Photo & Videography

Photo & Videography Edited by Peter Symes Schools of fishes are not easy subjects! To They are two nice ways to have a school of current. By approaching them from the compose such a number of animals in the fish on the picture: Static and in action. The front and by shooting as fast as you can, frame is rather difficult, because they should techniques are more or less the same. Search the static image will change in a view have a collective position, movement or eye for schools in strong currents. Here, they stay second to an action image. A strobe with look. close together like walls facing against the a fast reload cycle makes it more easy. Fish PhotographyText and photos by Kurt Amsler Shooting fish with a camera isn’t easy! Unlike people they are per- Eye contact is a must in fish photog- fectly adapted to the aquatic environment, hydro-dynamically raphy. Not only does it give a good shaped and in all their colourful splendour, they are completely expression to the viewer, but also, if you approach a fish from the front, it will ignorant of any directions given by the photographer’s end. So, to remain longer at its position, because it get that perfect shot, we need a strategy—and the right equipment. wants to see what is going on 75 X-RAY MAG : 19 : 2007 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED This picture was need the right flash. TTL- metered strobes exposed with f:8 / are ideal for the subject distances usually 1/15 of a second seen in fish photography, because at a shutter speed and set “working” f-stop, a wide range of dis- the strobe on TTL. tances are covered, and our usually fast The camera was set silver on the second shut- moving subjects will be perfectly exposed Photo & ter curtain to have anywhere within that range. the strobe fired at Bigger fish require a change of strat- Videography the beginning of egy, both for lens and lighting. Once you the exposure time. graduate to larger than diver size, say The most important a whale shark, we once more have to to get a proper blur resort to the super-wide angle lenses to effect is to swing improve contrast and definition. In this the camera in the case, we switch the strobe to “manual”, same speed the because no TTL-program can correctly subjects move! To avoid overexposed compensate for that half of the flash background always light that just vanishes into the deep blue choose place with water instead of being bounced back off low ambient light a subject. For any size of scaly subjects, auto focus lenses are an advantage, especially cameras with focus tracking. With Shoot first, focus and lighting being taken care of by technology, the photographer can fully think later! concentrate on fish behaviour and com- Hardware Caution is a useful behavioural would be changing their natural trait for many inhabitants on a behaviour, and your newly won tropical reef. It can be a matter scaly friend may soon enough of survival. Trying to capture a be facing the business end of a full format image of sardine with spear gun or a hook before too cinema of dreams an ultra wide-angle lens is there- long. That is, if he survives that fore better left to the experts. The bad case of indigestion your creatures you meet underwater breakfast scraps gave him. also have a comfort zone which Apart from the right lens you you cannot penetrate—you need to keep a certain minimum distance. This is typically in the Most the time fish photography range of 0.7 to 1m. This makes the is fast and furiuos. This makes 28mm, 35mm and 50mm focal it just impossible to create length lenses the best choice effects with additional strobes. for pictures of fish that are 0.2 to Stationary subjects as this Leaf fish makes it possible to place 0.5m long fish. a small slave strobe on the side Getting close enough requires or even beyond. TTL-Mode is of a lot of experience unless you course the best setting for such are diving in a much visited spot close ups. If you use a regu- where fish have become accus- lar slave strobe make sure it is www.seacam.com tomed to divers. And speaking always weaker than your main of which, I would like to warn strobe. SEA&SEA makes the against resorting to feeding to famous YS-30 strobe which is attract them; by doing so, you only 12X7cm and works as slave strobe in TTL, without cable! 76 X-RAY MAG : 19 : 2007 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED if you’re posing the image. to sets the camera and flash to that distance before slowly approaching ploughing Software the subject, without rapid movements. through the The ground rule for successful fish pho- “Bubble fright” can be minimised by tography is: shoot first, think later! In real exhaling through the mask rather than coral like terms, this means your camera has to the regulator. This strategy may seem Photo & the prover- be set up before you approach your clumsy and wasteful of precious dive bial bull in unsuspecting subject. Once within range, time, but ultimately it is the most success- Videography there won’t be any time to select pro- ful. a china shop, grams, focus or set f-stops. And the flash But these are only generalisations. To better point in the right direction, too! become an outstanding wildlife photog- even snails With practise and experience, the pho- rapher, it takes more than stealth and will resort to a tographer soon learns what subject dis- preparation. It also requires an under- hasty retreat tance is right to perfectly frame a fish of standing of the animal’s behaviour and a certain size. The camera is then preset its interactions with its environment. for that range, the flash adjusted. The rest is up to the individual’s diving skill, and-as Etiquette in the reef always, when shooting wild animals, a The more knowledge the photographer good portion of luck. brings to the job, the better he or she will be able to adapt to the situation Example: At a distance of about and predict what the fish will do next. All 80cm, a 50cm long grouper will be of which will dramatically increase the reproduced in full frame using a lens odds of excelling. But if you’re ploughing with a picture angle of approximately through the coral like the proverbial bull 45 degrees. The photographer then has in a china shop, even snails will resort to a hasty retreat. Good diving skills, therefore, are of the essence. You are much more likely to Many photographers never use super-wide- Next to good diving skills and camera successfully sneak up on some subject angel lenses for medium or even smaller handling, the knowledge about fish when you are neutrally buoyant, breath- fishes. Such pictures are spectacular because behaviour is—as already mentioned ing controlled and moving slowly. they show next to the main subject a wide —very important. The picture of this, only As with land animals, approach from view and great depth of field. The difficulty is 40 cm long, cuttlefish was taken with the the front, keeping eye contact at all just to get close enough!! 10.5mm NIKKOR fisheye lens times. This is less likely to trigger flight reflex as the animal sees what’s happen- ing, and curiosity may get the better of it. If the fish moves, you freeze. In most Wetpixel Quarterly cases, it will come back if not pursued, What is Wetpixel Quarterly? It’s and it is always better to remain patient a quarterly printed magazine (and motionless) than give chase. Just devoted to high-quality under- wait and keep that camera ready. water photography. Each issue of Wetpixel Quarterly Please, show some respect. features interviews, short arti- Chasing puffer fish through the reef until cles, open photography con- tests, and, most importantly, they pump up with water is as unac- pages upon pages of spec- ceptable as is poking animals out of their tacular imagery from waters crevasse homes with your snorkel, taming around the globe. Wetpixel moray eels by feeding so you can touch Quarterly also hopes to them, or riding turtles or manta rays. foster environmental stew- Instead, join the ranks of the true ardship by highlighting con- wildlife photographers, who enjoy the For most of our underwater images, especially with super-wide angle lenses, we should make the most servation concerns in each challenge of improving their knowledge of the sunlight. In contrast to macro, for example, creativity in fish photography is more limited. A way theme-based issue. and techniques to come up with an www.wetpixelquarterly.com to get some unusual pictures with a strong expression, is to use the ambient light. This picture was taken short before sunset. This time a day, you’ll get a nice reflection on the surface and warm soft light even better shot, one that shows natural behaviour in all its natural glory. ■ 77 X-RAY MAG : 19 : 2007 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED Ocean Optics Open Day with Mark Webster – London, UK, 12 January 2008 Well known photographer and workshop host Mark Webster will be hosting a second open day with Ocean Optics in London on Saturday 12 January 2008.

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