Project 52 by Mal Schulstad

[johnbharle]

Great set, Malcolm. I'm seeing a sharp image but no evidence of oversharpening that I can tell so a very impressive eyeball, for sure!

I'm glad someone else couldn't see evidence of oversharpening. I thought it was quite clear, but when I read your comment, I think to myself, "why can't I see what these guys see?" Guess there's a lot more to viewing photos than I've ever learned :-%

BTW, showing the food lizard was the best!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I really like the lighting on these. I'm guessing these were all natural light? Did you use reflectors, etc? Wonderful job!

All natural lighting. Two separate lizards that were running around on painted concrete. It was a cloudy, overcast day which made for some very diffused, even lighting. Because of all of the rain and clouds we've had through this summer in the sunshine state of Australia I've become quite accustomed to taking advantage of the diffused light that clouds tend to offer. It's like having a giant soft box covering the sky in the middle of the day - I don't even need to think about it. I just set for the exposure and DoF I'm after and fire away.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Well, if you're a follower of the equipment area of CiC you may have noticed that I've recently been inquiring about the best type of point and shoot for underwater photography. Kerry was kind enough to get me a course to get my Scuba Diving Open Water ticket - something that has been on my bucket list for quite a while. I've since been obsessed and been exposed to a whole new world of photographic opportunities.

The subject of underwater photography is quite extensive so you'll probably find that a few of my future posts will start going into some of the theory in this area. However, I thought it would be worthwhile to talk about the right sort of camera for taking photos while diving.

Firstly, there isn't really such a thing as a camera for diving. Instead, you find an underwater housing for a camera you want to take underwater. In the case of SLRs, these are horrendously expensive - I think I estimated around $3000 plus by the time I had the case and housing ports for lenses - twice the price of the camera itself! And then there's the thought of losing my beloved D7000 if the case for some reason leaked...

The reason for the cost of these cases is not just because they keep your investment dry, but because they have to build controls that allow you to access everything you need to operate the camera manually. And these controls obviously also need to be waterproof. When you think about it, try putting a box around your camera with buttons, switches, and dials to allow you to operate the camera normally. Then make it waterproof. You get the picture.

There's also the question of size. Taking a large box into an environment where the normal rules of gravity don't apply, where currents can move you quite a distance away from where you want to be, while you're lugging a bunch of equipment with you to help breath underwater already - well, let's just say underwater smaller is better.

So I finally settled on an Olympus XZ-1 in the manufacturer underwater housing. The XZ-1 is one of the more advanced P&S cameras on the market but very reasonably priced. It has full manual controls which are reasonably intuitive and shoots in raw. The sensor is obviously significantly smaller than a crop DSLR sensor, but larger than your standard P&S.

I bring this up because after having a play with the XZ-1, I have to think a little differently to when I shoot with the D7000. The downsides of this P&S are the smaller sensor means that the noise performance is significantly worse than the D7000 which is one of the best low light cameras (I feel) still available on the market. On the opposite side however, the DoF I can get with macro shots does make it useful in situations where I would need to be stacking images with an SLR.

Anyway, I've ranted on enough about the camera. In the main, I've been impressed with the XZ-1. I thought I'd post a sample pic just so you can see what images from this camera look like. It's a macro one - another bug.



And here's a photo using the XZ-1 for what I bought it for. It's not the greatest of photos, purely from a composition perspective. But I forgot to put the memory card in so ran out of space after taking 3 photos! Plus I was diving at night, in a location that I have never gone diving in before, in really strong currents - so I was probably lucky to get anything in focus. Hopefully I'll be able to improve on this significantly moving forward.

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Mal, doing a litle bit of catching up here, The Lizards, great capture, I like the full body one, has great DOF, They both look a little cheeky, done well to capture eating. the full head shots have great detail, and focus, I don't think it is over sharpened. the o;vercst day has provided great lighting.
looking forward to seeing your underwater shots, will open up a whole new world of photography, very unusual looking fish, like the stripes, looks like it has feathers

[FrankMi]

Looks like a great start to your collection of diving images! I can't wait to see more Malcolm, and good for you for getting out to explore new worlds!

[oldgreygary]

I think with the underwater shot the image looks a bit flat to me. I guess that's one of the many challenges of underwater photography is getting the light right? It looks like there is a burst of light on the fish, so I presume that was from a flash? I haven't done any underwater photography so I ain't exactly in any position to comment but I look forward to seeing your future underwater images.

Cheers for now

Gary

[Letrow]

Nice macro shot Mal, how close can the camera focus actually? The DOF looks nice. The underwater shot does look a bit flat, but if you change perspective that will change. Now it is probably like photographing someone who is standing before a wall.
Underwater sounds very interesting. I guess aperture and shutterspeed are ok as long as you use flash.
I shudder to think of the D7000 underwater, I would have the same issues as you have.

[johnbharle]

Very nice Mal. I have a little Canon P&S that I bought when I was between SLRs. It took some of the best pics I've ever taken. But it doesn't do raw. Still, these are marvelous exposures. Look forward to seeing more underwater.

