Anacapa: 1st time camera setup, 2nd time photographer

[Empty V]

Hey everyone! I had an amazing time this past Saturday on the Peace for the Mo2vation boat trip, thanks Christian!

I had a previous camera setup which I only used once. It has no manual settings and I didn't have a strobe so I almost all of my pics came out with a ton of motion blur. I just got a Fuji e900 with an Ikelite housing and Fantasea cool nano strobe. I would love some tips and constructive criticism on what can be improved. Please keep in mind I'm still figuring out how to dial in the settings, including the strobe. If I ID'd anything wrong please correct me. I thought about posting this in the photography forum but decided to post it here because I'd rather get advice from my fellow cold water divers who know these conditions.

Thanks!


Treefish

Sculpin - Sorry it's so blurry, I got excited when he swam under me and opened up his fins, this dude was HUGE!

Bat Star

I have no idea what this is. Can someone ID?

Approximately 12lbs Lobster

Abalone, thanks Debbie! Sorry it's so badly overexposed, better the pic than me.

Kelpfish, saw this right after Debbie pointed out and hand fed the Abalone

The Arch at Landing Cove, I dig this one.

California Sea Hare, probably my favorite pic.

Out ascent on the last dive. Sorry for the bubbles, it was hard to stop breathing

The ride home. It rained until we pulled anchor and headed back to the coast, still an amazing trip. I shot this with my topside wide angle adapter, haven't gotten the one for the housing yet.

Thanks for your constructive feedback, I'd rather improve than make repeat mistakes.

Billy

 

[SoCalAngel]

Billy, those were great shots! The fish you need ID'd is a blacksmith... typical column fish in our waters.

You forgot to subtract the 25% from the size of that lobster...prolly only about 7-8 lbs.

One thing I do is make my ISO a neg number. I can't explain it any better, sorry... What it does is make the exposure a little under, which gives the picks more contrast. Also, for macro shots, putting it way negative makes everything black in the background. Very cool effect. Your best bet, tho, is to simply designate a few dives as practice camera dives... dont try to get great shots, just sit and take pics of the same thing, but change the settings on the camera. After a couple of dives doing that, you should have a real good feeling for how your camera takes pics.

It was great meeting you this weekend. Too many peeps give you much UNdeserved grief! :10:

 

[alcina]

Nice photos - especially for your first time out with the rig.

I think Laurel may be talking about the EV not the ISO. ISO cannot be a negative number; think of it like film speed. She's spot on about practice practice practice.

You've got a nice exposure on the first one - let that be your guide. You should try to take pictures from that distance as you are getting nice light there. The silver fish is also well done - it's tough to get those types of fish without blowing them out and you hit it pretty well!

 

[orangelion03]

Far better than anything I shot on our dive Billy! My stuff was total CRAP!! And I've been shooting for 2 years!!! So where is that excellent photo of your "model" on the first dive?

 

[scottfiji]

composition - get the treefish at a more interesting angle, good exposure and focus though

the sculpin (a scorpionfish) is blurry, did you have macro mode on or off? check the range of the macro function in your camera documention.

try to get a better angle on kelpfish, you really need to spend time with these guys. good job finding one though.

try to get lower on the abalone shot too, to get more of its whiskers in the shot.

the lobster is too dark, which means stronger flash, higher iso, or change the shutter speed or f-stop.

really nice kelp/fish shot (sea scape)

hope this helps a little!

let go out again together this week for some practise...

scott

 

[ShakaZulu]

Great shots, amazing what a good camera setup can do.

 

[ChickOfTheSea]

Love that school of fish! The last picture topside was awesome as well Just keep snappin and take as many as you can... I take soooo many of the same subject because you never know how something will look once you get it on the pc...


Jen

 

[ChazMANia]

Had a great time on the dives with all of you. Beautiful shot of the sun finally breaking through. It would have been nice to have a little sunshine throughout the day. Love the arch! That was amazing. Any shots of our sea lion encounter? My first time with the sea lions, and loved it!

 

[justleesa]

Great pictures Billy!

(When are you heading back to Hawaii??)

 

[headhunter]

These are nice, Billy.

I really like the one of the sun breaking through!

I'm not an underwater photog, so I don't have any constructive criticism for improvement.

Christian