Taking it to the next level

So, recently I have had good success in some underwater macro photography. But there is always room for improvement, right?

For the benefit of those who would like to take it up I am more than willing to share my experience to date. I consider myself a rather advanced photographer. That was until I started taking underwater photography seriously.

Having done scuba diving for some time I am quite comfortable in the water. The thing is, bringing the two together presented a challenge or two I am still learning to deal with.

First, there is the matter of what to buy. In my case I wanted to buy gear that would be capable of delivering saleable images suitable for large prints up to A1 or so.

I opted for Sony's RX-100 compact camera and, in my case, the Mark 2. Even this decision came after a good few interesting twists. I found myself eventually going with this option after doing much more research on housings and lens options than the actual camera itself. For those who would like to read more about these great "little" cameras, have a look here.

Looking at the RX-100 Mk II, it has a great zoom range of 28mm -100mm in 35mm system equivalents. It also has a rather fast f/1.8 aperture capability at the wide end and it sports the Zeiss name.

I have learned that none of that ended up meaning much for my needs.

In underwater photography I have found that 28mm is not nearly good enough. Enter Nauticam with their housings. Those who wish to do so can read more about Nauticam and their brilliant housings here.

Should you be fortunate enough to take a D-SLR on your dive, make peace with a very flat wallet. Also, the D-SLR shooter is committed to the specific lens option selected for a specific dive. D-SLR housings are body-specific (much like mirrorless and compact housings) but flat ports or dome ports can not be changed underwater.

This (and cost implications) was why a compact system housing really appealed to me. The standard seems to be a specific thread size known as M-67. With a compact housing the complete housing is a closed unit with the compact camera inside. Macro lenses and wide angle domes can be changed at will underwater. The appropriate attachment (wet!) lens is simply screwed onto the front of the housing as needed.

Perfect? Not quite...

Because the lens elements (either macro or wide angle dome) mount to the housing by screw thread that means fresh air or water draining in and out come into play. And BUBBLES get trapped...

Watch the video below to see that line as the water drains out.

This has meant that that perfect split shot over and under the surface still needs some work. I am sure there are many tips and tricks but the basic idea is stil a work in progress. For me at least.

So, why don't we focus on the good parts? There are many.

The next logical addition is lighting. Here I opted for Inon's brilliant underwater flashes. I opted for Inon's Z-240 as a primary flash and then Inon's S-2000 as a fill flash. If you wish to know more about Inon's brilliant underwater flashes, visit their website here.

They make a range of constant light torches too. They are beautiful lights but I have not had good experience with their underwater constant lights and would steer clear in future.

Now, of course, arms, clamps and some other goodies are needed to hold it all together. I have bought from this crowd here. Their service is great but I would always recommend local and you would be able to do much worse than this wonderful bunch of people. Speak to Barry.

Depth of field underwater demands high f/numbers. Both these images were shot at f/11. Inon's UCL-165M67 was used. Read more about it here.

The next thing for me now is getting my post production as accurate as possible. I typically slide the white balance slider in ACR to a place where it looks about right. This is typically between 4000K and 4500K. As you can see from the two above images, it is hardly accurate eyeballing it.

In a next article I might share a bit more about wide angle dome options.

Happy shooting until next time and remember to have fun. If it is no longer fun you are doing it wrong. The next bit of gear does not make it more fun. It does mean that more could go wrong...Oh my, I hope my wife does not read this far down...

Anton