Underwater Photography E-Book

Nick Robertson-Brown

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Underwater photography is a challenging discipline. To capture an underwater world of glorious colours, extraordinary creatures and mysterious depths, you must have confidence in your diving abilities and be very comfortable with your camera. This practical book explains and offers advice to the reader on both the art and the science involved in capturing stunning underwater shots. Contents include: Advice on the equipment you will need to get the most from your underwater photography; Descriptions of underwater habitats and animal behaviour; Guidance on how to be a responsible photographer; Direction and assistance on topics including composition, natural and artificial lighting, exposure and underwater conditions. Superbly illustrated with 206 stunning colour photographs.

Leseprobe

Underwater Photography

Art and Techniques

Nick Robertson-Brown

First published in 2014 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2014

© Nick Robertson-Brown 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 658 1

Frontispiece

Pink anemone fish tend to be shy and rarely approach the lens. This one was taken hiding in it’s host in the Lembeh Straits, Indonesia. 1/100; f22; ISO 250. Nikon D200, lens 60mm.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the people who have supported me throughout the writing of this book, in particular Nick Barrett for his tireless proof reading and painstaking attention to detail, and also Tom Tyler and Yo-Han Cha for their last-minute proof reading. I am grateful to Takuya Torri for some of the equipment images, and also to Steve Warren at INON UK for technical advice and for his kind words in the foreword. Finally and most importantly I owe a huge debt to my wife Caroline, for all the IT support she provided, as well as modelling for many of the photographs – several of the best images in the book belong to her too.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

  1    The Camera

  2    The Equipment

  3    Getting Started

  4    The Underwater Environment

  5    Natural Lighting

  6    Artificial Lighting

  7    Composition

  8    Exposure Revisited

  9    Animal Behaviour

10    Wreck Photography

11    Low Visibility

12    Habitats

13    Image Manipulation

14    The Responsible Photographer

Glossary

Index

Foreword

Each dive we make promises to be a unique experience. For many divers underwater photographs have become the best way to recall and share those experiences. For how can a few words hastily scrawled in a damp logbook evoke the wonder of the lakes, rivers, seas and oceans each of us explores? And who else would read those words anyway? Most of us have been seduced to begin our incredible journey under the water through images. Through our own underwater photographs we remind ourselves and prove to others that we were actually there.

But taking good underwater photographs can be both difficult and frustrating. Although digital underwater camera equipment, especially the compact camera, seems to promise easy results through a smorgasbord of automatic functions that do all the work for the diver, the reality is very different. Unlike photography on land, where a casual shoot from the hip approach can work surprisingly well, it is rarely successful beneath the waves. The diver wanting to take good underwater images needs to understand how their camera functions and how to control it.

The underwater world puts a myriad of subjects before our lens. And, naturally, we want to photograph all of them! From the eel lurking in the twisted companionways of a sunken liner to the looming bows of the ship itself, we are spoilt for choice. But each subject requires different equipment and a different approach. In addition, underwater photography is almost always done against the clock. Few recreational dives exceed sixty minutes and even the most enthusiastic photographer is unlikely to spend even five out of every twenty-four hours actually taking pictures. The light is poor, visibility poorer still. Some subjects are incredibly hard to find and exceptionally wary, like orcas, and some underwater environments, such as caves, require specialized diving skills to access and survive. The odds of successfully taking that defining underwater image are stacked against us, the diver, in ways few land photographers will ever confront.

In this book Nick Robertson-Brown stacks the odds of success in your favour. He explains the must-know information that divers with little if any knowledge or experience of land photography will find essential for taking underwater photographs they can be proud of. Nick’s approach is straightforward and is easily understood. The maxim ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is one that the best writers about photography skills embrace. So Nick gets to the point fast and breaks it down into information you can immediately apply. There is no self-serving waffle or obfuscation.

