Underwater macros

[Karl]

A couple of macro shots from my dive last Sat.

Comments welcomed.

Karl

Juvenile Western Octopus



Ribsecia sp Nudibranch



Chromodoris reticulata Nudibranch



A Seastar

[Bobobird]

Really nice shots.

How do you get rid of the "haze" from the shots? Or is there some kind of filter that does that?

[Sahil]

The one with starfish is outstanding.

[Donald]

When you say 'macro' shots, what are we talking about? How big in 'real life' are some of these things your photographing?

Keep them coming. A pleasure to look at.

[elfbob]

I would be interested to know what focal length your sigma 18-250 mm lens was set at for each of the 4 images; i can get a near macro appearing image by setting a 70-200mm lens at 200mm, then having the minimum lens to subject focusing distance to the object, creative cropping further enlarges the object, but dof is limited by the set f/, while your dof appears more than ample; your images are very nice , especially since underwater photography is challenging.

[Karl]

When you say 'macro' shots, what are we talking about? How big in 'real life' are some of these things your photographing?

Keep them coming. A pleasure to look at.

In underwater photography the term macro usually means anything small - rather than what topside photographers would term as a macro. Usually any subject less than 100mm would be considered a macro.

The first Nudibranch would have been 20mm long, the second one about 80mm. The other two are probably more close up photos.

The other term we use is wide angle and this generally refers to any shot of a large subject such as a whale, shark or reef scene etc.

Karl

[Karl]

I would be interested to know what focal length your sigma 18-250 mm lens was set at for each of the 4 images; i can get a near macro appearing image by setting a 70-200mm lens at 200mm, then having the minimum lens to subject focusing distance to the object, creative cropping further enlarges the object, but dof is limited by the set f/, while your dof appears more than ample; your images are very nice , especially since underwater photography is challenging.

My underwater photography is done with a Canon G12 in the Recsea housing with twin YS 110 Alpha strobes - I can't afford a DSLR set up - yet

Karl

[Karl]

Really nice shots.

How do you get rid of the "haze" from the shots? Or is there some kind of filter that does that?

Hi - not sure what you mean by the haze? If it is the green tinge then this is the colour of the water where I dive - our water is very green due to the nutirents, limestone and sandstone reefs, etc and is a common problem with temporate waters.

It is for this reason that we don't have the nice visibilty that tropical waters have - on a good day we are lucky if we have 5 - 10m; however, it usually closer to 3 - 4m. Visibility is the distance that we can see into the water - so 4m isn't really good We also have a lot of muck and floaty bits which also affect the photos.

You can get filters to try and fix the problem but normally we have strobes but they have a limited distance underwater and only highlight subjects close to you.

In the tropics the water is usually clearer so visibility can be greater than 20m if not 40m so it is a lot better for photgraphy (plus it is warmer).

Hope this helps.

Karl

[Donald]

In underwater photography the term macro usually means anything small - rather than what topside photographers would term as a macro. Usually any subject less than 100mm would be considered a macro.

Thanks, Karl. That is really helpful in understanding the context.