Underwater Photographya web magazine from Ocean Optics

August 2001

Underwater Photographya web magazine from Ocean Optics

Beginners tipsSimple close upsPool practicePushing film to the limitJulian CalverleyLembah StraitsDome portsNik V - the legend2 digital cameras reviewedClassifieds

Underwater PhotographyUnderwater Photography

24 Dome port theoryby Paul Kay

26 Nikonos V - thelegend

by Peter Rowlands

28 Get lucky!withPat Morrissey

29 Better macro

by Steve Norvich

32 Beginners luckwith Mark Mumford

14 Diving theLembah Straits

with Anne Owen

16 Digital stills

19 Join the UWIa UK based internet forum

20 Zoom blurby Alex Mustard

22 Pushing film tothe limit

by Charlie Hood

a web magazinefrom Ocean Optics

August 2001e mail uwp@uwpmag.co.uk

4 New products

5 UwP eventsCompetitions, Splash-Ins andtours

6 Visions 2001Full details of this yearsconference

8 Julians’ magic

A look behind some of JulianCalverley’s stunning shots

10 Split levelphotographywith Claire Cox

An interesting and inexpensive solution to gettingcloser are Nexus Wet Lenses. These simple close uplenses push fit onto the outside of your housing port.They don’t interfere with autofocus or reduce the lightpassing through the lens as teleconverters do and aren’tstuck to your lens like normal close up lenses when youreally need infinity focus.

Equipped with a lanyard so you can easily carrythem until needed, they are available in 90mm, 100mmand 110mm fittings for Nexus ports, Subal ports andsome Sea and Sea ports.

Nexus Wet Lenses

New products

There’s increasing interest inusing ring flashes underwater, butup to now almost nothing has beenavailable off the shelf. Those thatare in private use have been built toorder as one offs.

The attraction of ring flashesis the quality of light they produce,the lack of shadows and the abilityto lose the strobe arms and workwith a very compact point and shootmacro rig which makes many shyanimals much more approachable.

Inons Quad Flash in a innova-tive new strobe that combines thebuild quality you expect from topend designers, while benefittingfrom lower manufacturing costsenabling the Quad to offer anoutstanding specification at asurprisingly modest price.

The Quad uses four smallflash tubes set a 90 degrees toassure even coverage. Naturally it isTTL compatible with Nikonos andmost housed Nikon cameras. Butthe Quad also boasts importantfeatures for adding creativity toyour shots including a choice ofFull, Half and Quarter power formore subtle lighting than TTLwhich is often quite harsh. A nicefeature is the built in rotating shadethat allows you to mask off two ofthe flash tubes for adding shadows.There’s also a clip on diffuser to

soften the light further or for reduc-ing power by an extra stop - givingQuad users a total of four manualpower settings. A built in focusinglight lets you see your subject and isautomatically turned on when youactivate the camera.

The Quad mounts to portsapproximately 90mm in diamatorincluding 105mm ports for theNexus and some Sea and Seahousings. It is threaded on the frontto accept a dedicated wet lens thatdoubles the magnification of yourcamera lens. Even this bears thehallmark of Inons attention to detail- it’s actually a doublet meaning ithas two elements. Usually close uplenses use a single element. The

doublet yields higher image quality.The Quad has a mounting

point for use with normal flashgunarms allowing it to be swung in andout of place rather than mounteddirectly to the port or for use as aconventional strobe. It uses Sea andSea Nikonos fit TTL cables. Poweris from 4 AA batteries.

The Inon Quad Flash is one ofthe most exciting additions tounderwater lighting in a very longtime. Currently one is on test withtop British photographer CharlieHood and a full report is expectedsoon.

For full details phone OceanOptics on 020 7930 8408 or e-mailoptics@oceanoptics.co.uk

Inon Ring Flash

For full details phone Ocean Optics on 020 79308408 or e-mail optics@oceanoptics.co.uk

Isle of ManSplash-In16-19 August 2001

Entrants are given a film to beexposed during the weekend forjudging anonomously by the audi-ence on Sunday evening.

There are prizes in 6 catego-ries - macro, standard, wide,humourous, wealth/variety ofmarine life and diver activity. Thereis also a beginners prize and thebest overall shot. The audience ismainly entrants and partners orfriends, though the general publicare invited to join in.

Film can be collected beforethe evening dive on Thursday 16thor anytime thereafter and returnedfor processing by Sunday lunchtimeon 19th.

The evening starts with abuffet at 7pm and judging starts at8pm. There is a short interval whilethe votes are counted and then theawards are presented.

The competition is sponsoredso entry is a mimimal cost (usually£5) with an extra charge for thebuffet. Local dive clubs help withspace on boat dives for visitingphotographers.

For further informationcontact Eddy Corrin 07624 495285,John Gulland 01624 834548 orGeoffrey Clark 01624 621358.

If you would like anunderwater photo eventpublicised, please e-mail detailsto events@uwpmag.co.ukNext publication date is 1st Oct2001.We would also like to hearfrom anyone who has relevantdive sites news for underwaterphotographers i.e. a new E6processing facility, photocourse etc.

UnderwaterPhotography Week9~15th September 2001

With award winning, profes-sional underwater photographerPaul Kay BSc FRPS diving from MV Porpoise based near Oban.

The absolute emphasis for thisweek is on underwater photography.This will be the aim of all diving,and dives will be chosen withphotography foremost in mind!

Participants will all stay atOlrig, a comfortable bungalow usedby many divers, about a mile fromthe boat. Everyone will stay hereensuring plenty of time for learningabout or discussing underwaterphotography. The basis is self-catering.

The diving is for 5 days, 2dives/day within reasonable dis-tance (the Garvellachs, etc.). Longertrips are possible but at additionalcost. 10 air fills are included.

Diving will be from the M VPorpoise, an Offshore 105, run byexperienced photographer/skipperDave Ainsley. All dive sites are bewell known to Dave, who willensure that the appropriate dives forare chosen to match light and tidalconstraints. Suggested lenses andsubjects will be covered by pre-divebriefings.

The week can be as formal(structured) or informal (polishingof technique) as participants require- with a small group all together,there is ample time to cover asmany aspects as required!

The cost for the week (onlytransport to Seil Island - 10 milessouth of Oban - and food is notincluded, nor of course film orprocessing!) based on a full boat(12) that the week needs in order torun economically is £350.

To book please contact PaulKay on (01248) 681361 or emailpaul@marinewildlife.co.uk

Visions 2001October 27/28th 2001

Underwater Photography events

Tony White’s tours

“To meet the requirements ofan increasing number of underwaterphotographers, international awardwinning underwater photographicjournalist Tony White has estab-lished Sea Of Dreams, a companyset up specifically to providespecialish underwater photographicworkshops and trips to some of theworld’s top dive destinations.

All trips will be accompaniedby Tony White and will be designedaround the photographic needs ofthe individual. Including daily E6processing and expert guides. the2001/2002 programme includestrips to Indonesia, Mozambique,Kangaroo Island South Australia,the Southern Red Sea and Turkeydetails can be found onwww.seaofdreams.co.uk or contactTony on 020 8318 9226"

Visions in the Sea, the annual,two-day underwater photographyconference staged in London byOcean Optics, will have a new lookfor 2001.

Now in its fifth year, theconference at Imperial College,Exhibition Way, South Kensington,on the weekend of October 27 and28, will focus on specific aspects ofunderwater photography, includingunderstanding light, creative flash,innovative close-up techniques,finding the picture, how to capturefish on their best behaviour andwreck photography.

This years speakers includeLinda Dunk, Martin Edge, MarkWebster, Paul Kay, Charles Hood,Alex Mustard, Nigel Motyer, JackJackson and Constantinos Petrinos.

For full details see page 6.

Visions in the Sea, the annual, two-day underwaterphotography conference staged in London by OceanOptics, will have a new look for 2001.

Now in its fifth year, the conference at ImperialCollege, Exhibition Way, South Kensington, on theweekend of October 27 and 28, will focus on specificaspects of underwater photography, includingunderstanding light, creative flash, innovative close-uptechniques, finding the picture, how to capture fish ontheir best behaviour and wreck photography.

The speakers dealing with these topics include:

Linda DunkLinda Dunk, the first woman

chairman of the British Society ofUnderwater Photographers. Shewon BSoUP's open portfoliocompetition in 1994, 1995 and1996 and was second in theSociety's beginners' portfoliocompetition in 1993. Havingenjoyed being in the business oftaking pictures of the marine world for over ten years,Linda is keen to encourage more women to becomeactive in this challenging but rewarding field.

Martin EdgeMartin Edge, who has a great

passion and flair for teaching theskills of underwater photographyand, probably more than any otherperson today, has improved thegeneral standards of takingpictures in the sea. His book, "TheUnderwater Photographer", is nowin its second edition and continuesto be a popular guide to successful underwaterphotography. Martin has led innumerable photoexpeditions around the world.

Mark WebsterMark Webster, an established

underwater photographer andphoto-journalist, has an impressivelist of successes in internationalevents and has represented the UKfour times at the CMAS WorldChampionships of UnderwaterPhotography, winning silver andbronze medals and third positionoverall in 1996 plus two top ten

placings in 1998, the latter year in which first book,"The Art and Technique of Underwater Photography",was launched. During the last ten years, Mark hashosted regular photography workshops in Red Sea andhas gained a reputation for passing on his skills andadvice in an informal and productive manner.

Paul KayPaul Kay, British

underwater photographer ofthe year in Dive Sights2000, runs underwaterphotography courses andworkshops with anemphasis on theunderstanding of the basic photographic techniquesrelating to underwater photography. Living in NorthWales, he is a great enthusiast for diving in Britishwaters as well as warmer parts of the world. He hasbeen a freelance photographer for over 11 years andworks in industrial and illustrative photography,produces stock landscape, environmental andunderwater images and writes illustrated articles.

Charles HoodCharles Hood, won the top

prize and the title of underwaterphotographer of the year in DiveSights 2000. He is constantlyexperimenting and breaking newground with his approach to takingimages in the sea and has a vastexperience of taking pictures inBritish waters as well as overseas.He was one of the first to use twosynchronised TTL flash gunsunderwater and took numerousawards at BSoUP and other international competitionsbefore changing his focus to taking pictures that sell.