Nick’s career as a working underwater photojournalist, his accreditations from the professional photographer trade associations and the stunning portfolios of the many students he has taught as an underwater photography instructor are solid proof of his abilities. Follow the methods and advice so hard won and yet so freely given by Nick Robertson-Brown and look forward to making great underwater photographs of your own.

Steve WarrenOwner of underwater photography specialists INON-UK; organizer of the annual underwater photography festival Visions in the Sea

Porcelain crab.

These porcelain crab occupy an anemone, sharing their host with the “Nemo” fish and helping to keep it clean and parasite-free.1/00; f18; ISO 400. Nikon D700, lens 60mm.

Introduction

When William Thomson, a solicitor, first put a camera under water off the English coast of Dorset in 1856 I am sure he had no idea what he was about to start. He put the camera on the end of a pole, and in about 6m of murky water he captured a rather indistinct picture of a bridge in the Wey estuary in southern England. Twenty years later, in San Francisco, Eadweard Muybridge attempted a similar experiment. The early image taken by Thomson has sadly been lost, and it was not until 1893 that Louis Boutan went under water in a hard hat with surface-supplied air that images were actually taken while diving. These photographs were taken in the Mediterranean and this exciting work was pioneering in its day. The work of Boutan is seen by many as the start of the story of underwater photography. His book La Photographie Sous-Marine was published in 1900.

Progress in underwater photography was relatively slow for several years after this, although in 1914 John Ernst Williamson shot the first ever underwater motion picture, and in 1923 W.H. Longley and Charles Martin took the first underwater colour photographs using a magnesium powered flash. There were small improvements throughout the First World War but it was not until the 1930s that really important developments started to take place which led to the improvement in underwater photography equipment and techniques. In the 1930s, exploration of the oceans led to the need for more and better photography equipment. In addition, the invention of scuba systems made it far easier for the divers to move around without being attached to a surface-supplied air hose. The invention and development of strobes as part of an underwater lighting system led to a rise in the number of people getting involved in underwater photography.

One of the principal characters in underwater photography is Jacques-Yves Cousteau. His books and films were seen by so many people on the new medium of television that the public began to believe that they could do it too. Working with the Belgian Jean de Wouters they developed an underwater 35mm camera called the Calypso-Phot. The design was innovative and made by Atoms of France. It was bought by a Japanese photography company and then released in 1963 as the Nikonos. It had a maximum shutter speed of 1/500 of a second and became the bestselling underwater camera series ever made. In the late twentieth century, ever-improving equipment and the increasing popularity of recreational scuba diving made underwater photography accessible to both amateurs and professionals alike. There are two other notable personalities from the pioneering era of the late 1940s to the 1960s who should not be forgotten; they were Hans and Lottie Hass. Their films and dedication to the protection of the underwater environment inspired many people to take up diving and underwater photography. In 1949, Hans helped to develop the famous Rolleimarin underwater housing for a double lens reflex Rollei square format camera. It became the most successful underwater camera of its time.

Fig. 0.1

Boha snapper schooling in the Red Sea off Ras Mohammed.1/160; f16; ISO 640; Nikon D800

However, probably the most influential improvement in underwater photography occurred with the arrival of digital cameras. Even with the introduction of model-specific underwater housings for the 35mm SLRs, the diving photographer was still limited to the maximum number of shots he could get out of one roll of film. Once underwater, the photographer was committed to using whatever kind of film he or she had chosen: there was no changing of film speed, which can now be emulated in a digital camera while still underwater. The film speed or ISO is explained later on in the book, but essentially it increases or decreases the sensitivity of the film or the sensor, allowing images to be captured in darker light with a higher ISO. The screen on the back of the camera allows you instantly to review your images, and thus make any changes accordingly. In the days of film photography, many photographers would take three or four shots of the same image using different exposure settings in what was known as bracketing. Once the photographer returned to the surface, the film still needed to be developed and printed. Film has now, essentially, been replaced by a memory card. Even on the camera’s highest resolution setting, most memory cards will hold several hundred images. The digital revolution has made a huge difference to photography and the pace at which improvements are being made is staggering.