[ktuli]

Mal,

One thing that I've found helps keep UW shots from looking flat is a little boost in the blacks slider when processing the RAW file. Give this a shot and see if it helps. If it doesn't, you can always fly me over and I'll show you how to take dive photos that aren't so flat...

- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Thanks everyone.

It's a Lionfish Wendy - and I was only told yesterday by a good friend at work who's a fisherman about how he likes to see these fish from a distance because of how venomous they are I was only a foot away from it when I took this shot - and I wasn't wearing my gloves!

I think with the underwater shot the image looks a bit flat to me. I guess that's one of the many challenges of underwater photography is getting the light right? It looks like there is a burst of light on the fish, so I presume that was from a flash? I haven't done any underwater photography so I ain't exactly in any position to comment but I look forward to seeing your future underwater images.

Cheers for now

Gary

It was night time - pitch black, so yes there is flash - but the burst you see is more to do with the vignetting I applied I think. You generally need flash to bring out colours as well underwater as the water itself tends to absorb the red end of the spectrum.

Nice macro shot Mal, how close can the camera focus actually? The DOF looks nice. The underwater shot does look a bit flat, but if you change perspective that will change. Now it is probably like photographing someone who is standing before a wall.
Underwater sounds very interesting. I guess aperture and shutterspeed are ok as long as you use flash.
I shudder to think of the D7000 underwater, I would have the same issues as you have.

Supermacro lets you get as close as 1cm, but you're stuck on 28mm - the zoom won't work. Normal macro I think is around 30cm. Still a much larger DoF than I could achieve with the Tamron macro on the D7000.

Exactly right with the perspective. It was side on swimming up against a rock. There was a really strong current and I had a flashlight in my other hand so it was too hard for me to manoeuvre and stay still for the right perspective. I'll do better next time

Very nice Mal. I have a little Canon P&S that I bought when I was between SLRs. It took some of the best pics I've ever taken. But it doesn't do raw. Still, these are marvelous exposures. Look forward to seeing more underwater.

One of my prerequisites - must haves actually, was that the camera shot raw and had a fast lens. The Olympus suits both while still being budget conscious. It takes fine photos in good light and with the flash. It's just not that great in low light.

Mal,

One thing that I've found helps keep UW shots from looking flat is a little boost in the blacks slider when processing the RAW file. Give this a shot and see if it helps. If it doesn't, you can always fly me over and I'll show you how to take dive photos that aren't so flat...

- Bill

I'm sure you'd enjoy the diving here Here's another version but at the end of the day, wrong perspective means the photo is less than ideal and I'm not happy with it. It was just the best of the three that I took before the camera ran out of memory. The backends of the parrot fish are far less exciting!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

So taking photos underwater is a whole lot different to taking photos of things above water... obviously! Here are a few things that I've noticed since venturing into this new world:

• Light works differently underwater. It falls off much faster than in air, and does so by stripping certain colours out of the spectrum, with red going first. Usually you deal with this by having underwater strobes which is probably something I need to look into at some point when the budget allows. For the time being I'm a natural light, onboard flash, and torch in left hand lighting photographer.
• When you do take a photo with a flash, depending on what's in the water you can get a lot of what's called backscatter, when light reflects off everything in front of the lens and creates a whole lot particles which is an effect not to dissimilar to noise, except everything ends up with white dots. You get around this by using an underwater strobe and sticking it on an arm so that the light from the strobe only lights up your subjects and not the space of water between the camera lens and the subject.
• Undersea creatures can be a bit more skittish than ones above the water. Trying to get fish to hold still for a portrait is just something that doesn't really happen too often. They are also much better swimmers than people lugging scuba tanks and underwater camera gear are.
• Currents in the water mean that you're usually moving as well. This means a faster shutter speed to compensate for the fact that you're moving, and so is your subject. Usually you're moving in one direction with the current and your subject is moving in the other.
• Underwater housings and equipment are phenomenally expensive. I would dearly love my D7000 with me as I'm running into the limitations of the XZ-1 a lot. However at $3000 for the D7000's underwater housing, it's just not practical.
• You can't completely lose yourself in taking photos simply because you have a limited amount of air and the person you're diving with (for safety reasons) may get bored if you take too long trying to get that perfect shot.

Still, it's fun learning something new so here are a few photos with a bit of commentary. None of the photos I've taken in this week's post used a flash because I forgot to turn it on before putting the camera into the housing - but at least I remembered the memory card this time!

This first one is of a Leopard Whipray - a tailless one. This photo is a good example of what can happen if you're not close enough to your subject - you can see how to photo has a blue green tinge to it and not much else.



Of course being the portrait photographer I am I had to grab a couple of people shots. This is an example of where the light fall off wasn't too bad because we were in relatively shallow water. I unfortunately missed the beginning of the fin in the first person and the fish in the background just wasn't following instructions to stay above the other subject.



Eels tend to hide in small spaces and are a lot of them are much smaller than people realise. This photo is actually fairly heavily cropped, and it was very dark. I ended up having to shine a flashlight from one side to light up the eel. Thankfully someone was able to assist by trying to feed it to draw it out of its little hole.



