kid]

Thanks Grendel -- like that screen name!

jasonv, I have a funny philosophy with underwater shots. With a well exposed shot I could correct the color until the shot does not even resemble something taken under water. I call this the swimming pool effect. I like to leave some water color cast in the shot because I want the shot to look more like it really does underwater. That's why I've been shying away from strobes and shooting only with available light.

There are zillions of underwater photog's around here, I see them on the dive boats every time I get out. Some have given me some great advice. The attitude of others, to me, seems frivolous. I've sat and listened to one of the more popular amateur phototog's in the area harp about how artificial digital shots look and how wonderful their film shots look in comparison. I grow weary of comments like that. For one thing, their $1,000 lenses are the greatest difference between the look of the photos. And their shots are so well lit with super bright double strobes that I can't figure out how such a well lit shot could ever be called realistic.

The few times I've made the mistake of talking about color and correction on the local dive BBS I've had to endure never ending replies and comments about my "opinions" about color. Opinions?

I've even had one absolute know nothing amateur send me a malicious virus that turned my computer screen display black and white and negative (inverted polarity) because I mentioned that the original color from a some satellite photo survey was very nice and it was a shame that they altered the ocean color into some incredibly goofy looking pastel blue. They wrote back telling me that the satellite survey companies color s*cked. ??? Sorry, but the satellite photo's color was perfect. I've since given up on any discussion of photo and color with the local dive crowd crowd around here and am even shying away from diving on the boats because I just don't want to even run into these people.

I guess that's why I was wondering if there are any photoshop and/or graphic pros out there who dabble in underwater photo. I'd like to talk to someone who knows better about color than to call solid color correction facts an opinion.

The dot etchers that trained me in color science and drum scanning had a long running joke. They used to say that the only person who know less about color than a designer is a photographer. I hate to generalize but from my discussions with the local underwater photographers, I'd have to say that where these local photog's are concerned, the dot-etchers were right. That comment does not apply to you guys though. In fact I've seen some gorgeous color in this forum which is what sparked my question in the first place.

Thanks for the input.