Alex MustardMarine biologist Alex Mustard, a new speaker at

Visions, has a natural eye for agood picture as well as thescientific background to be able tofind and photographic all types oflife in the sea and to make his divesparticularly productive. He uses hismarine biological knowledge toenhance his photography and willbe be passing on the secrets of hissuccess by describing his approach

NEW LOOK FOR VISIONS 2001October 27/28th 2001

to photographing life on coral reefs. He believes thatgreater knowledge of the animals found on coral reefsand how a coral reef ecosystem works will add an extradimension to our photography.

Jack JacksonA highlight will be a talk on

adventure photography by JackJackson, who has workedeverywhere from the Arctic to thetropics, both on land andunderwater. He is a regularcontributor and lecturer at theLondon and Birmingham diveshows as well as travel shows inLondon and top venues in Europeand the Middle East. He is theauthor of hundreds of magazine articles and 14 books,eight of which deal with underwater subjects.

Nigel MotyerNigel Motyer is an

engagingly irreverant underwaterphotographer whose selfdeprecating style belies animmensely successful portfolio.Nigel is highly respected as anatural history photographer. Hiswork ranges from the local watersof the Emerald Isle to high octanediving in Cocos, where he receivedhis first sharkbite. Nigel is widely published withimages in Dulken, Tauchen, Diver, Dive, Sport Diver

VISIONS IN THE SEA 2001 - booking form

Please reserve ..... place(s) for me for the underwater photographic conference at Imperial College, London,on the weekend of October 27/28, 2001.Delegate fee for attending the two day conference, including morningcoffee and afternoon tea each day as well as a buffet lunch -- £99.95.

· A social evening with Constantinos Petrinos in the Holland Club, Imperial College, from 6.30 to 8.30pm,after which a cash bar will remain open for delegates who wish to remain. Additional fee of £10.00 includes twoglasses of wine. Crisps will be available from the bar.

Please give name(s) of delegates and also list any special dietary requirements:

Name .........................................

Address..................................................................................

.................................................................................. Amount.........................................For payment by Visa or MasterCard please give the following details: Type of card: Visa or MasterCard

Number:......................................... .........................................Expiring on.........................................

Bookings can be made by phoning the conference hotline - 020 7930 8408 or fax 020 7839 6148.Ocean Optics, 13 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AQ.

and Sub Sea Magazine and has extended hisinternational reputation with third place in the BlueDolphin competition and second place in the WorldUnderwater Photography Championships .

Constantinos PetrinosThis year, the first day of the

conference will conclude with asocial evening during whichpopular Greek photographerConstantinos Petrinos, who isgaining a growing internationalreputation, will launch "The Realmof the Pygmy Sea Horse", a coffeetable book of photographs andinformation about the marine lifein Kungkungan Bay and the Lembeh Strait. As well astalking about the five months during which he took25,000 pictures, Constantinos will describe the trialsand tribulations of publishing the book himself afterdisappointments with several publishers.

There will also be slide clinics conducted by thespeakers, a slide corner where delegates will beencouraged to show a selection of their work, and aprint competition.

Imperial College is well served by publictransport, being a short walk from South KensingtonUnderground Station and several bus routes.

Do not delay. Reserve your place at what will beyet another of the UK's biggest and most memorableunderwater photographic events.

I had been in contact with Jeff Parker, Marketingdirector at A.P.Valves,and he’d seen my underwaterimages on my web site. We finally met at LIDS 2000and over a coffee looked through my portfolio, talkedabout photography and how we could work together onan advertising campaign.

My underwater work has always been personalwork. Often it is shot when I’m taking a summer breakfrom the studio and I consider it very important to beshooting these images for myself, with no brief and noart director.

The outcome of my meeting with Jeff was that I’dgo away and shoot a series of strong images where thediver in each shot was wearing a Buddy BCD. The shotswould be used for A4 ads and A3 posters. Okay, so therewas a brief of sorts but a very loose one. I was morethan happy with this arrangement and so away I went fortwo weeks to Little Cayman, with my buddy and modelKim Linford. The Caymans would give us goodvisibility, reasonably predictable light, interestingtopography plus the chance to shoot the Russian Frigateat Cayman Brac.

While shooting I was basically conscious of anumber of things:

Firstly light. We always tried to shoot early or latein the day so as to take advantage of the moulding andrays that the light produces at those times of day.

Secondly space. I love space, editors love space,designers love space and generally so do art directors.With that in mind when shooting you will increase yourchances of selling stock images when you leave room

Julians’ magic

for logos, text and headlines etc. Because I was shooting blackand white it was important to have strong composition. Lightand space will always help you enormously here. Look forstrong shapes and think about the light.

Lastly the star of the show, the model. It was vital thatshe appeared comfortably within the composition. Kim and Ihad devised various hand signals so I can direct her into thespaces of an image and carefully position her in the water.Luckily for me Kim is extremely comfortable underwater andgenerally positions herself with little or no direction while alsopaying attention to her gauges, torch beam direction and finalignment etc. I also like to wait for her to exhale as I think airas bubbles look great. With all of this to consider I’m sure it isharder work for her than it is for me most of the time! When Igive the out of film sign (which is dangerously close to the outof air sign!) she’s off to do what she enjoys most, slowlyfinning along the reef looking at “cheeky” fish.

When all is said and done I tried to make the images lookas natural and as casually observed as possible.

I used a Nikon F90x with Nikkor 16mm f2.8 AF-Dfisheye housed in a Subal housing. Much to the irritation of theguys at Optics I still don’t use any flash (one day Steve!) andas a result have a very simple and easy to handle underwaterrig. The Subal is a joy to use and the F90x has more thanenough features to keep me happy. The 16mm is an amazinglens. Pin sharp and incredible value for money. Film stock isFuji Neopan 400 rated at 800asa.

Negatives were scanned using an Imacon FlextightPrecision II and worked up on system using Live Picture 2.6.2.Final rgb.tif’s were sharpened and converted to 70mb cmyk.tiffiles using a ColorSync workflow and PhotoShop 6.

Julian Calverleycan be contacted as follows:

julian@calverley.co.uktel +44 (0)1 462 441251fax +44 (0)1 462 441211

mobile 07971 272815

Split level photographyby Claire Cox

Image 1.I always feltreassurance when Isaw the boat at theend of the dive and Iwanted to capture thismoment. .

Image 2.I wanted to capturethe beauty andmystery of theenvironment, and thereality.

I wanted to use underwater photography torecord my encounters, so I can share with otherssome of the mystery that this environment holdsfor me. It is an environment which is full ofdistractions so, to help me remain focused, Ialways work to a brief. The most important partof my trip is in the planning. I need to knowexactly what I want to achieve, otherwise I getcaught in the trap of taking random images andrealising I have no film left when somethingexciting happens.

I want my photographs to appeal to bothdivers and non-divers and to do this I oftenexperiment with split level underwaterphotography. To see both above and below thewater is to understand the environment wherethe photograph has been taken. It gives theviewer a greater sense of the location. To takemy photographs I use a Nikon F70 with a 20mm lens in a Subal housing. I have so far onlybeen using Fujichrome Provia III 100 ASA slidefilm and have found it ideal. I usually haveseveral sketches of what I want to see in myphotographs, this enables me to determine mycomposition. In the water when I compose myshots I can assess which part of the image wouldwork best in focus. Using only natural light andthe camera set to manual, I bracket my shotsbetween the light readings from the surface and

Image 3My aim was to capture the moment that fear dissolves intofascination and show the point where both diver and sharkfeel comfortable in each others presence.

Image 4The fin is the only part of the image in focus, this is becausethe fin is a symbol of power and to see it would probablycause most swimmers to panic.

below the water. I am never sure what my shutter speedand aperture is in my selected images because I take somany shots of a similar composition, that I end uploosing track!

The first ever trip I made to the Red Sea with mycamera was in October 2000. Being a relatively newdiver I was still experiencing the anxiety and nerves,associated with my awareness of my restrictions in analien environment. After several dives with mycamera, I started to notice that one thing alwaysremained the same - I always felt reassurance when Isaw the boat at the end of the dive. I wanted to capturethis moment. (image 1) I swam down the side of thisboat about 10 times on this trip. With all the mass ofinformation you experience on a dive, this was the onething which always remained the same. I wanted torecord it because it the only predictable experience Ihad. I took the shot both above and below the water linebecause I wanted to be reminded of where I had beenand to see that I was going back to the boat.

For my next trip to the Red Sea I wanted tocapture the beauty and mystery of the environment, and

the reality. I photographed the underwater world and thehotels which surround it. (image 2) Asking the question‘can somewhere so fragile support the amount of diversthat visit it?’.

The most exciting trip I have made was toWalker’s Cay in the Bahamas. Here I was able to usephotography to explore the theme of ‘fear andfascination’. Sharks have an amazing presence and thisis probably because the greatest fear of all is the fear ofbeing eaten. I wanted to use photography to capture thereactions of the divers when put in this situation. Wewere all there because we wanted to experience theencounter first hand. My aim was to capture themoment that fear dissolves into fascination and showthe point where both diver and shark feel comfortable ineach others presence. This image (image 3) was onethat I took towards the beginning of the trip. There isstill some distance between me and the bull shark, andthe only time I felt comfortable enough to take a photowas when the shark was swimming away from me! Inthe next photo (image 4) you can see the moment whenI felt my fear dissolve into fascination. The fin is the

Image 5The fear associated with the shark is captured in theirdominance in the photograph

only part of the image in focus, this is because thefin is a symbol of power and to see it wouldprobably cause most swimmers to panic. You cansee I am fascinated because you can see the sharkthe fin is attached to. I am close to the shark in theshallows and yet the water is still. In the nextphotograph (image 5) you can see that othersnorkellers are fascinated with the sharks. The fearassociated with the shark is captured in theirdominance in the photograph, and to have peoplestanding in the water with the sharks swimmingaround their legs is to realise their fascination.

My next trip is to the South Pacific. I amgoing to investigate the role of the shark in othercultures. I want to document its importance on thelives of the people they greatly effect, andhopefully dispel some of the myths that surroundit. On this trip I plan to experiment with morestyles of photography under the water. I have agreat interest in art and photography and hope toexplore many more of my ideas.

Claire Cox

Define your imageDefine your image

Definitive workshops from the definitiveunderwater photography company.

