Images: 4 Creative Photo Tips
Glowing Photography
Create glowing photography by using fluorescent-lighting setups on your subjects, like these anemones. The key is to fit strong blue filters for the strobes and a yellow filter on the lens. The resulting photos will show fluorescent colors produced within the subject rather than the reflected light we normally see.
CAMERA Nikon D4, Subal housing // LENS Nikon 60mm with yellow barrier filter // STROBES 3x Inon Z240 strobes fitted with Nightsea fluorescence filters // SETTINGS f/36, 1/320 sec, ISO 400 // LOCATION Plymouth, England
Alex Mustard
Long Exposures
Few techniques change the look of an image more than the use of long exposures, which transforms background detail into a smooth blur. To keep the image clean, the goal is to create both sharp and blurred areas by carefully aiming the strobes at the areas you want to freeze. The effect is most dramatic by panning the camera smoothly in one direction, or rotating it during the exposure. A really long exposure isn’t necessary. I find that between 1/10 and 1/15 gives an ideal look.
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Snooting the Light
A snoot can be a simple funnel or an elaborate optical tube that restricts the light from your strobe into a narrow beam. Use snoots mainly to light a subject living against its surroundings, a great approach for turning a seabed into a clean black back- ground. The challenge is to get the subject in the light beam. I prefer to set up the snoot once, then lock the strobe position and my focus. This way, if a subject is in focus, it is also lit.
CAMERA Nikon D2X // LENS Nikon 105mm // STROBES 2x Inon Z240 strobes with snoots // SETTINGS f/25, 1/250 sec, ISO 100 // LOCATION Bali, Indonesia.
Alex Mustard
Fisheye Views
Ultrawide-angle fisheye lenses are hugely popular underwater for many reasons. They allow you to photograph the biggest subjects from as close as pos- sible. They work well behind dome ports and when your main subject is close to the lens; their forced perspective makes your subject pop out of the picture, almost like 3-D. The downside is that they don’t try to correct for distortion, giving a bendy view of the world. This isn’t such a problem underwater because most of the time there aren’t many straight lines, and photographers soon learn the compositional tricks that hide distortion. But you don’t have to conceal it. You can exploit the extreme distortion creatively. There are two types of fisheyes: full-frame fisheyes that fill your whole sensor, and circular fisheyes that produce a circular image within the frame. Circular fisheyes are more artistic, but like most creative effects, it is most impactful when used sparingly.
CAMERA Canon 5D // LENS Sigma 8mm circular fisheye // STROBES 2x Sea&Sea YS90 strobes // SETTINGS f/20, 1/15 sec, ISO 200 // LOCATION Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
Alex Mustard
Creating images that stand out from the crowd will not only make people want to stop and look at them, but it can also help you win praise and prizes. Creative techniques allow you to transform the world you see into artistic visions, producing images that are your own interpretation rather than simply records of “what it was like.”
Since Boutan, the world’s first underwater photographer, the craft has been driven by a desire to show the other 70 percent of our planet. But these days, even an average nondiver knows what a coral reef and kelp forest look like. This gives you a little room to push the photographic boundaries with interpretive images fueled by your artistic de- sires. When you put such thought into your images, they not only become more artistic, but they also become your own creations.
There are a host of things to try: shallow depth of field, long exposures, fisheye or supermacro lenses, and unusual lighting like snoot and off-camera strobes. The key is to pair the technique to the subject in order to emphasize the look you want to achieve.
For recommendations on gear, read Camera Gear: Accessories for Creative Photos.
For tips for amateur photogs, read our Photo Tips: Composition.