If you are a scuba diver, free diver or snorkeler and you have decided to take your camera with you, then you have taken the first step to open up a new dimension to your passion. Capturing images under water can be seriously rewarding when you can review the amazing marine life that you saw on your last dive. It can also be both frustrating and confusing, very often on the same dive. I hope this book will be able to guide you through many of the pitfalls and teach you how to overcome them in lots of small, easy steps.

To be a good underwater photographer you need to be an excellent diver. Good buoyancy is essential, and awareness of your surroundings is equally important. If your camera system is not neutrally buoyant, then your own buoyancy is going to be affected. Ideally you should balance your camera system so that it is neutrally buoyant, but many underwater photographers prefer to have their systems slightly negative. There are many issues to consider and these will be covered in depth.

If you are new to underwater photography you may need to consider changing or adapting some of the equipment that you use. For example the exhaust vents of your second stage may direct bubbles in front of the camera lens, and you may need to consider getting the regulator that is more suited to underwater photography. Your eyesight may have been perfectly acceptable for normal diving, but you will need to review your images underwater on the screen, and as the screen is small it can be very difficult to pick out detail. If your close-up eyesight is not perfect then you may want to look at purchasing a twin lens mask with gauge readers in order for you to be able to review your images.

Fig. 0.2

Orangutan crab hiding in a bubble anemone in Bunaken, Manado. These crabs really do appear to be covered in orange hair. 1/160; f5; ISO 200. Nikon D200

In photography there are numerous techniques and styles, and underwater photography is no different. You could spend a week diving in one location but the style of photography on the various dive sites of that location could be completely different. Some sites may be suitable for macro and super macro while others suit wide-angle or close-up wide-angle, and others could be reef and wreck photography. These sites are all different and require varying techniques, but there are no rules in the underwater photography world and many of the techniques are adaptable and interchangeable.

Fig. 0.3

The Giannis D wreck off Ras Mohammed in the Red Sea, taken from the classic stern position and converted to sepia to add to the atmosphere of the image. 1/100; f14; ISO 250. Nikon D800

Many underwater photographers like to specialize in one category, such as macro or wide angle. While you might want to concentrate on developing your own style and focussing on what you enjoy, it is also great fun to try to expand your repertoire. You should be encouraged to try out new techniques and generate your own style. Underwater photography is about producing images that you, personally, find appealing (unless you are looking to sell your photographs). However, to get full satisfaction from your efforts you must learn to understand the limitations of your camera and equipment and be able to review your image under water, decide what is wrong and change it there and then. If this book helps you achieve this, then it will have succeeded and so will you.

Farnes seal.

Common seals are abundant around the coast of Great Britain and Ireland. This was taken in the Farne Islands off northeast England and is so used to divers that they love to interact.1/160; f16; ISO500. Nikon D700, lens 60mm

Chapter 1

The Camera

Cameras have been around for a long time. The first cameras were believed to have produced images in 1816, and the principle of these first cameras can be seen in a simple pinhole camera with an opaque screen for the image. As the light passes through the pin hole (aperture) it is inverted and is displayed on the screen.

In the early cameras, the ‘screen’ was a photographic plate: a sheet of paper, or other material, impregnated with silver nitrate. The impregnated chemical reacts to the density of light, and this forms an impression of the image when ‘exposed’ to the light for any length of time. The image is thus ‘burned’ onto the plate as a negative and, when developed, the image can be seen as a print.

In the early part of the twentieth century Kodak took the lead in bringing photography to the people. The box Brownie camera was introduced by Kodak in the United States and Western Europe in the early 1920s and retailed for $1–3. It was capable of capturing some excellent pictures using 120 film with eight shots on a roll. It had up to three aperture settings and the expensive ones even had a limited choice of shutter speeds.