Ocean Optics

Kurt Amsler is one of the elite few tomake a good living out ofunderwater photography. Fromnatural history photo-essays toimaginative advertising shoots,Amsler’s images influencephotographers all over the world.

This world class photographer and teacher isnow set to share his successful techniques withclients of Ocean Optics.Kurt will host a one week workshop in SouthernFrance from September 30th to 6th October.Places are strictly limited. For full details callSteve, Andrew or AJ.

13 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AQTel 0207 930 8408 Fax 0207 839 6148http://www.oceanoptics.co.uk

Sometimes it seems likeyou’ve bought the best

underwater cameraand the fineststrobe only to bethwarted by the

flash arm. Let’s be honest. Most housing and

underwater camera manufacturers don’tdesign great strobe arms. And maybe that’s

why they don’t like talkingabout them much. Yet the influence yourstrobe arm has on the handling of your entiresystem and the versatility of how you lightyour shots is inestimable. Ultralight is different. Ultralight only

make strobe arms and system accessories.Developed by top underwater

photographers to overcome the problems inherent in otherdesigns, it’s also chosen by top underwaterphotographers.

Envisaged as a totally modular system,Ultralight lets you evolve your system as

your skills develop andyour needs change. Witharms from 3 inches tosixteen you can adaptfrom supermacro tofisheye and choosebetween frame arms

for buoyant guns and buoyancyarms for heavier units.

With the best holding clamps in the business strobe drift is virtually eliminatedeven in current.

The range of accessories encompasses tripods, basetrays, pivot trays and handles,modelling light mounts and meter holders. It is simply the most extensive strobe armrange in the world.

So when you select Ultralight you won’t be cramping your style. You’ll be broadaningyour horizons.

Win The Arms Racewith Ultralight

Ocean Optics13 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AQTel 020 7930 8408 Fax 020 7839 6148http://www.oceanoptics.co.uk

with Anne Owen

Many of you will have fol-lowed Constantinos’ adventureswhen he spent four months atKungkungan Bay Resort (KBR) viahis continuous stream of e-mailnewsletters and like me, will beawaiting the belated publication ofhis book on the Lembah Strait. Thething is - is it all it’s cracked up tobe?? Can anywhere be as awesomeas Constantinos made out? Or hadthe sun and the nitrogen gone to hishead?

Well, let me say this - if youlike diving in clear, blue waters - onpristine, sun-dappled corals reefs -off sparsley inhabited, romanticislands - with whirling shoals of fishdancing all about you - DO NOT GOTO LEMBAH!

KBR is situated a little to thenorth of the large port city of Bitung,the area densely populated with people who make theirliving mostly from the sea and at night the whole Straitis alive with the lights on their fishing platforms. Thereis virtually no coral, and the visibility over the endlessblack volcanic sand bottom is horrible. So wide-anglefreaks, forget it! But for macro lovers this has to be oneof the greatest shows one earth!

Having arrived there almost by accident in Octo-ber last year after another trip was cancelled at shortnotice I was so sure that 10 days were not enough that Ire-booked as soon as I got home and spent another 2weeks at KBR in March of this year.

Firstly, let me say that the resort is brilliant. Fullycustomised for divers and indeed for photographers,they go out of their way to ensure you have a greattime. The dive operation runs like clockwork, withboats leaving the dock four times a day, staff are alwayson hand to carry dive and camera kit for you and a greatmenu of freshly cooked dishes is available 24 hours aday (in case jetlag should strike).

Furthermore, the dive guides are totally dedicatedto finding the critters that you want to photograph, sono-one need fear going home with little to show for it.This is definitely my kind of destination.

One the diving front, none of the sites is more than

Diving theLembahStrait

10 minutes from the dock and most are only 5 minutesaway, across a narrow Strait that is very sheltered andso always relatively calm. The boats usually tie up to apermanent mooring and you will come back to the boatat the end of the dive. You will rarely experience muchcurrent, though occasionally there will be some tidalmovement. In this sense, therefore the diving is prettylazy.

On the other hand, the great hazard is the fine, silty, blackvolcanic sand which makes up the bottom almost everywhere.The merest touch of a hand or a fin and you (and more impor-tantly, your subject) can be instantly enveloped in an evil blackcloud. More to the point, the merest touch of someone else’s finetc can have the same effect, which can be a problem if inexperi-enced photographers ‘crowd in’ on your subject to see what youare doing.

Even so, this is a great place to shoot the weird and wonder-ful - where to start? Five species of frogfish, all sorts of lionfishand scorpionfish, including some rarities, eels and monstrositieslike the stargazer are all found on the sand and patches of sponge.Crabs and shrimps are there in abundance, with an amazing rangeof camoflague tactics - but without the vigilance and experienceof the guides, you will surely miss most of them.

Nudibranchs are amongst my personal favourites and thereare over 200 species recorded here. At dusk, you can photographMandarin Gobies and at night, there is a whole new crew to see.

In a single week, I photographed mantis shrimp, harlequinshrimp, blue ribbon eel, flamboyant cuttlefish, ghost pipefish,bubbleshells, emporer shrimp, wonderpus, pygmy seahorses and many more. My only disappointment was thatwith two cameras on each dive, I could only manage 8 films per day!

Seriously, this is a terrific spot for the serious macro-freak. I love it - I’m sure I’ll be back - or maybe that’sjust the nitrogen talking!

Anne Owen

I haven’t had so much fun in awetsuit since that Friday afternoonin a basement flat off TottenhamCourt Road yet here I was in theRed Sea using it for the purpose forwhich it was really designed.

And the reason for thiselation? I was taking still pictures,seeing the results instantly on asmall screen and, if I didn’t likethem, I could erase them - alsoinstantly. I could then change theaperture, shutter speed orcomposition and take the shot againuntil I was pleased with it.

Now that, to my mind,answers the prayers of most of anunderwater photographers. Gone arethe days of waiting to get home tosee my results - only to find I’vemade some basic mistakes for mostof the trip. Instead I surfaceknowing I’ve got what I want andhad such a great time doing it.

Digital photography has madesignificant advances in the pastcouple of years. It isn’t knocking onthe door of 35mm yet but I’ll betanyone a fiver (five lira, that is, if Ilose) that in about five years time itwill be a serious contender forunderwater use.

In the meantime there aresome very capable digital stillscameras available today which canproduce sufficient quality to bereproduced up to half a page in amagazine or to print a photo quality10"x8" which would be as good asone produced by conventionalmeans.

The range of consumer digitalcameras falls roughly into two types- automatic point and shoot or usercontrollable. I tried both on a recenttrip and thought you might beinterested to know how it went.

The automatic camera was anOlympus C-960 zoom in a purposedesigned Olympus PT-006polycarbonate housing. Thecombination costs just under £500

and will fit in a large BC pocket.Underwater it is positively buoyantwhich is good if a snorkeller lets goof it but for scuba diving I’drecommend adding some extraweight (just a few grammes inside -not a whole kilo strapped to theunderside!) to make it more neutralor even slightly negative.

Loading the housing couldn’tbe simpler. Slide back the lenscover and slot the camera into thehousing. Nothing to line up, nothingto adjust. That’s it. All of thecontrols except the zoom are pushbuttons and, believe it or not, thereare eleven of them! This looksconfusing at first but in practice youonly really use two or three most ofthe time.

Once the housing is closed it

Get your digits outby Peter Rowlands

Olympus C-960 and housing

The Olympus is a delight to use in clearwater and the built in flash can restorecolours in close up shots. For a pointand shoot camera, the results areextremely good.

can operate down to 30 metres but Iwould suggest this camera comesinto its own in the 0-10 metre rangewhere the light and colours arebrightest. There is a built in flash

Nikon CoolPix 990 housing from UK inGermany

which can be used to great effect inclearer waters and will add a sparkleto what would have been a dullshot.

Exposure and focus are bothautomatic so all you do is look atthe small LCD screen on the backof the camera and shoot when itlooks good. And this is when youget your first inclination that this isnot like your ordinary point andshoot camera. There are two reasonsfor this - the camera has to set thefocus and exposure and then fire theshutter. The result is a significantdelay from the time you decide totake the shot until it actuallyappears on screen. This isn’t aproblem for still life shots but forfish portraits you need to anticipatewhere the subject will be in abouttwo seconds!

Until you get used to thisquirk I would stick to coral shotsand try fish later but it is worthtrying to take fish shots for theextreme glow of satisfaction you getwhen you anticipate right and a wellcomposed image pops up on theLCD screen. It’s the nearest feelingyou’ll get to being aspearfisherperson or a marksperson(doesn’t PC speak ruin the flow)without actually killing anything.

Images from this miracle bag

The Coolpix housing is neutralunderwater and the LCD screen is easyto see in all but the brightest sunlight.All of the camera’s functions can beaccessed through the housing whichallows TTL flash performance withNikonos compatible guns.

of tricks are stored on an electronic“card” about a millimetre thick andhalf the size of a credit card. Theyare available in various memorysizes but the 8mb card I used wasenough to give 18 images atmaximum quality. That may soundlimiting compared to 35mm 36 expfilm but, when I tell you the fourAA NiMh rechargeable batteries,which power the camera, last about45 minutes, 18 images cansometimes be more than enough!

The comparatively heavypower consumption is a drawbackwith these cameras and you willneed to have at least one spare set ofbatteries. I’m sure, just like mobilephones, power consumption will

become less of a problem ascameras are developed.

The Nikon CoolPix 990 is analtogether different animal. I wasusing it in a German UN aluminiumhousing which is very wellmachined and, although not veryergonomical, it became natural touse after a couple of dives. Thecomplete outfit - camera, housing,fisheye lens and port and YS30flash and arm weighed less than 5kgand fitted into a small camera bag.

The 990 takes a lot ofunderstanding for, once you deviatefrom the Auto settings, you cancontrol almost any function of thecamera via a multiple menu system.I spent a lot of time with the camera

and instruction book and managedto control what I wanted but Iwouldn’t be surprised if there arethose who would find this cameratoo daunting. Fortunately, for those,the camera can be set to fullyautomatic where it does an excellentjob.

