Online Courses for UW Photography & Lightroom?

[DevilEyeDog]

I am a very amateur photographer with a Sony a5000 and have been taking my camera on dives for the past year. Is there an online course that reviews the basics? When to use a red lens, macro, none? I'd love to read and then practice or even have a better understanding of the types of macro lenses.

And then there's Lightroom....any suggestions for a decent online class? I've never used anything more than a basic photo editor and lightroom is overwhelming for a newbie.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[WS007]

Here are some nice tutorials on UW photography:

PanOceanPhoto Underwaterphotography Online Tutorials

Wolfgang

 

[DevilEyeDog]

Thanks! That's definitely a great start! Turns out that shooting photography underwater is different than on land.

 

[bmorescuba]

I found these guides to be helpful when starting out: Underwater Photography Resource Center :: Handbooks for Better Underwater Photography

Also, the books by Martin Edge (https://www.amazon.com/Underwater-P...F8&qid=1522860107&sr=1-1&keywords=martin+edge) and Alex Mustard (https://www.amazon.com/Underwater-P...1&keywords=underwater+photography+masterclass)

For Lightroom, I would actually start with Adobe's tutorials: Lightroom Classic CC tutorials | Learn how to use Lightroom CC . They are really well done. If you ask 20 u/w photographers what the best workflow is for processing u/w photos in Lightroom, you will get 20 different answers. Some people have posted guides online and on YouTube, but there is nothing universally correct about any ones I've found. There are a couple things most people agree on for u/w Lightroom:

Shoot in RAW
Adjust White Balance based on strobe coverage
Noise Reduction and Spot Removal can help with backscatter
Lens Corrections can de-fish fisheye lenses if desired

There is a basic universal workflow in Lightroom: Import->Cull->Edit (Develop)->Export . But the devil is in the details, especially the Develop step.

 

[DevilEyeDog]

THANKS! That's great! Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[dave42]

I'll second the Martin Edge book. I am a better than average above water photographer (exhibited my work a few times), but underwater photography is hard. The Edge book helped me get my head around the three biggest differences in getting the photo.

1. Exposure is different, don't trust the camera.
2. White Balance.
3. Underwater framing is different, with no straight lines and no horizon composition is a lot more difficult.

One of my favorite above water photographers,David duChemin, also shoots underwater on occasion so I have followed his tutorials and advice as much as I can. In particular when developing I follow his techniques a lot.

Also I found that with lightroom I can do some good B&W underwater and can get really good photos my just focusing on shadows, light and composition this way. My avatar is a photo I took on my last dive trip. It's much easier to process these as really you only end up dealing with a few variables in Lightroom.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The most helpful book I've found is Alex Mustard's Underwater Photography Masterclass

There are several instructional videos online. One of my favorites is The Aquatic Eye

 

[WS007]

I have both books: Martin Edge and Alex Mustard. Both are great and can be recommended. The Mustard book is my steady companion on diving trips...

Wolfgang

 

[diver257a]

Lynda dot com which is a subscription-based online training service has four courses packaged as a 'learning path', i.e. introductory, macro, wide-angle and image enhancement using Photoshop. Please refer Improve Your Underwater Photography Skills - Learning Path.

 

[Storker]

Add me to the list of those recommending the books of Martin Edge and Alex Mustard. Start by reading Martin Edge's book (at least twice), ruminate on it, go diving and shooting a lot and then pick up Alex Mustard's book.

The cataloging feature of Lightroom is enough motivation for using it - or a similar type of program. And if you're using it, raw file development is totally transparent and no more difficult than working with JPEGs. The only thing I dislike is the subscription license, but you might still be able to find LR Classic which is sold with the old-fashioned perpetual license.