how to improve?

[taucherchen]

Dear Members,

I wondered if you could give me some comments, how I can improve my underwater pictures.

Right now I am using a Olympus E-PL3 with Olympus housing, with the Zuiko 9-18 lens, Zen Domeport and a Inon S2000 flash.

Please find a link to my webalbum:
https://plus.google.com/photos/11121404 ... 9928388785

I would be happy if you would have some advice for me.

Thank you in advance!

[Zig]

Is there a particular aspect of your underwater photography you'd like feedback on, or that you're struggling with? In my opinion I think they are solid photos. Some advice would be when you think you're close enough, get closer. This will greatly improve the sharpness and contrast of your photos. Also, if there is a diver in the picture, try not to cut any part of them out of the frame. Better yet, have the diver/ model completely surrounded by blue water.

Here's the chapter index to refer to. I hope this helps! http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/under ... aphy-guide

Cheers,
Zig

[taucherchen]

Thanks for your comments.

Sharpness I was missing also, so thank you for this.

The pictures are already improved in Lightroom. Basically I was struggling getting good blues. Sometimes when we went around 30-40m deep I had to increase my iso up to 640- is this normal?

another problem was backscatter, that I could not really get rid of, although I tried to pull the flash outwards as much as possible.

[Zig]

Yes, increasing your ISO as you go deeper (30-40m) is common. It also depends on topside conditions (eg surface chop, clouds, sun angle in the sky, etc). If it's dark, and you want to maintain a minimum shutter speed, you'll need to increase your ISO.

Here's a great article on getting better blues: http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/blue-color-underwater

If I know I will be going deep, especially here in Southern California, I will often preset my ISO to 400 or even 800, and work down from there.

Backscatter can be a real challenge sometimes, and it sounds like you're on the right track by angling your strobes out further. You can also try pulling them back further (back toward you, not out). This will help eliminate the "hot spot" being visible in the frame.

Cheers,
Zig

[hunterstella]

These are absolutely breathtaking shots! Keep practicing! Where was your last underwater escapade?

[taucherchen]

Thank you for the good advice and the nice comments on the pics.
I can`t wait for our next vacation to take the advice into account...

all the best

Matthias

[Zig]

Hello Matthias,

That sounds great! We have a lot of great trips and workshops coming up. I hope you can join us on one of them.

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/uw-trips

Cheers,
Zig