In terms of picture qualityeven the Olympus was impressiveand the 990 just amazed me. Intechnical jargon the Olympus imagewas 3.5mb 1280 x 960 pixels at72dpi which will give a photo realprint of about 7" x 5" (178cm x127cm). The CoolPix 990 has achip three times denser giving a9mb 2048 x 1536 pixel image at72dpi which will produce a photoreal print of at least 10" x 8" if notsignificantly larger.

As if to illustrate the volatilityof the market, the 990 has alreadybeen replaced and can be bought foraround £600. The fisheye lens isaround £200 and the housingcomplete with flat and fisheye portis around £1200.

If you are travelling, thedownside is that you will have totake a laptop computer to downloadyour images after each dive as thestorage cards are quite expensive(about £1 per mb) but what betterreason can there be for justifyingthe purchase of a laptop!

My trip to the Red Sea withthese two cameras was not muchshort of revolutionary for it openedmy eyes to the quality andversatility of the digital stills world.It is still a long way from competingwith conventional film in terms ofquality and price but, as we haveseen with computers and video, itwon’t be too long.

But the most impressiveaspect is the enjoyment it gaveunderwater as I saw the shotsappear on the screen no more than acouple of seconds after I had firedthe shutter. It was fantastic. I waslike a kid with a new toy and no youcan’t have it because I won’t let go.

Peter Rowlands

The fisheye lens can be used as a circular fisheye or full frame . Either way the lensis very sharp centrally but falls off towards the edges depending on the aperture(see the wreck shot opposite).

“After talking to variousphotographers over the last 12months it has became clear thatthere is a need for an email baseddiscussion group for theprofessional and semi-professionalunderwater stills, film and videoindustry”

With the help of SimonDavies, of IDnet internet services,Julian Calverley has set up TheUWIGroup (Underwater ImagingGroup). Julian is a professionaladvertising photographer and was aguest speaker at Visions 2000.

“Its purpose is one of globalcommunication, discussingunderwater imaging related issues.Topics covered include theexchanging of tips, information andexperiences. We would also behappy to hear announcements ofindustry related shows, publicationsand equipment. With the popularityof digital cameras and DV on theincrease discussion will cover bothconventional (film) and digital

imagery” says Julian. If you would like to join The

UWIGroup then simply send anemail to lists@idnet.net.uk with thewords “join UWIGroup” followedby the email address that you wishto use, in the body of the text. Nosubject is needed.

For example :

———————————————————————————————

From: Julian Calverley<julian@calverley.co.uk>

To: lists@idnet.net.uk Subject: <not needed>

join UWIGroupjulian@abc.co.uk

———————————————————————————————

You will then receive awelcome message along with

important information on how tosend messages to the list, subscribeas a digest member and also how tounsubscribe etc.

The rules are very simple:

1.On joining the list pleaseintroduce yourself so we can all seewho you are and what you get up to.

2. No “flaming” of any fellowmember in any form.

3. Keep your quoting to thevery minimum - about 5/10 lines,and always trim out unwantedsignatures etc.

4. Send emails in text formonly, and not HTML or Rich Text.

“The UWIGroup is a lowvolume list but hopefully over timewill become a busy world-wide hubfor the underwater imagingindustry”

Julian Calverleyjulian@calverley.co.uk

www.calverley.co.uk

Join the UWIGroupa UK basedu/w photoforum

Underwater photographers areoften accused of being tooconservative in their picture taking.But we do have some good excuses:first we are already adventurers inan alien environment, whererecording clear, sharp and wellexposed images is fraught withtechnical difficulties. In addition,many of our subjects are unfamiliarto our audience, so it makes sense tocapture this other world as clearlyas possible. Consequently,underwater photographers tend tostick to tried and tested techniquesand as a result many underwaterphotographs look rather alike, withdifferences in subject matter but notin photographic interpretation.

But as more and morephotographs are taken underwater,photographers are increasinglylooking for a fresh take on familiarsubjects. Land photographers havebeen doing this for years, andunderwater we can take a shortcutto original and effective images byborrowing techniques that arewidely used on land. In this article Iwill relate my experiences of onesuch technique: zoom blurring.

Zoom blurring is a simpletechnique that is produced byzooming a lens while the camera’sshutter is open. The resultingabstract image is blurred with linesradiating from the centre of thephotograph, produced as thezooming alters the size of thesubject in the frame.

When used effectively thetechnique conveys movement andimpact, focusing the viewersattention on the centre of the image.

In order to have long enoughto zoom the lens it is clear that anexposure time of greater than 1/4 -1/2 second is needed. Therefore thecamera must be kept still during theexposure - either using a tripod orby bracing the camera against a

solid object. For this reason wreckscan be particularly suitable for thistechnique.

The second consequence oflong exposures is with the use offlash. A flash is beneficial because itadds a sharp portion to the blurredimage. A potential problem is thatthe trails produced by zooming willbe a different colour to the sharpsection illuminated by the flash.This is because the trails will beproduced by ambient (blue) lightand the result may or may not bepleasing. I would recommend usingfront curtain flash when zoomingfrom wide to tight, remembering toset exposure manually rather thanwith aperture priority (as this willdefault to a faster shutter speed,typically 1/60th on Nikon cameras).Shooting in this way will produce aclear wide angle view of a subjectwith trails radiating out from it.

For zoom blur pictures Ifavour an alternative method ofgetting colour. By using a filterinstead of a flash I get consistentcolour throughout the zoom range.

Both these images have been takenwith a 50CC red gel filter mountedon the rear of my zoom lens, (thecorrect amount of filtration in bluewaters can be estimated using theformula 4CC units per foot of lightpath). When using a colourcorrection filter on an SLR it isimportant to trust in the equationand not in your eyes! This isbecause your eyes will adapt to thein situ light spectrum, in the sameway that they do in Tungstenlighting in your house.

Flash could be used in thesepictures, but would need to befiltered so that it is spectrallybalanced with the ambient light (soin my case I would need a 50CCcyan flash filter). This would havethe advantage of making both thefrozen image and the trailsspectrally balanced, although I amsure that my flash is not powerfulenough to get enough light to thefilm at f22 via two opposing filters.As an aside this filter combinationwould also benefit underwater rearcurtain synch images by balancing

Zoom blurring underwaterBy Alexander Mustard

An acroporid coral and anthias in The Alternatives, Sinai, Egypt.Nikon F100, 17-35 mm Nikkor (zoomed through full range), 50CC Redfilter (depth = 5.0 m). On f22, aperture priority - exposure timeapprox. 1/2 to 1 sec. Kodak Elitechrome Extra Colour 100.

Fire coral and anthias in The Alternatives, Sinai, Egypt.Nikon F100, 17-35 mm Nikkor (zoomed through full range), 50CC Redfilter (depth = 4.1 m). On f22, aperture priority - exposure time approx. 1/4to 1/2 sec. Kodak Elitechrome Extra Colour 100.

Cinnamon coral trout on reef, Sha’ab Abu Nuhas, Egypt. Nikonos V,15 mm UW-Nikkor. Sea and Sea YS120 flash gun. On f8 aperturepriority (1/60th) TTL. Zoom effect added in Photoshop to right handimage Filter: Blur: Radial Blur.

the colour spectrum of sharp and blurredaspects of those images.

In terms of lens choice I wouldrecommend using as wide a zoom aspossible. Ideally the Nikon/Sigma lenses inthe range 17/18/20-35 mm, but 24-50 mmwill also be fine. It is a bonus to have a lenswith a fixed aperture throughout the zoomrange so that the intensity of the trails doesnot change, although again this is notessential.

Generally I have got my best resultswhen I leave the camera at the wide end fora few moments to record a clear imagebefore starting to zoom to longer focallengths. I have also found that thistechnique is most successful when used oncontrasting subject matter (e.g. light coral in

f r o n t of dark water) because the juxtaposition oft h e light and dark produces the clearest trails.

Solid blocks of colour such as blue waterdo not produce trails which can be used inthe composition to frame the main subjectand trails with “negative space” (sorry, Ihad to get that Tiptonism in).

But before rushing out to give zoomblurring a try I feel I should also let youknow that this effect can easily be imitatedusing the wonders of Photoshop! Zoomblur can be added to any image by usingthe zoom function of radial blur (Filter:Blur: Radial blur). It is worth noting thatthe computer has several advantages overthe camera as well as meaning you don’thave to get wet. First you can select anyphotograph, including colourful flash litimages, from macro to wide angle andeven fisheye. Also the extent of zoom bluris precisely user defined, and the origin ofthe blur can be set anywhere within theimage. When the technique is produced incamera the origin is always in the centre ofthe image.

This image of similar subject matterto the in camera shots shows the before andafter effect of a single application of radialzoom blur in Photoshop.

But for me the pleasure has been inthe trials and the errors, the hit and miss ofattempting zoom blur in camera. So nexttime you can only find rocks on a dive givezoom blurring a try and enjoy somecreative freedom from those tried andtested techniques.

Alexander Mustard

Many years ago I proudlyreturned back to the UK from a tripto the Red Sea with twenty or socorrectly exposed rolls of celluloid,or so I thought.

I handed them all to the localE6 lab and two and half-hours laterI was starring in total disbelief atfilm after film of overexposedimages. About half of the filmsappeared to have been over exposedby exactly the same amount of whatI judged to be 1 1/2 stops. What hadgone wrong?

Disappointment turned toanger. If half were OK then theothers should be OK. It must besomething to do with the process-ing. No, they were all processedtogether. Then this horrible feelinginside me thought back to the trip.One day I had tried a 50ASA film(Fuji Velvia had just arrived on themarket) instead of my usual160ASA. Being in the days where Ihad to set the ASA manually I musthave left it set at 50ASA when Ithen returned to my usual stock.Returning home confirmed thecamera was still set at 50ASA.*!@£$>*/!! The air was blue! Itwas totally my fault and I couldn’tblame anyone else - although I didhave a try.

So what did I learn? Mistakeswill happen. In this case it was ahuman error, however, it could quiteeasily have been a faulty lightmeter, flash TTL problems, DXreader error (most modern camerasread the film cassette and automati-cally set the ASA) etc. etc.

I now have a set of rules andprocedures when I return home.

Develop just one roll first. Iffine, drip feed to the lab the rest ofthe films, in batches of say 2 or 3 ata time, examining the results beforethe next batch is processed. Now ifa pattern of over or under exposureoccurs corrective action can then be

taken for the rest of the films.If you only have one or two

rolls of a very important subject itmight be worth clip testing. Whatthis involves is the processing labdevelops approximately the first 6frames of the film. These then canbe examined and if found to be notperfect an adjustment can be madeto the processing time to correctlydevelop the rest of the film. (note:you will loose one frame where thefilm is cut.)

