Underwater Macros

[Karl]

Been a bit quiet of late - with winter settling in the mornings are chilly and the water even colder

Anyway here are a couple of images from this mornings dive - all taken with the OMD EM-5 & 60mm macro lens.

Comments welcomed.

Karl

Dendrodoris densioni Nudibranch (only a face a mother could love!!)



Small Crab (about the size of a 20c piece)





Tiny shrimp and an Anemone (these guys are about 10mm in size and almost transparent!!)

[splashy]

Amazingly beautiful, it's hard to make underwater pictures, but macro is a step higher again.
I often have problems making a macro above water and cannot imagine making one underwater.

[Donald]

I've said before that you folks who do underwater photography introduce the rest of us to a world we'll never see. This set of images is just a further example of that and I'm privileged that you've chosen to post them on here. Wonderful stuff.

[Karl]

Donald & Splashy - thanks for that, yesterday was a little more difficult due to the cold (i.e. I was shivering) and a surge in the water that made it rather difficult to remain steady.

In 48 days I will be in Tulamben Bali an underwater macro paradise and I look forward to putting up some different subjects.

Did anyone see the small shrimp in the first image ?

Karl

[Cantab]

Amazingly beautiful, it's hard to make underwater pictures, but macro is a step higher again.
I often have problems making a macro above water and cannot imagine making one underwater.

I agree. Presumably there are refraction issues you need to deal with when shooting underwater?

[SpiderBob]

Beautiful pictures, you've really captured a world that so many never get to see and to do it this way - extraordinary. Thank you for sharing.

[Karl]

I agree. Presumably there are refraction issues you need to deal with when shooting underwater?

Yes and no - the main issue is the loss of colour from the light spectrum - you loose the reds from about 3 m deep and 3m horizontal etc so unless you have some method of external lightning everything looks blue or green (depending on the water i.e tropical or temperate).

Also salt water is 400 times denser than air so it absorbs that external light very quickly so you need to be able to compensate for that when shooting objects some distance from you. In most cases any object > 5m will not be lit by 'normal' strobes.

I don't use TTL - only manual in both the camera and the strobes as I think this gives greater control over the final image.

And then there are the others issues of surge, currents, bitey things etc.

Hope this helps.

Karl