Sunbursts where the light strikes the water to create interesting patterns are something that I'd read about. It's a little blown out but capturing them takes me to the limits of the XZ-1 - fully stopped down at f8 and taken at ISO 200. I could have probably gone with a faster shutter speed but there were too many things happening underwater for me to remember at the time - like the water in my mask going up my nose as I leant back to take this shot.



And of course, sometimes you just find some strange things in the water...

[Letrow]

Great shots Mal (except for the first). It surprised me to see that the people shots came out so well. Lighting must really be hard to get right. I guess (maybe it is written, I just don't remember) that the camera is on automatic for this. It seems to handle itself quite well. The little fish are fun and your 'models' seem quite willing.

[FrankMi]

Hi Malcolm! Thank you for sharing you images and learning adventures as you get your feet wet in the new environment. I love watching the progression in your shooting so please keep the images flowing while you are soaking up your new experiences!

[SpiderBob]

I sure won't be able to comment on these, but I sure do like looking at them. It's another world indeed. Keep them coming.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Great shots Mal (except for the first). It surprised me to see that the people shots came out so well. Lighting must really be hard to get right. I guess (maybe it is written, I just don't remember) that the camera is on automatic for this. It seems to handle itself quite well. The little fish are fun and your 'models' seem quite willing.

The Olympus I bought has an F/1.8 lens which weighed heavily in my decision to purchase it. It's actual high ISO performance is very poor compared to something like the D7000 - I won't use it above ISO 800 - and only then even very reluctantly. But provided there's a reasonable amount of light it works very well. Underwater photography is one area where getting good at artificial lighting can really help bring out the best in shots.

The other reason I chose the Olympus is because of it's manual controls. I shot on full manual - it's the only way I can see the exposure meter as in any of the other settings, even the semi-manual settings, you don't get to see how far over or under exposed the camera thinks a shot is.

Hi Malcolm! Thank you for sharing you images and learning adventures as you get your feet wet in the new environment. I love watching the progression in your shooting so please keep the images flowing while you are soaking up your new experiences!

Cheers Frank. It's quite a challenge doing the underwater photography thing but I'm enjoying it. I'm hoping my underwater photography will continue to improve but I do need some strobes just to finish off my underwater set up. I really do miss my SLR underwater!

I sure won't be able to comment on these, but I sure do like looking at them. It's another world indeed. Keep them coming.

Call it as you see it Bob. Every piece of feedback helps - composition, perspective, and lighting principles still apply underwater. I just can't quite bring a tripod and spend as much time setting up a shot

[Donald]

Mal - Great stuff and good on you for venturing out into this new area in your life. I admire your adventurism.

Fascinating to learn what the challenges are of shooting underwater - things that make perfect sense, but about which you just wouldn't think stuck up here on the land.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Mal - Great stuff and good on you for venturing out into this new area in your life. I admire your adventurism.

Fascinating to learn what the challenges are of shooting underwater - things that make perfect sense, but about which you just wouldn't think stuck up here on the land.

Shooting underwater makes you really realise how much you take things for granted when taking photos on land. Mind you, it's easier to take photos standing on your head underwater

[Teton Chuck]

Mal, I am enjoying your new adventure of underwater photography. I especially like the eel shot. But what makes it all work for me is the explanation you are providing for the challenges and the ways you are considering to address them. I will join the chorus, please keep them coming.

chuck

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Mal, I am enjoying your new adventure of underwater photography. I especially like the eel shot. But what makes it all work for me is the explanation you are providing for the challenges and the ways you are considering to address them. I will join the chorus, please keep them coming.

chuck

Glad to hear that you're enjoying me ranting on Believe it or not I was sure that I'd messed up with the eel. Holding a flash light in one hand and camera in the other does make it difficult to stay still and I was sure that I hadn't lit it properly. I might show everyone what happens when a camera's on board flash is used for this week's photo.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

This week I thought would be a good exercise of how not to take photos in the water. I'd mentioned previously in my underwater posts about something called "backscatter". Often underwater (especially when I go diving) there are particles in the water - often sand and other fine elements that get churned up in the water and float around due to the lack of gravity. These particles have a fairly dramatic effect on what you can actually see underwater, reducing an already limited light spectrum.

Obviously to get around the low light the tendency to use flash. However if you use an onboard camera flash, what tends to happen is all of the particles immediately in front of the lens light up and reflect back into the image of the capture - this is what backscatter is, resulting in a shot like you see below.



This particular shot was taken with the flash power to over expose by 1.3 so you can tell that it was fairly dark with poor visibility at the time as it was. The white dots you see are the back scatter effect which isn't really something noise reduction filters take care of, given that they're usually trying to get rid of black spots.

There are two ways of getting around back scatter. The first is to use a strobe, extended away from the camera so you don't light up the particles in the water between the camera lens and the subject. The aim is to just throw light on the subject in the distance - and it's something that I'll work on when I eventually get a strobe.

The second way is to get closer to your subject to remove minimise the amount of particles in between the camera and the subject...



It doesn't always work very well so I definitely think I need a strobe. In any case, these two photos I think are examples of how not to take photos underwater!

As for PP - I ended up coming up with these. Not great, but at least it's something.