Clipping, pushing and pullingby Charles Hood

To make the above two ruleswork, it is very important to numberor label your films. Including otherinformation such as the particulardive, camera settings, flash usedand date may also be useful.Equally as important is to expose allsimilar images identically. Forexample, on a weeks dolphin/whaleshoot we take a light meter readingand measure it to be say f8 at 1/250th second using 400ASA film.Shoot ALL frames at this setting.

The above image was correctly exposed and processed whilst the one below was“pushed” 3 stops resulting in correct exposure but increased grain and contrast

This is absolutely critical if you areto have the opportunity to adjustprocessing times to correct wholefilms. Now suppose after develop-ing the first film the images appeara bit too dark we could lengthen theprocessing time for the next filmand reassess.

If you only have one chancewith one roll to capture an image;then bracket (e.g. take three differ-ent exposures plus and minus say 1stop from what the light meterreads) of the same subject, bracketand then bracket again. Don’t trustthe light meter, gut feeling or therule of f8 at 1/60th second at100ASA (although this is a particu-larly good rule).

Let’s build on rule 4. If webracket the first roll of the week andwrite down what we have done(don’t even think about trying toremember it), this first roll nowbecomes a test roll for all the others.Once processed we will automati-cally now know if we have to adjustthe processing times for the other

films and we should have at theleast 1/3rd of a film of correctlyexposed images.

Of course “pushing” (length-ening the developing time) or“pulling” (shortening the develop-ing time) to compensate forwrongly exposed films, whilstresulting in correctly exposedimages, does have slight sideeffects.

With slide film, a push willresult in an increase in grain andloss of definition, where as a pullwill alter the contrast and produce acolour shift.

Some photographers havetaken these phenomena a stepfurther and actually use these sideeffects to create an image differentform the norm. Generally speakinga push of 1 stop will have only asmall effect and 2 plus stops arerequired to be clearly visible.

It is worth mentioning thatFuji MS100/1000 professional slidefilm has been purposely designed tobe pushed. It can be exposed either

at 100, 200, 400, 800 or even1000ASA and processed accord-ingly. Personally I find at 400ASAit has better grain (sharper) thantraditional 400ASA stock and at800ASA it gives perfectly accept-able results where either one isshooting in dim light withoutstrobes, require a fast shutter speedor very large depth of field.

Charles Hood

Fuji MS 100/1000 is designed to be“push” processed. It’s standard speedis 100 asa but it can be exposed at up to1000asa and pushed over 3 stops in theprocessing. Velvia is designed to beexposed at 50 asa and given standardprocessing for optimum results.

HMS Royal Oak videoThe wreck of HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow is a

designated war grave and all diving is prohibited but in2000 a special permission was granted by the Ministry ofDefence and the Royal Navy for the wreck to be filmedas a moving tribute to all those who lost their lives.

This new professionally produced 50 minute videoincludes underwater images of the wreck which havenever been seen before and there are interviews withsurvivors and Orcadian Sandy Robertson who was thefirst diver to go on the wreck the day after she sank. Alsoincluded is coverage of another unique event when theashes of Dorothy Golding, wife of Bandsman ArthurGolding, who went down with the ship, were taken downby her grandson, Christopher Kilford, and placed in thewreck to reunite the couple.

The finale is the unfurling of a battle ensign on theupturned hull by a Royal Navy diver on the anniversaryof her sinking and the final credits include the names ofall those who died in the tradgedy.

Running time 50 minutes. Narrated by TomFleming. Produced by Ocean Optics Ltd. Directed byPeter Rowlands

The video costs £16.95 (+£2.50 UK postage).Total £19.45. Please send cheques payable toOcean Optics Ltd and send them to: Royal Oak Video,13 Langley Avenue, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6QN.

Credit card tel & fax 020 8399 5709http://www.hmsroyaloak.co.uk

Have you ever wondered why itis considered best to use a dome portwith a wide-angle lens? After all, flatports are much cheaper, and can bebought for many lenses, so whybother with an expensive andsometimes vulnerable dome port?Well, the maximum theoretical angleof view that it is possible using a flatport is 96 degrees, and in practice it ismuch less (and no, I’m not going intothe complex optical theory of why -see details of the book at the end ifyou must know). In fact, the acceptedcut-off focal length of the lens usablewith a flat port is reckoned to be35mm (on the 35mm format).

Any shorter focal lengthgenerally requires a dome port, and toget the best out of a dome port, it isessential to choose the right one anduse it correctly. So for those of youwith technical longings here followsthe reasoning. For everyone else,there’s the information on the effectsof using ports that correctly match thelens in use, or otherwise, further on.

The theory goes like this.Firstly, for a dome port to workproperly it has to be positionedcorrectly in relation to the cameralens. Without going into the opticaltheory, the bottom line is that theposition of the ‘entrance pupil’ (this isthe position of the lens aperture stopas viewed from the object space -roughly the image of the lensdiaphragm when viewed from in frontof the lens) of the camera lens needsto be coincident with the centre ofcurvature of the dome being used. Inother words the ‘entrance pupil’should be in the centre of the sphereof which the dome is a part. Nowobviously, the manufacturer of a lensknows the position of the ‘entrancepupil’, but such data is not always allthat easily obtained. (Somemanufacturers, such as Zeiss, publishfull lens optical information on theWeb try www.zeiss.de). But not allmanufacturers do.

So we have a seeminglystraightforward enough piece of

optical information, but one which isdifficult to use in practice simply dueto problems of obtaining such data. Ifwe assume that such information isavailable, or better still, has beenobtained by a reputable portmanufacturer (like Subal), thenbuying a port for a specific lensshould mean correct alignment hasbeen already sorted out. So whatother optical reasons are there forbuying a correctly matched port?

Well a dome port acts as aconcave lens. Underwater, this willproduce a ‘virtual’ image of a subject.(A ‘virtual’ image is one which hasthe optical property of appearing tobe where it is not! It is possible tocalculate where it seems to be, but asit doesn’t actually exist there; it isvirtual!).

Optical theory can be used toshow that subjects at infinity produce‘virtual’ images at a distance of 3rfrom the surface of the dome (where ris the radius of the dome). This meansthat the ‘virtual’ image of an object atinfinity lies on a spherical surface of adiameter equal to 4r. As this resulting‘virtual’ image is not planar (it isn’t

flat!), accordingly, there are problemswhen trying to focus it onto a flat filmplane, as only flat subjects can beimaged onto a flat surface. To makematters worse we tend to focus on thecentre of this image (where it isfurthest from the film) so the imagescorners (nearest to the film) are oftencloser than depth of field allows to bemaintained in focus. The bottom lineis that the corners of a wide-angleunderwater photograph are all toooften very out of focus!!!

There are solutions, and one israther elegant. The reduction in theapparent subject distance caused bythe negative lens property of thedome (infinity is now at 4r) may becancelled out by use of the positivesupplementary (close-up) lens. Thecalculation of the strength of thesupplementary lens needed is asfollows:

Dioptric power of thesupplementary lens = 1000/4r where ris the radius of the dome. (The focallength of the lens in use does notenter into the calculation).

So for a dome of say 160mm indiameter (this information can also be

DOME PORTS Why they Work (or don’t)!

Paul Kay BSc (Sci. Phot.) FRPS

Wreck: This shot is crisp throughout as f/11 was used at 17mm on theNikon 17~35 AFS Zoom, again behind Subal's fisheye port.(The "Carnatic", Red Sea)

tricky to find out), the supplementarylens to be used should be 1000/4 x 80= +3.125 dioptres. In practice a +4dioptre lens is often used as infinity isnot available underwater (!) and a +4will usually work very effectively,although it may be worthexperimenting with +3 as this maygive better distance focus.

Optical correction produced bya supplementary lens may also helpby introducing reversed ‘fieldcurvature’ to somewhat negate thespherical curvature produced by thedome. (It can induce curvature of the‘virtual’ image in the oppositedirection to the curvature produced bythe dome port). This happens ‘best’ or‘most’ if a ‘poor’ supplementary lensis used (one with a flat rear andcurved front as opposed to a ‘better’corrected lens with both surfacescurved). The best (apochromat)supplementary lenses probably are‘optically’ better but don’t induce thereversed curvature which is so useful.

As the curved image is notentirely flattened by a supplementarypositive lens, it is still preferable to

use lenses behind their dome ports atsmallish apertures (often f/8 or f/11 asa minimum), in order to try and placethe ‘virtual’ image within the depth offield. If doing this, it may be worthtrying to focus slightly in front of theimage being photographed as this isthe farthest away part of the ‘virtual’image, and depth of field extends infront and behind the area beingfocussed on.

The practical outcome of all thisis as follows. In practice the situationshifts slightly due to the physicalproblems of housing some lenses

Lenses from 35mm upwardscan be used with flat ports as theaberrations, distortions andreflections induced towards the edgesof the image are no longer tooproblematic with lenses of this focallength and higher. (Note though thatthe angle of view of lenses usedbehind a flat port is reduced by about1/3). Such lenses can be used behinddome ports though, but curvature ofthe image will be a problem at widerapertures.

Lenses from 20-35mm can beused behind relatively compact domeports (with supplementary lenses) andsome (say 24 and 28mm) can utilisethe same port as their entrance pupilsare similar in relation to the physicalcharacteristics of the port (thedifference is insignificant). 20mmlenses are compact enough to enablea supplementary lens to be easilyfitted and good correction can beachieved at modest apertures of aslow as f/5.6 in some circumstances.Problems occur beyond about 20mm(this isn’t set in stone!), when largersupplementary lenses, and moresignificant image curvature mean thatprogressively smaller apertures arerequired to sharpen up ever moredefocused corners.

Zooms are a real problem.Traditionally, many have spanned thecrossover from dome to flat port, andmany have not focused very closemeaning that they were of limited usebehind dome ports in very clearwater. A further problem is that of ashift in the position of the entrancepupil as the lens was zoomed,meaning that best correction couldonly exist at one focal length.

