Some Underwater Shots

[FGAng]

I was out last week with my son who has come home from university for his summer break.  We took a trip to Cebu, Philippines for a little dive and some father and son time.

Shooting mostly done on D800, AFS 105mm, as is, and in combination with TC-14EII and TC-17EII.  Very happy with the lens sharpness, no noticeable loss in sharpness with TC-14EII, but quite a big drop in performance, both optically and in acquiring focus, with the TC-17EII.

Without TC




With TC-14EII


With TC-17EII


With TC-17EII and cropped


Sony RX-100

[Mongo]

colour, contrast and clarity in these is extremely good ! Not used to this being the case with many underwater shots.

[Jakov Minić]

FG, these are beautiful. I am always amazed by under water shots

[FGAng]

colour, contrast and clarity in these is extremely good ! Not used to this being the case with many underwater shots.

Thank you Mongo for your kind words. 

The ideal conditions to get good colour, contrast and clarity are (i) bring enough lights (in the form of a strobe or two) to restore the lights as water filters off red rapidly - also allows use of small aperture and high shutter speed to get good resolution, (ii) get close as the light rapidly fades off (look at the last photo taken with Sony RX-100), (iii) good lens and accurate focus. 

If you look at professional level photography, which I aspire to (ha ha not quite there yet), you should see that colour, contrast and sharpness are all there.

Enjoy and thanks again, Mongo.

[FGAng]

FG, these are beautiful. I am always amazed by under water shots

Thank you Jakov.  Always so kind .

[elsa hoffmann]

absolutely gorgeous!

[golunvolo]

Also very interested in underwater photography. This looks very good.
  My life changed the first day I tried scubadiving -plus- photography...the math is easy.

  Thanks for sharing and for the pointers
 

[elsa hoffmann]

My photography "career" stared with underwater photography - then moving to "on top of water photography"
A bit back to front - but I fully understand the challenges of shooting down under. I therefor really appreciate what I see here on this thread.

[simato73]

Marvellous stuff!

I try to take UW photos when I can, but I lack almost everything: skills, time under water, equipment, rich and interesting UW environments.

My personal taste is for "waterscapes" or UW landscapes, more than close-up photography, therefore I prefer your last image, although the others are also well done and way above my standards.

[FGAng]

Thanks Elsa, Golunvolo and Simato.

Indeed there are a number of challenges shooting underwater, as highlighted by Simato.  One would have to be a competent to good scuba diver having the necessary skills to control buoyancy, breathing, coupled with photography skills, and a rich UW environment. 

Close-up of extremely tiny marine creatures presents an enormous challenge - as most of you would appreciate, macro is first of all quite tough without the use of a tripod, plus the fairly low lighting levels UW, and the tissue of breathing changing the diver's buoyancy and cause movements ...

Marine waterscapes, as it were, would pose the challenge of balancing artificial lighting (strobes) and natural lighting, photographing in moving currents at times.

I suppose simato you might prefer these: