Here's the thing about underwater photography

[MXGratefulDiver]

Some of you guys are making this sound like it's some kind of competition.

It's not.

Post processing or none at all (and as much as it may irk, if you're using a digital camera you are getting some amount of correction by virtue of the camera's sensor and settings) doesn't really matter.

If a shot pleases you, that's really all that matters.

Lighten up a little and enjoy your dive habit however you choose ... but please, PLEASE don't get into this "my way is better than your way" mode. It takes all the fun out of why you're doing it.

Personally, I prefer photos that show some action or expression ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Brian Sharpe]

All I can say is:

1) Thanks to Sabbath999, Blazinator & fppf for a the beautiful pictures
2) My U/W housing & camera should be arriving soon & I'm looking forward to a couple of trips to the quarry to practice before going on vacation in December

 

[Blazinator]

Some of you guys are making this sound like it's some kind of competition.

It's not.

Post processing or none at all (and as much as it may irk, if you're using a digital camera you are getting some amount of correction by virtue of the camera's sensor and settings) doesn't really matter.

If a shot pleases you, that's really all that matters.

Lighten up a little and enjoy your dive habit however you choose ... but please, PLEASE don't get into this "my way is better than your way" mode. It takes all the fun out of why you're doing it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I totally love your post and agree to keep the fun in it - which can be hard if you are focussing on focussing .
But I'm not sure we are advocating a "my way is better" thread, although the potential is certainly there, and thanks for the warning. Many of us DO want to get the point out that anyone can shoot good shots with beginner rigs. Nice shot fppf! I too, shoot to show friends the UW world on the TV - gotta love those A/V ports to do a slide show on any TV!

 

[fppf]

Yeah, no competition here. I just feel photo shop makes people lazzy sometimes. They rely on photo shop to fix bad habits rather than take the time to learn how to fix them real time.

I will agree digital makes things easier than film. But the settings on my digital are not any different than someone with a film camera. In film you select your film ISO, your camera settings and your filters. Digital, you set all the same items but rather than filters you can digital filter for color shifts to a point.

 

[billamp]

Great message and it explained a lot to me as to why I like to take photos. Yeah I do use Corel Photo 12, but not to extremes. Thanks for the good post.

 

[pedo]

Some of you guys are making this sound like it's some kind of competition.

It's not.

Post processing or none at all (and as much as it may irk, if you're using a digital camera you are getting some amount of correction by virtue of the camera's sensor and settings) doesn't really matter.

If a shot pleases you, that's really all that matters.

Lighten up a little and enjoy your dive habit however you choose ... but please, PLEASE don't get into this "my way is better than your way" mode. It takes all the fun out of why you're doing it.

Personally, I prefer photos that show some action or expression ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yeah, just like: YouTube - Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen
a cup of cold tea, without milk or sugar... or tea

 

[Blackwood]

Its not about who can take good pictures in tough elements anymore. Its all about who can take a really bad shot and has mad photo shop skills.

There is no difference in that regard between digital and film (I'm replying to your "anymore" comment).

Hell, with film (I shoot 35mm) "straight-out-of-camera" is a meaningless term.

First you have to process the film. How it gets processed affects what the negatives look like. Then you have to make a print. What you do during the paper exposure (including the use of filters, techniques such as burning, dodging, etc.) AND how you process that photo paper affect what the print looks like.

Straight-out-of-camera only works in the digital era because there is an image processor built into the box that does things to the photo. It has sharpness settings, contrast settings, color settings, etc..

Every image gets processed one way or another. Personally, I prefer to get the raw files out of my camera so I'm the one who processes it, not the engineer at Canon.

 

[RonFrank]

Interesting perspective, but I have to disagree to some extent. Photography can be somewhat simple. More so in that manufactures have done a heck of a lot to eliminate some of the more difficult challenges, like color temp for example. Auto Focus is another chuck of technology that aids quite a bit, especially when using a camera UW as it's often difficult to focus wearing a mask, and trying to look at the image through the camera (SLR).

Water filters red light. A flash can add color balance, but that only goes so far. The rest becomes a dance, and tools like photoshop are valuable. I've rarely shot an UW image that does not benefit from a color temp shift. Ironically topside, I rarely have to do anything with color temp, so water is the culprit.

Composition is an art, but there are some basic rules or guidelines one can use to aid in better composition. Give two people cameras, and a theme, and watch what happens.

If in the end the final image is all that counts, than who cares how that was done?

 

[sabbath999]

Yeah, no competition here. I just feel photo shop makes people lazzy sometimes. They rely on photo shop to fix bad habits rather than take the time to learn how to fix them real time.

I will agree digital makes things easier than film. But the settings on my digital are not any different than someone with a film camera. In film you select your film ISO, your camera settings and your filters. Digital, you set all the same items but rather than filters you can digital filter for color shifts to a point.

I am rather curious about the bad habits you are seeing in my photography (considering everything I shoot is done with a Sealife DC1000 or a Canon A710IS). Do you see technical flaws such as them being improperly exposed, out of focus, bad flash usage?

Other than exposing properly, focusing properly, lighting close stuff properly and composing properly there's not a whole lot different you can do.

BTW I don't generally use photoshop in my pictures at all, I use Nikon's Capture NX.

I do post process my work, I freely admit it. Your camera image sensor does post processing as well (unless, of course, you shoot completely RAW). If it is a jpeg, then it has been post processed before it is written on your chip.

To me, it is no different than changing a car tire... you can use a pnumatic tool or a tire iron to loosen a bolt. Choose the tool that you like best and roll with it. If others don't like it, well then that's their deal.

Here are some of my other pictures from the last few months: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sealife-station/299715-my-kona-august-2009-picture-thread.html

 

[Blackwood]

Your camera image sensor does post processing as well

The image processor does the processing, not the sensor. The sensor just reads intensities. They don't even recognize color.

I haven't taken many photos underwater, but I've taken enough to recognize how much of the ambient red light is absorbed by the water. My UW camera won't take external lights or filters, and I'm left with two options: live with it (left), or improve it (right).