Today things are changing, with

wide-angle zooms working throughinternal zooming and focusing as wellas being able to focus quite close too.Large diameter supplementary lenseswill fit on some, such as Nikon’s17~35 AFS lens, which results in veryacceptable correction is achievedthroughout the zoom range, and avery versatile if somewhat bulky set-up. Interestingly Subal state that theirfisheye dome port is 160mm indiameter. They recommend anextension ring to be fitted between itand the housing body (to place thedome in the best position), for the 17-35 and a supplementary lens of +3dioptres (I use a +4 with excellentresults). Nevertheless, this zoom doesnot quite match a fixed focal lengthlens in terms of absolute quality.

Physical requirementsinevitably mean that most ultrawide-angle lenses tend to need largediameter dome ports. Ultrawide-anglelenses have their own problems, asoften a supplementary lens cannot beattached, as this is physicallyimpossible. Many produce images,which exhibit badly out-of-focuscorners (plenty of examples exist inbookso and magazines), and only theuse of very small apertures reallyhelps at all.

The most successful ultrawidescommonly used underwater arefisheye lenses. Fisheye lenses are theexception as their dramatic depth offield can enable sharpness throughoutthe picture. They are extensively usedbut care has to be taken if anobviously straight line appears in thepicture, as it is usually imaged as acurve by the fisheye lens to somedegree, unless it passes throughthecentre of the picture.

For anyone wishing to readmore about underwater lens theory,may I refer them to Sidney F Ray’ssuperb book “Scientific Photographyand Applied Imaging” (Focal PressISBN 0 240 51323 1) where chapter30 will prove fascinating!

Paul Kay BSc FRPSMarine Wildlife Photo Agency

Photography - underwater & above!Courses ,workshops & tours. Talks.

http://www.marinewildlife.co.uk

Reef: The top of this picture containslittle detail so defocusing is notproblematic, but in the bottom finedetail is affected and is not at allsharp. Taken with Nikons 17-35 AFSZoom at 17mm and at f/8 using Subal'sfisheye port.(Haska Island, Outer Hebrides).

Nikonos V - the legendby Peter Rowlands

This year marks theseventeenth anniversary of thelaunch of the Nikonos V. It has beenin production longer than any otherNikonos model and its simpledesign has become a classic icon inthe underwater photography world.Its status is confirmed by checkingthe equipment cases of most leadingphotographers. There may be largerhousings in there but there is nearlyalways a dimunitive, trusty NikonosV which takes up so little space yetoffers so much.

It hasn't all been plain sailingthough. The Nikonos V has had tosurvive for several years in theshadow of its big brother, theNikonos RS, a camera whichthreatened to kill off the Nikonos V.In the end the RS promised so muchyet provided not enough and costtoo much. It was much awaited yet,like so many dreams, when themyth became reality, it destroyedthe myth. The Nikonos RS wasdiscontinued. R.I.P.

As if the shadow of its bigbrother wasn't dark enough, the RShad opened peoples' eyes to thebenefits of reflex viewing - theability to see the exact focusthrough the lens and compose yourpictures accurately. They flocked tohoused land cameras with their bulkand weight, big dome ports andcontrol gears. Everything wasbecoming very versatile andaccurate but complicated andexpensive. Yet the Nikonos V hasstill carried on and is currentlyexperiencing a renaissance amongstunderwater photographers.

So what is it about theNikonos V that has enabled it tosurvive such competition. Firstly wemust thank the accountants at Nikonfor deciding that it is a profitableproduct. Without their calculators,underwater photography would beworse off by far. Secondly we must

look at what it is that the Nikonos Vprovides for, in doing so, we revealso much about underwaterphotography itself. Let me explainbut first let me briefly describe theNikonos V.

Constructed from die castaluminium, weighing just 860 gmsand measuring only 146 x 99 x58mm, the Nikonos V can operatedown to 50 metres. Internally itutilises very little plastic so it isvery hard wearing and all controlsare O ring sealed - much abusedmagical devices without whichthere would be no underwaterphotography. The camera bodyoffers aperture priority exposureautomation, manual speeds from 1/30th to 1/1000th sec and TTL flashmetering. Film speeds from 25 to1600 asa can be used. Film wind onand rewind are reassuringly manualand there is a range of accessoriesfrom both Nikon and independentmanufacturers throughout the worldwhich extend its versatility beyondmeasure.

The reason for the NikonosV's succesfull survival is that itprovides 99% of what we reallyneed at a cost which is notprohibitive and a size which is notarm stretching. Add to that a rangeof lenses which are purposedesigned for underwater use and

you have a package which nohousing, I repeat, no housing cancompete optically. The Nikonos15mm lens, for example, is theRolls Royce underwater lenseswhich outperforms anything elseespecially at wide apertures.

Yet the Nikonos V is a nonreflex camera using fifteen year oldtechnology and still it survives.Why? The reason is that underwaterphotography can be as simple or ascomplicated as you want. Thechoice is yours but the Nikonos Voffers the simple route and this isoften the most effective. Mostunderwater photographs tend to betaken at the extremes - either verywide or very close. That's the natureof the medium in which we operateand the Nikonos V can excel atboth.

For close up photographs thereare either extension tubes or closeup lenses available. The formermust be fitted before the dive butthe latter can be fitted and removedunderwater giving you a two lensoption. As the Nikonos V is nonreflex you would be forgiven forthinking that the reduced depth offield with close ups would makefocusing extremely difficult butfortunately all close up accessoriescome with either a framing deviceor probes to show you the exact

point of focus. All you then do is look over the cameraat the frames/probes to arrange your composition. Theresult is an extremely easy to use system which willproduce very consistent results with your first roll offilm.

For wide angle shots there are several primelenses which must be fitted before diving orsupplementary lenses which can be fitted and removedunderwater. Both Nikon and Sea & Sea manufactureexcellent wide angle lenses and they also providesupplemetary optical viewfinders to show you exactlywhat will appear in the frame. As wide angle lensesgive increased depth of field, the need for accuratefocusing is much reduced and allows you to preset thecamera and concentrate on your composition.

Perhaps the most useful feature of the Nikonos Vis its TTL (through the lens) flash metering. This isprovided by a sensor in the camera body whichmonitors the amount of light falling onto the filmduring the exposure. When there is enough light, itstops the output of the flash and so ensures nooverexposure. There are several underwater flashgunmanufacturers, all of whom provide versions which arecompatible with the Nikonos V TTL system.

The final point in favour of the Nikonos V intodays market is its price compared to housing a landcamera. A good quality housed land camera could easilycost you up to and in excess of £2000 whereas a

Next issue I’ll describe some procedures theydon’t mention in the instruction manual which couldsave you from an expensive repair.

To make sure you get UWP the day it ispublished, e mail

download@uwpmag.co.ukand we’ll notify you that is on the server

awaiting your download.

13 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AQ Tel 0207 930 8408 Fax 0207 839 6148

http://www.oceanoptics.co.ukOcean Optics

For beginners who wantFor beginners who wantFor beginners who wantFor beginners who wantFor beginners who wantto shoot like prosto shoot like prosto shoot like prosto shoot like prosto shoot like pros

It’s the classicIt’s the classicIt’s the classicIt’s the classicIt’s the classicunderwater camera.underwater camera.underwater camera.underwater camera.underwater camera.Compact, rugged and withCompact, rugged and withCompact, rugged and withCompact, rugged and withCompact, rugged and withthe sharpest underwater optics available,the sharpest underwater optics available,the sharpest underwater optics available,the sharpest underwater optics available,the sharpest underwater optics available,the Nikonos V is chosen by amateursthe Nikonos V is chosen by amateursthe Nikonos V is chosen by amateursthe Nikonos V is chosen by amateursthe Nikonos V is chosen by amateursand professionals alike. Ocean Optics have specialisedand professionals alike. Ocean Optics have specialisedand professionals alike. Ocean Optics have specialisedand professionals alike. Ocean Optics have specialisedand professionals alike. Ocean Optics have specialisedin the Nikonos system for a quarter of a century. We stock andin the Nikonos system for a quarter of a century. We stock andin the Nikonos system for a quarter of a century. We stock andin the Nikonos system for a quarter of a century. We stock andin the Nikonos system for a quarter of a century. We stock andunderstand the system in depth. We manufacture our own macrounderstand the system in depth. We manufacture our own macrounderstand the system in depth. We manufacture our own macrounderstand the system in depth. We manufacture our own macrounderstand the system in depth. We manufacture our own macroand close up lenses and have our own Nikon approved workshopand close up lenses and have our own Nikon approved workshopand close up lenses and have our own Nikon approved workshopand close up lenses and have our own Nikon approved workshopand close up lenses and have our own Nikon approved workshopwith a huge parts inventory and fast turnaround. Along with ourwith a huge parts inventory and fast turnaround. Along with ourwith a huge parts inventory and fast turnaround. Along with ourwith a huge parts inventory and fast turnaround. Along with ourwith a huge parts inventory and fast turnaround. Along with ourunmatched service, we also offer matchless prices. So why compromise.unmatched service, we also offer matchless prices. So why compromise.unmatched service, we also offer matchless prices. So why compromise.unmatched service, we also offer matchless prices. So why compromise.unmatched service, we also offer matchless prices. So why compromise.

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Nikonos VNikonos VNikonos VNikonos VNikonos V

Photography - Peter RowlandsPhotography - Peter RowlandsPhotography - Peter RowlandsPhotography - Peter RowlandsPhotography - Peter Rowlands

Nikonos V with 35mm lens is well under £1000. Acomplete system with flash, close up and wide anglelenses will fit into a case small enough to be welcomeas hand baggage and an additional camera body (whichmost serious photographers regard as essential forsurvival) will take up very little extra room.

Finally I have to declare a personal interest andthank Nikon for providing me with a career offeringannual servicing of their cameras. I have worked on allmodels from the pristine which have seen little use tothose which look like they have lived in the bottom of aRIB for weeks on end yet they all offer a reliabilitywhich is hard to beat.

Underwater photography would be a totallydifferent world without the Nikonos V and long may itcontinue.

Peter Rowlands

GET LUCKY! and pool your resourcessays Pat Morrissey

What do I mean by 'getting lucky'?Well, it's not, in this case, an invite to make a

follow-up to John Travolta's famous film, nor to takeout a contract on one of the lesser-known Dwarves.'Lucky' is a state of mind, formed beforehand by anumber of contributory factors; 'being lucky' is moreoften than not the entirely practical benefit derived frompreparation in advance. It was either Jack Nicklaus orArnold Palmer who, on being asked whether he everrelied on luck on the golf course, said 'Yep - and themore I practise, the luckier I get'.

