Underwater Photography

[TommyGuido]

Since there is no forum specifically dedicated to underwater; I had to do a little digging and it seems as most posts have been placed in with the nature forum.

How many others here are divers that shoot underwater pics besides me?

[ktuli]

Tommy,

You'll find I think 3 or 4 active underwater photographers on the forum here.

I've been shooting underwater for a couple years now. Unfortunately, I only get one one or two dive trips a year. I have a bunch of threads here with examples, or you can checkout this section of my blog that lists all of the underwater posts.

Welcome to CiC! Looking forward to seeing your UW stuff!

- Bill

[TommyGuido]

Yes, found most of the post you were involved with them Bill. I am slowly working at getting some online.

Right now, I have been trying to take 10 years worth of disorganized digital images and getting them organized. Mostly duplicates/triplicates all the way up to 8plicates of same images.

Put a couple up in a few of the mini competitions just to get a feel where I stand.

[TommyGuido]

Here are a few images from a few of my dives. Koh Haa, Thailand. Koh is 'island' and 'haa' is five in the Thai language. There are 5 islands and also a sixth, that someone forgot to count. Another explanation is that the sixth really isnt an island just a big rock. The first is Koh Haa #4








This is a False Anemone Clownfish I got a chance to shoot on my underwater photography class dive portion. November 2011






This Octopus was checking everything out, kind of reminded me of 'Kilroy is watching'.

[CJK]

Hey guys, I didn't want to start a new thread but I had some questions. I am doing some trips coming up this summer and wanted to try my hand at underwater photography. My question is about gear. I don't want to break the bank on a $1000 case for my camera since I wouldn't be utilizing it all that much, what do you recommend? Should I keep my Nikon D5000 above water and just go for a PS with an underwater case or do I have cheaper options to protect the DSLR?



Thanks!

[TommyGuido]

Since I dont have a DSLR anyway, the p/s options with a housing was they way I went several years ago. I dont know how much diving you do on a regular basis, but if it isnt much at all, most dive shops rent camera/housing packages if you dive with them. It may be a cheaper way out if you dont know if it is something you want to invest in.

The only problem with renting a camera/housing is you will have to go through a crash course for familiarity of the gear, and I have found as time goes by with my own gear I get better with more usage. At a minimum if you rent, find out in advance what camera you will have and see about downloading the manual in advance so you can at least be ahead of the learning curve a bit.

[ktuli]

Chris,

It is also a question of depth... are you planning on getting scuba certified? or is this just for snorkling? If the latter, there are plenty of decent P&S cameras that are rated to about 30 ft without any housing. If that is your limit, I'd say that is your best option considering camera size (and thus convenience) and cost. These little cameras without housings make for great trip cameras to begin with - they fit nicely in your pocket, are pretty rugged.

If you're getting full scuba certified, eventually you will likely want something that can use external strobes, so keep that in mind when you start purchasing your camera solution. I purchases a P&S with housing and strobes, and before I even got it in the water, purchased the housing for my Canon 7D because I didn't want to go halfway around the world on a really expensive dive trip and come back with sub-par images. Yeah - my 7D in a housing plus a strobe or two is a massively huge setup, but it gets me the images I'm happy with. Will I eventually look to consolidate into a smaller package? Probably, but that's well down the road.

- Bill

[kenns61]

I just joined the forum so I'm replying a year late. I am a cold water diver and I shoot underwater almost every week. I'm looking forward to posting some of my photos for critique from non-divers. It's important to me that my photos appeal to a wider range of people. It's easy to get emotionally attached to a photo because of the difficulty or rarity of the underwater critter and not look at the technical aspects. Anyway....just learning. Currently I'm using a Sony NEX5N in an aluminum housing and dual strobes. I'm hoping to upgrade to a Nikon D7100 soon and purchase a housing for it a few months down the road. Feel free to have a look at my photos on my website: celticcow.com This is a work in progress.

[IzzieK]

I just joined the forum so I'm replying a year late. I am a cold water diver and I shoot underwater almost every week. I'm looking forward to posting some of my photos for critique from non-divers. It's important to me that my photos appeal to a wider range of people. It's easy to get emotionally attached to a photo because of the difficulty or rarity of the underwater critter and not look at the technical aspects. Anyway....just learning. Currently I'm using a Sony NEX5N in an aluminum housing and dual strobes. I'm hoping to upgrade to a Nikon D7100 soon and purchase a housing for it a few months down the road. Feel free to have a look at my photos on my website: celticcow.com This is a work in progress.

Welcome to CiC, Kerry..this is a good place to learn and a good place to share and once in a while interact with others...I hope you enjoy your stay here. I think Manfred from Canada is a diver. He is very active here.

[JR1]

I don't do UW however I do water/sea/surf etc and I find the £300+ gopro black edition superb for this, the under water shots I have seen are very good, and you can set it to take a sequence of shots every "X" seconds so you can concentrate on "looking/swimming/diving"

[deetheturk]

Cool images Tom

David

[bnnrcn]

Nice images,thanks for sharing