On Mon, 2 Jun 2003 16:25:24 -0400 (EDT)
Mark Dapoz <md@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Jun 2003, Daniel Mitchell wrote:
>
> > http://www.danielmitchell.net/gallery/index.php?currDir=./Trip/hawaii/hanaum
> > a_bay for underwater shots with the same sort of thing -- the
> > water's the problem, not the camera.
>
> Actually, it's partly the camera's "fault" (the water does look a
> bit murky).
Actually, it is always the photographers fault, if anything :) The
secret to good underwater photographs is to reduce the column of
water between the camera and the object one wishes to take photos of.
There's a good reason why many UW photographers prefer rather
extreme wide-angles.
> The key to good underwater photography is lots and lots of light.
> You need to have either a huge flash or several smaller ones. Even
> perfectly clear water absorbs light at a very rapid rate. If I
> remember correctly, most of the red spectrum is gone by 3m (10').
> If you don't have some way of replacing that lost light, you'll
> never get excellent photos. Unfortunatly that means investing in
> (or renting) something like a Nikonos with a dedicated underwater
> flash. Those little disposable cameras are really only good at the
> surface or a few feet down.
Well, I have never used artificial light under water. Then again, I
have never brought a camera when going much farther than a few
meters. When going deep, I've always left photography (and all other
"dry" worries) behind and just looked at the pretty
{fish|wreck|coral|clumsy beginners bouncing around}. Much more fun :)
And having no pictures is just an excuse for going out and down
again....
Actually, I did some snorkeling in Hanauma Bay on Oahu, Hawaii last
fall. The water is sufficiently shallow to not make tanks and real
diving worthwhile - a snorkel and good lungs is enough even to
observe sea-turtles in close (and I think even tanks would just be
cumbersome there). I bought a Fuji 800 ISO disposeable underwater
thing, and it worked like a charm. Since I was without tanks, I did
not get much below 8m down (just outside the barrier rim), but even
there, observing the "reduce the column of water"-rule, yielded
excellent photos (of a sea-turtle messing around in a coral, btw.)
I was with non-diving friends, so the objective was to have fun and
to have a simple camera that we could all use withot risking anything
expensive. I was plesantly surprised how good the photos came out,
all things considred.
Uhmm.....:)
--
------------------------------------------------
Thomas Heide Clausen
Civilingeniør i Datateknik (cand.polyt)
M.Sc in Computer Engineering
E-Mail: T.Clausen@xxxxxxxxxxxx
WWW: http://byzantium.inria.fr:8080/~voop
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