People who decide to take expensive camera gearunder water - ostensibly, the most hostile environmentimaginable for delicate, technical machinery - owe it tothemselves to remember those words. Living inEngland, I have the benefit each winter of a few monthswhen there's very little incentive to go outside or thinkabout the practicalities of underwater photography atall; these are the weeks when it's just too easy toindulge in armchair diving, drooling over coffee tablesladen with glossy books of submarine tropical beauty.It's an entirely understandable temptation; but there's farmore to be achieved by using the time in Pool Practice.

Even if, like myself, you're a far-from-enthusiasticmember of a SCUBA club, you'll have that all-important access to a swimming pool on a regular basis- and while others are honing their dive skills for the nthtime, or fitness training, you can be playing with anunderwater camera. And it should be playing, in myopinion, since nothing kills creativity more quickly thanover-regimentation. I dive for pleasure, and I takephotographs for the love of it - so, do I really want tolose this buzz by making it an onerous task or sheerhard work? Answers on a postcard, I don't think...

Look at the benefits: firstly, there's no need tohave to learn from scratch all over again about yourown gear the next time you exit the dive boat - it'll besecond nature to you, an extension of your essentialdive equipment.

Secondly, you can utilize pool sessions tofamiliarize yourself with new equipment or lenses,experimenting in your own leisure time rather than inthe hothouse atmosphere of a dive holiday when takingtime out 'to see what happens if I do this...' means youlose lumps of expensive vacation time.

Thirdly, you will inevitably start to surpriseyourself with the photographs you take during theweekly club night pool sessions - no one can take thesame pictures over and over again forever, and you willbe forced to become more creative - especially if younormally tend to stick with a particular strobe set-up orfavourite lens, which you can also begin to vary as you

wish.Fourthly, you will become able to respond more

rapidly to new photographic situations as they occur inopen water by regularly building up 'muscle memory' inyour fingers and automatically 'reading' the scenewithout hesitation. And finally - perhaps mostimportantly of all, when you're going to be away fromunderwater photography for a while - regular poolpractice keeps your eye 'in', your brain alert and yourinstincts focussed.

Is there a down side? I haven't found one yet, andin fact the local swimming pool allows us to exhibitpool photos from our Monday night sessions, whichboth advertises the club and promotes public awarenessand appreciation of underwater photography. It's awinning system that every dive snapper and SCUBAclub should adopt, so - get in there and BE LUCKY.

Pat Morrissey

If you are like me, you probably started out inunderwater photography by shooting a Nikonos V (orSea and Sea) with framers and extension tubes. As timegoes by, however, certain limitations of this system canget frustrating. As such there is a tendency to move to aSLR camera which is either amphibious by nature or ishoused in a metal or Lucite housing from one of themany good vendors in the business. While a SLRallows more creativity and control over the results, italso requires more skill than simply placing a framerover a subject and pressing the trigger. Here are fourtips, which will make your macro photography better.

Create Contrast

Successful images have a subject that stands out.Too often I see photographs where the subject blendsinto the background (sometimes called negative space)and simply fails to grab ones attention. This oftenoccurs when shooting down on a subject. If you areaware of this problem when composing an image thereare various ways to make a subject stand out or “pop”.Making a subject “pop” involves creating contrastbetween that subject and its background or negativespace. There are three easy ways this can beaccomplished.

Color Contrast

Photographing a subject against a background ofa completely different color can create contrast. Thiscould be a black background, which can be easilycreated by shooting at a small aperture and fast shutterspeed, a blue water background, or a different colorbackground as shown by the photograph of the starfishfeet below.

Tips for Shooting Better Macroby Steven N. Norvich

Depth of Field Contrast

Contrast can also be created using depth of field.When shooting at larger apertures such as f5.6 and f/8(as opposed to f22), there is a significant drop off ofdepth of field past the subject. This causes the

background to be blurred and create an effect calledbokeh. This effect can be very pleasing and causes thesubject to “pop” from the background. This isillustrated by the image of the Mimic Valentini (above)which was shot at f5.6 rather than the f11 in theprevious image of the starfish feet. Notice the redcolored soft corals are blurred into a very pleasingbokeh and the subject stands out from the background.

Negative Space Contrast

Another way to create contrast is by usingnegative space to accentuate an interesting subject.This photograph of the mating Nembrotha Nudibranchsworks better because the negative space is interestingand colorful despite being in focus and part of thepicture. This negative space shows the environment thesubject lives in and also creates textural contrast withthe subject. Obviously moving a subject to a good

negative space is often infeasible or unethical but angleof composition can often times solve this problem.Good negative space may be available from a differentangle. I do not condone ever moving a subject to getgood negative space. This will often be harmful to theanimal, it creates a propensity for the subject to attemptto leave the area if it is able to do so, stresses theanimal, and portrays an unnatural setting.

Creative Compositions

What makes a picture work? If an image ispleasing to the viewer it works, and generally thismeans that it is composed well. There are two ways toaccomplish this. The first is to think about what makesgood composition while shooting your pictures and thesecond is to take all the pictures from a given photoshoot and throw away those that are badly composed.Which makes more sense? It is up to the reader todecide. I personally find that unless I think aboutcomposition while shooting, I have far too many imagesto throw away when culling.

Good composition means that picture elementsproduce an overall pleasing, unified, and harmoniouswhole. While this is highly subjective, there are someguidelines, which will help composition be pleasing andcause your eye to gravitate to the subject.

Rule of Thirds

Think of every image as if it were a tic-tac-toelayout with two vertical and two horizontal lines. Theintersections of these lines are called “crash points” andthese are the power points that will easily draw yourattention or those of your viewer. Placing your subjectat one of these crash points will create an image that ismore powerful and able to keep the interest of theviewer. It gives a feeling of balance and harmony andkeeps the image from being boring. Too often, placingthe subject in the center of the image makes the picturelook posed. So, in effect this is asymmetrical

composition where the subject is not centered or if it iscentered, the eye of the subject is at one of the crashpoints. When the subject is placed on one of these powerpoints or crash points, it is highly desirable that it bepositioned such that movement is into the frame ratherthan out of the frame. The former feels right while thelatter creates a discordant feeling.

If it is necessary to center a subject try not to havethe subject centered and parallel to the bottom or top ofthe image. Oftentimes creating a diagonal can cause amundane subject composition to be more interesting.Note that the eye of the Queen Angel is at a power point.

The rule of thirds also suggests a one third/twothird ratio between background (negative space) andsubject. Often, in underwater images, this means onethird is black or blue water background or negative spaceand two third subject. Be careful about overusing theblack water background; I prefer blue water instead.

Change your Viewpoint

Try to get the most out of a given subject. Goodsubjects are difficult to find so don’t simply take onephotograph and move on. Shoot the same subject fromdifferent viewpoints, directions, and sides. Look forcreative ways of showing how the subject fits into itsworld. Look for simplicity rather than complexity so thesubject does not get lost in a myriad of detail. Considershooting both vertical and horizontal compositions of thesame subject.

Magnification and Depth of Field

As magnification increases for a given focal length,depth of field decreases. This means that as you getcloser, you lose depth of field making it difficult to havethe entire subject in sharp focus. If the subject has eyes,be sure they are in sharp focus. If you can have thesubject parallel to the focal plane, that will keep more ofthe subject in sharp focus but do not do so at the cost ofcompositional elegance.

Magnification andRelative f-stop

When shooting macro withan SLR 60, 105, or 200 mm lens,as magnification increases, thedistance between the lens and thefilm increases (just as it doeswhen using an extension tube ona Nikonos V or SLR) This meansthat the f-stop selected on thelens is not the f-stop as perceivedby the camera. The f-stopperceived by the camera is therelative f-stop. As such you maysee relative f-stops of f45 or evenf64 even if the f-stop on the lensis only f22 or f32.

Ok, so why do we care aboutrelative f-stop? Well we do carebecause strobe lighting at smallapertures/high relative f-stopsrequires more strobe power, closerstrobe to subject distance, or fasterfilm to properly expose. It dependson your strobe power whether thisis relevant to your particular shot,but if you are getting under exposedimages back and the strobe tosubject distance is within thecoupling range of your strobe for agiven f-stop, this may be the reason.

Avoiding Backscatter

Backscatter is lighting piecesof particulate in the water before orin front of the subject beingphotographed. Backscatter is notinevitable even in water heavy inparticulate. The only way to avoidbackscatter other thanphotographing in crystal clear wateris to paint the subject with the edgeof your strobe beam rather thanaiming directly at the subject.

Obviously, decreasing theamount of water between subjectand lens reduces the backscatteropportunities but painting thesubject with the strobe edges willwork even in murky conditions.

Dual Strobes

I personally prefer the use oftwo strobes rather than one.Occasionally I even use threestrobes where the third strobe is onslave and is used for backlighting asubject. Most often I have onestrobe on the left and one on theright of the subject, slightly pointingdownwards and nearly straightahead (as opposed to anglinginward).

Lighting Ratios

Occasionally, when using twostrobes, I will use different lightingratios. To do so, I will use them atslightly different powers or differentstrobe to subject distances to createlighting ratios. Ideally there shouldbe one stop difference in theillumination of the two strobes but atwo-stop difference can be verydramatic. Experiment to see whatappeals to you for a given subject.

If the strobes are attached tomovable arms or one of them ishand held, it is an easy thing tocontrol lighting ratios. When usingthis technique, proper bracketing isdesirable and occasionally essentialto find the best effect. In this casebracketing is done with strobe tosubject distances or strobe powersettings rather than f-stops.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I hope that thetips discussed will be useful to youand that you will try them in asituation where you can getimmediate feedback by processingyour film and then looking atresults. Always evaluate yourresults and keep notes about whatworks, what does not and what yourpreferences are. Evaluation willcause your photography to improvein the long run.

Steven N. Norvich

Unfortunately, there are toomany Marvins in the world. Marvinwanted to try his hand at underwaterphotography, so went out andbought a basic but competentunderwater camera. He didn’t spenda lot of money, as he wasn’t surehow he would get on and, after hisfirst holiday abroad with it, he nowwants to sell it.

