Took a UW Photo Class

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OreCoastDiver
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Took a UW Photo Class

Post by OreCoastDiver »

Monday and Tuesday I took a photo class at the Oregon Coast Aquarium from Joe Wysocki. I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot. Joe is a great teacher and very hands on. He works you hard too. After my fourth dive on Tuesday it felt like someone beat me with a club. Joe teaches classes all over, from California, where he lives, to the Galapagos, to Hood Canal. You can Google his name and get some good day-dream material.

Part of my motivation for taking the class was to get a few serviceable fish shots for my work as the PIO for the Marine Resources Program of ODFW. So I spent a few hours mining in the massive garbage dump of shots from the class. I got about 50 that might be usable. I uploaded them to Flica. Here's the link if you want to look: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25873764@N04/

The only editing I did was to hit the "autocorrect" button on Photo Manager and crop. I messed with each photo less than a minute.

Here's something I learned in the editing process: an under-exposed picture must contain more information than an over-exposed one. The over-exposed ones have blown out highlights no matter what. If the photo is under exposed by a stop or so you can usually fix it in the computer. Am I right?
Brandon
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Joshua Smith
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by Joshua Smith »

Good for you! I realized early on in my diving that I suck at photography. I bought a nice camera and housing from my buddy Calvin, and tried and tried to take some decent pics. I was using the same setup that he had used to take amazing pictures. He sold it to me, and bought a fancier one. We went for many dives together, side by side, and took pictures of the exact same stuff, seperated by a few seconds, and a few feet. Calvin's pictures always looked better than the actual -fish, nudibranch, shark, diver, or what have you- than the subject looked IN REAL LIFE. Mine always looked worse. I did everything he told me to.....but I eventually lost interest in the whole UW photography thing. I treasure pictures and video of dives I've done, and admire the work people like Calvin, John Rawlings, Romer Treece, and Maverick do. But it's kind of like music to me. I'm better at listening to it than I am at making it. I love underwater photography, and I love diving with underwater photographers. They're the best equipment I can think of to bring along on a dive you want to remember!
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Dusty2
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by Dusty2 »

OreCoastDiver wrote: Here's something I learned in the editing process: an under-exposed picture must contain more information than an over-exposed one. The over-exposed ones have blown out highlights no matter what. If the photo is under exposed by a stop or so you can usually fix it in the computer. Am I right?
Well somewhat right, Overexposed will always be because white is the absence of all color, Some underexposed shots can be saved, However they will never be truly clear and will almost always be grainy and flat looking because the color is there but all run together.
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by Tangfish »

Joshua Smith wrote:I love diving with underwater photographers. They're the best equipment I can think of to bring along on a dive you want to remember!
Some of these units even come with bailout!
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Sounder
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by Sounder »

I'm also terrible at photography and it is the rare day when I'll even have a camera along for the ride. I've only got a little point & shoot Canon which does enough. The housing was wonderful when I rafted the whole Grand Canyon, but under-water it's just of no use to me.

I admire photographers and enjoy diving with them. I like looking for more subjects while they take pictures of something. Besides, when you're diving with photographers you get some awesome pictures of yourself!!
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Tom Nic
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by Tom Nic »

Wow. Doug, that first picture is just amazing! Please "tattle" on who the photographer was - they definitely deserve a Woot!
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by Sounder »

Those pictures were taken by none other than our own Mr. Scott Lundy!! Mr. Lundy has become one of two photographers for Liquivision and these were taken as part of a photo-shoot for DEMA.

These are my unedited versions (Scott's versions are MUCH better) but here are a few more him...
Hood Canal w/ Steding's Scooter
Hood Canal w/ Steding's Scooter
Doug on DIW with X1 and Cuda.jpg
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Scott G
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by Scott G »

Hi Brandon,

Nice job, I wish i had got off my butt and gotten to Newport for that :).

Glad to hear you went digital!

photo's are nice, the two i like best are below. I cleaned up the colors quick. even so, as you can see there is some latent purple that doesn't belong.

Mind your white balance (this will solve much of this problem), shoot in RAW (if possible), and be careful of the auto correct button (I have never seen software that does a consistently acceptable job with UW photo's)

Framing was great on several. Not sure what shooting in a Fish tank is like, but try for more foreground/background... little less flash, little more open lens.

Don't worry about the side-to "ID" shot, let someone else take the boring stuff on company time.

Diving down here tomorrow?

Scott

ps. you're right about the over-exposure... but don't let it make you think it's all bad... there are blown out portions of all the photo's attached to this thread... flash reflection and reflective gear are obvious causes, but can often be fixed if unavoidable. The real danger is when that overexposure starts eating your subject.

perfect exposure is always recommended ;)
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OreCoastDiver
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Re: Took a UW Photo Class

Post by OreCoastDiver »

Thanks for the tips Scott. My little camera won't shoot in RAW. What I need is one of those fancy Cannon G10s. ;)

I was hoping to dive Netarts today, but my foot is swollen up from all of last weeks activities, including our first underwater hockey game with the HMSC and MRP folks.
Brandon
Compression is good for the soul.
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