Are there Underwater Photographers among you?

[Robographer]

Because I not only do "land photography" but also underwater photography I was wondering if there are also some underwater photographers among the member of these forums.

If there are any... it would be nice to group-up I think...

Robert

[I_A_N]

Hi Robert,

I love scuba diving, I have also been a couple of time to Egypt diving, not got round to Underwater Photography (yet). I do not seem to have the small change to get kitted up.

Cheers, Ian

[private]

I was actually thinking of "diving" into that arena. I was going to buy a small underwater p&S to make sure that is something I wanted to do.

How easy is it to see through the eye piece, do you do it that way? I will prob need to wear goggles, but since I wear glasses, should I get perscription goggles? What other things do I need to be aware of? I was going to take the summer to practice with a p&S and if I can tollerate it, I was gonna go ahead and get the housing for my dslr so I can shoot under water...

[I_A_N]

I have a P&S I got it the first time I went to the red sea. The problem I found was first you can not go to any depth with these Cameras and secondly, the quality due to the lighting is not good, it's nice to flick though the pics and think back on the dives, they are though very limited.

Cheers, Ian

[Robographer]

Hi Ian,

Depending on the housing you have it will be possible to go to any depth allowed for recreational diving. The standard housings normally can go up to 40 meter (120 feet). Another problem as you mentioned already is the lighting... there is a big trick box needed. Either you kit up with (semi) professional gear with strobes that could lighten a complete city and cost around 10,000 Euro ( $14,000) or you try to cheat a bit.
With some tricks you can get good photos with a standard P&S camera. The photos I posted are made with a Canon Ixus 85 IS without strobe... I even didn't use the internal flash a lot, only for macro.
This whole kit did cost me around 400 Euro ($ 570,-).
When you are interested to hear some of the tricks I use just ask....

Robert

[Robographer]

Hi Pat,

About the camera, please read the answer I gave to Ian... It answers your question as well I think.

The eyes... You can get prescription masks, that's no problem. You could also try contacts...
With a P&S you don't look through the eye piece, you use the live image on the screen, so that is also very easy.
A housing for you Canon? If you want a safe housing you should buy a Hugyfot housing. It's made of aluminium and has all the electronics on board so you can use all the camera functions. Price? Well in Europe a housing like that will cost you around 2,700 Euro ( $ 3,900) and with that you MUST have strobes...
So it's better to start with a P&S and just give it a try.

Other things you should think of is before starting with underwater photography take a buoyancy course with your local diving instructor and tell him that you want to start UW photography so he knows what buoyancy skills you need.

Greetz,

Robert

[Free]

I've got a mate that is right into it, he's just upgraded to a D90 and saving for a pair of strobes. I think he hangs out at underwater specific forums but I'll try to get him onto here...

[Elvie]

Personally I found I've got much more exciting shots while snorkelling. The light, particularly in the Tropics, is so much better and there's so much more going on. Also if you stay somewhere with a house reef that you can visit regularly you get to know whats happening and can plan your shots better. It can be tricky seeing the screen in sunlight - its literally point & shoot not aim and shoot! The other problem is shutter lag. With fast fish you end up with lots of photos of fishes tails. But hey thats the beauty of digital just take lots!

[Robographer]

Hi Free,

I tried some of the underwater forums and actually I got tired of the jalousy there is about the gear some of the divers have... Don't get me wrong! It's cool if someone can afford a 15,000 $ kit, but that doesn't automaticly mean that his photos are better than photos of other people who just cannot afford such expencive equipment. At the point that I started to change my EXIF to the most expencive kit you can imagine and everybody told me how super great my pictures were (they were still made with my 500$ P&S)... i got out of there.
As most of us... real hobby photographers... know it's 75% the person behind the camera and the rest is equipment. And for what I read here in the different forums I think it's a lot different here as I saw on the underwater forums.

What your friend has, the D90, that's the dream of most underwater photographers. I would love to see some of his work!! It would be great to get him on board here.

By the way... your AV shows an underwater photo... is that yours?

Tnx for your reaction!!

Robert

[Robographer]

Hi Elvie,

LOL why do you think I LOVE macro? A sea slug can not move so fast!!! So I have all the time to take several photos of it.
Of course the light in the tropics is much better, but also in the tropics 99% of the red is dissapeared at 10 meter (30 feet) depth and your photos get all blue. Taking photos snorkeling does not have that problem because all the colors are still there but you have another problem and that is getting close to your object when it is a bit deeper.
Seems that you do just the right thing... just shoot as much as you can. After a dive I normally have about 4GB of Jpeg's which is about 600 photos and when I have 10-15 "good" photos after a dive I am very happy.

Keep shooting!!!

Robert