Is Marvin the Frank Spencerof underwater photography? Doeshe have to have “Left” and “Right”written on his fins? I don’t think so.Marvin has just fallen foul of one ofthe classic traps of underwaterphotography.

However, to understand thistrap, we need to understand a littlebit about photography, especiallyunderwater, so pay attention - I’ll beasking questions later!

Light and Water

Unlike air, water is a verydense medium, and while yourwineglass of Perrier water may lookperfectly transparent (apart from thebubbles), water does absorb lightquite quickly with depth. Eachcolour in the white light spectrum isabsorbed by filtration to a differentdegree by water (See figure 1) andit is essential that you understandthat this applies equally well to ahorizontal body of water (See figure2) as well as a vertical body (orcolumn). Absorption is proportionalto the amount of water the lightpasses through. It is not related tothe depth, or consequently thepressure of the water.

Figure 2. Light gets similarly absorbedhorizontally.

Much of the red colour will belost if there is more than 5 metres ofwater in the path from the lightsource to the subject to the cameralens, and many of the other colourswill be muted as well, as they losetheir red components.

So if you want bright colourfulphotographs then you must reducethis light path by:

A. getting the light sourceclose to the subject (to cut downabsorption on the way) by using an

underwater flashguns to provide aclose white light source

B. getting the camera close tothe subject (to cut down absorptionon the way back) by using wideangle or macro lenses to get close tothe subject

Of course, there are somealternatives, such as

A. Shooting in the top fewmetres of water below the surface -before colours have faded. Theripples in the water also causevaried and attractive lighting.

B. Shoot silhouettes or wreckshapes - relying on tonal contrastrather than colour contrast to makeyour subject interesting.

C. Shoot on monochrome filmstock (no colour problems withblack and white!)

Dear Marge,I took my first two rolls of film underwater last week, and they turned out looking

awful, just bright blue and blotchy. The man at my dive shop says that to get any decentresults, I would need to spend thousands on special cameras, and that the one I’ve gotcan’t handle. Where can I advertise a nearly-new camera?

Yours, Marvin

Beginners luckby Mark Mumford

Figure 1. Light absorption with depth of water.

Light levels

We now know that waterabsorbs light very quickly, even inseemingly clear water. In addition tothis, not all of the sunlight that doesfall on the water actually penetratesto the depths below.

Light entering the water at anangle near to 90 degrees to thewater’s surface, such as the middaysun, will enter easily, but light frommore acute angles, such as sunlightin the early morning and lateafternoon, or when the sea’s surfaceis choppy, will tend to have a largerproportion reflected back into thesky than that which manages topenetrate underwater. Worse still,any particles or algae in the waterwill scatter the light in all direction,cutting down even more the lightthat manages to penetrate thedepths.

The net effect is that belowabout 15m, even with a strongmidday sun on a calm day in thetropics, available light is consider-ably reduced.

In reality, most underwaterphotographers use a strobe (flash) torestore colour and contrast, butthere will be occasions when youwant to capture an image of anobject, such as a wreck, which istoo large to light in this artificialway, and you must make the best ofwhat light there is.

The actual light level is oftenhard to judge, as the human eyedoes a superlative job in adjustingfor varying light levels and colourbalances, but you can be assuredthat the vivid colours and crispshapes you saw on that 25m wreckwill come out looking grey andmuted in your photographs.

Contrast

Contrast is important to allphotographs, especially underwaterimages, but is easily lost, as thedeeper you go, the more the lightsource will have been diffused andscattered by the water. Photographs

taken at the beginning or end of theday will invariably be lacking incontrast and backgrounds undersuch conditions are often rendered arather muddy colour, and not thecrisp blue that can normally beexpected in clear water in themiddle of the day. If you get suchresults, don’t blame your equipment- just dive at different times.

Now while that is all veryinteresting (and you’ll need tounderstand it when we go on to thenext bit), this wasn’t Marvin’sproblem, as he had been taking hisphotographs at about 10 metres inthe middle of the day.

So what trap was it that he fellinto? Well, having eliminated thecamera, and the lighting conditions,why don’t we have a look at thefilm.

Prints vs Slides

Films come also in two differ-ent types, either colour print filmsgiving a negative image that can beprinted, or colour transparency (orreversal) films which are suitablefor projection. Slides have generallybeen favoured by underwaterphotographers, as they can beshown to a large audience, andprofessional publishers have in thepast preferred transparencies.

However, just in case youthought underwater photographywasn’t difficult enough, transpar-ency film is much more sensitive tooverexposure or underexposure thanprint film. This property is calledexposure latitude, and is typically±4 stops for print film, but only ±1‡stops for transparencies. On the plusside though, transparencies givebetter contrast and colour satura-tion, for the same reason, and arewell worth the additional effort toget right - even though it may bemore hassle to get a good printmade from them

This difference in exposurelatitude is only really evident whentaking portrait format (rather thanlandscape) shots with graduatedblue backgrounds. Slides can

capture a full range from light todark, while print films give asomewhat more muted result.

What actual film to use isgenerally a personal preference, aseach individual film stock returnsslightly different results. I havenoticed that underwater photogra-phers choose to use a medium speedfilm (ISO 100) for wide-angle andother general work, but may usespeeds down to ISO 25 for close-upand macro shots that are entirely litby strobe.

Professional film brandsprofess to be more carefully qualitycontrolled and stored to help profes-sional photographers obtain identi-cal colour balances from rolls of thesame batch. There appears thereforeto be no justification for amateurs tochoose such films solely on thebasis that they will give betterresults than the non-professionalequivalent.

So how did Marvin get on?Well he didn’t have any previousexperience with slides, and wantedsome normal prints that he couldshow his family and his friends atwork, so he chose to use a PRINTFILM (gasps of shock and horror!).Was this his downfall?? Well noactually - there’s nothing wrongwith print film as millions ofphotographs taken every day show.

Well even though Marvin useda suitable camera and film, and tookhis photographs at about the besttime of day, things can still gowrong.

There are still plenty ofopportunities for low contrastresults or even under- or over-exposure (even with print film).

We’ve had a look at Marvin’snegatives, and they show sometolerable results. There are a coupleof underexposed ones where hedidn’t wait long enough for theflash to recharge, and many of hisshots are taken from too far awayfor the flash to have much of animpact, resulting in some lowcontrast shots.

So if the negatives came outsort of OK, where is the trap that

Marvin fell into? So what didMarvin do wrong?

The answer is of course -nothing. Marvin did everythingright, although he could have got abit closer, and waited for his flashmore patiently.

The whole thing went dread-fully wrong when Marvin, theamateur underwater photographer,handed his film over to his highstreet chemist or photo shop fordeveloping and printing.

I’m no expert in photo-finishing machines, although Iknow that they can be calibrated,and have the ability, under operatorcontrol, to compensate for a numberof common photographic errors,including (yes - you guessed)underexposure and low contrast,presumably by attempting to boostcontrast, brightness, and coloursaturation.

Now in most cases the resultsare pretty reliable, as the operatorknows what a school sports dayshould look like, and he probablyalso knows that people like theirphotographs to be more highlysaturated than the real thing (it’s

true!). What he probably doesn’tknow is what an underwater shotshould look like, and how to correctthe errors when in that environment.

As a consequence, getting agood print is rather a hit and missaffair.

You will see from the exam-ples, the wide variety in printquality obtainable from high streetphotofinishers.

Perhaps the simplest solutionto Marvin’s problem is to ask yourphoto store to develop and printyour films “without colour correc-tion or exposure compensation” (atleast on the first time through!).

Kodak SEAProcessing

Last year the Eastman KodakCompany announced a newprocessing service called KodakSEA Processing, aimed at solvingthe “inherent problems” withunderwater images that result inprints with exaggerated green orblue tints.

Kodak’s press release claims

that “the patented photofinishingprocess uses a blend of digital andtraditional silver halide technologyto optimize underwater prints,putting the same life and color inthe print that the photographer sawon the dive.”

Additional hints about howthis facility might work are given inthe product information for Kodak’sDLS System Management Softwarethat runs with their mini-lab filmprocessors. An add-on is availableto provide “one-touch” correction ofunderwater images by reducing theblue cast and adding contrast.

Apparently Kodak SeaProcessing is not available in theUK due to lack of demand!

Printing Slides

Despite the attraction of slides,everyone will reach the point wherethey want to get a good hardcopyprint of their best and favouriteslides to mount on the wall or to putin an album to show those peoplewho won’t sit still for the obligatoryslide show.

Unfortunately, prints cannotbe obtained from slides with thesame degree of availability as youcan get a set of prints from yourlocal high-street developers. Fortu-nately though, there are specialistprocesses that can produce printsthat at least match the best hand-printed negatives, and which, somewould claim, produce even betterresults.

Please don’t ever expect aprint to come up to the quality ofyour projected slide. There areplenty of reasons why this doesn’thappen, the main one being thatthere is much less contrast range ina print than there is in a slide!

Mark Mumford

Boots, Crawley (who developed thefilm). Absolutely dreadful. I would wantto sell my camera.

Boots, Crawley (when asked to reprint).A vast improvement. Slightly on the redside - skin tones match those to befound on land (but not underwater!)

Snappy Snaps, Victoria. A little betterthan the original Boots one, but stillpretty dire.

Jessops, Victoria: A very creditableeffort, and one which I’d be proud toshow my friends and family.

Scientific Editor: David W. BehrensISBN: 960-87016-0-0Starfish PressNumber of Pages: 256 pagesNumber of Colour Photos: 280 colour photos (many fullpage plus double-page spreads)

Size: 24cm x 31cmPrinted on high quality Zanders 150 gr paper IkonofixGloss including a Hi-Coat Gloss Emulsion.PRICE UK: £39Available from Ocean Optics on September 3rd (andmaybe even sooner!)

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Ocean Optics13 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AQTel 020 7930 8408 Fax 020 7839 6148

Visit our web site for the latest news and special deals

http://www.oceanoptics.co.uk

Our aim at Ocean Optics isto keep you shooting.

That’s why we provide afull servicing facility in our

own workshops for allNikonos, Nexus and Subal

equipment we import.We even have loan

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If you choose to bean Ocean Optics client,you will benefit from the

best support in thebusiness