Photo sharing - Nurse Shark

[kng]

Taken last Sept in Bali, Nusa Penida area. This baby nurse shark was squeezed under a shelf of rock and staghorn coral, so I just stuck my camera underneath and shot away without being able to aim properly. Haha - the advantage of NOT having a strobe is that your housing can squeeze into small spaces!!

Comments and criticism most welcomed!



Shot with Canon A70, no external strobes. Cokin 81C filter. Very minimal post-processing.

[waisj]

Nice..


well taken my friend.

Thanks for sharing.

[beivied]

baby?? wa the photo looks like there is nothing above its head... ^_^ and minimal processing!! hoho.. not displaying kng's prowess here then

how big is the baby?

[kng]

Originally Posted by waisj Nice.. well taken my friend. Thanks for sharing.

Aiyoh - you all very "ke qi". Let me give some self-criticism - 1. blown-out highlights in sand caused by sunlight & reflection from internal flash. 2. "white-eye" (haha not red eye) of shark.

Questions for the experts (you know who you all are ):-

1. how to prevent the blown-out highlights, esp when shooting around sandy patches or shooting upwards with sunrays filtering down? (Pls dun tell me to buy a 10D )

2. some fishes have red-eye or yellow-eye or white-eye etc due to the flash. Is it possible to prevent this?

[beivied]

oh ya! the sand thing is also something that always bothers me...

[waisj]

Originally Posted by kng Aiyoh - you all very "ke qi". Let me give some self-criticism - 1. blown-out highlights in sand caused by sunlight & reflection from internal flash. 2. "white-eye" (haha not red eye) of shark. Questions for the experts (you know who you all are ):- 1. how to prevent the blown-out highlights, esp when shooting around sandy patches or shooting upwards with sunrays filtering down? (Pls dun tell me to buy a 10D ) 2. some fishes have red-eye or yellow-eye or white-eye etc due to the flash. Is it possible to prevent this?

haa haa. i did notice that. none the less it does not deprive the photo from being a wonderful shot.

If you want to prevent bown out highlights on sandy patches, i normally switch to Spot metering, if you have TTL it should work.... technically.

Last time with the F90X, i used Spot metering, exposure minus 1 stop. Strobes pointing inwards towards the subject.

FYI i have not had the luxury of having a strobe yet for my 5050.. so not qualified to comment on that

[beivied]

sorry... TTL? no strobe?

[waisj]

Originally Posted by beivied sorry... TTL? no strobe?

well i would say maybe squeeze your Aperture, and dial down your flash, will definitely help there, that is what i did

[beivied]

hmm.. can only bring to f8.0 lo... sad.... my setting is usually at least f6.3

[waisj]

Sorry my humble apologies,
i used the aperture of F8.0 on C5050Z also was in Smacro mode, used 7 flash intensity.

In macro, F7.0 with flash intensity dialled down to -0.7

The later is in Spot Metering

[kng]

Originally Posted by waisj Sorry my humble apologies, i used the aperture of F8.0 on C5050Z also was in Smacro mode, used 7 flash intensity. In macro, F7.0 with flash intensity dialled down to -0.7 The later is in Spot Metering

Thanks for the suggestions - will try to take more shots at different settings the next time round.

One problem was that the shark was in the shadow of the rock/coral so if i used a lower flash setting, the shark will prob be underexposed. Perhaps another way is to frame it better to eliminate some of the bright sand in the background.

Beivied, the baby shark was around 3 feet long?? Hard to tell cos it was squeezed under the rock & corals.

I do hope that this and the scorpion fish photo will show cs-ers that even without strobes and a humble camera, you can take acceptable shots of (non-macro) small-medium underwater creatures. Dive and practice more!

[waisj]

Quote: Thanks for the suggestions - will try to take more shots at different settings the next time round. One problem was that the shark was in the shadow of the rock/coral so if i used a lower flash setting, the shark will prob be underexposed. Perhaps another way is to frame it better to eliminate some of the bright sand in the background.

well said. but then again the shark was already under a coral... so it will be hard no?

Quote: I do hope that this and the scorpion fish photo will show cs-ers that even without strobes and a humble camera, you can take acceptable shots of (non-macro) small-medium underwater creatures. Dive and practice more!

Absolutely correct. . Know your camera and it will work wonders for you. (which applies to me as well )