Jellyfish pics. Opinions wanted.

[Norseman]

I took these pics after an uneventful but pleasant dive in 14C water a short boattrip from home (so that the anxious mother can see me from the veranda )
No nudies this time. At all. Which was a bit of a surprise. Lots of fish though.

Anyway. I don't have a strobe so it's kind of difficult to get cool lighting on everything I want lighted. So instead I opt for the alternatives available within a compact digicam. And in my view this one of the cool options: Against-the-sun-pictures. According to the rules and regs of photography not quite how it should be done, but hey ho.
What's your opinion on this?







Regards,

Kyrre

[Gizmo]

Stunning!

[turbanator]

Hi Kyrre, pics 1 and 3 work for me particularly well (nothing wrong with 2, I just prefer 1 and 3)
I don't have an issue with breaking photographic 'rules' as many outstanding picture are that way because someone has done something unusual.

I suppose jellyfish suffer from precicely the opposite effect to people (silhouetting - sp?) because they are transparent, as that's the case, you may be able to stop down a bit to remove the burn-out on the sun.

Purely a beginner's thoughts.

r
Paul

[Norseman]

Originally Posted by turbanator

Hi Kyrre, pics 1 and 3 work for me particularly well (nothing wrong with 2, I just prefer 1 and 3)
I don't have an issue with breaking photographic 'rules' as many outstanding picture are that way because someone has done something unusual.

I suppose jellyfish suffer from precicely the opposite effect to people (silhouetting - sp?) because they are transparent, as that's the case, you may be able to stop down a bit to remove the burn-out on the sun.

Purely a beginner's thoughts.

r
Paul

Thanks for the comments, Paul.

Thing is I already had stopped down as far as it goes. F8.0, that's it. I should have gone to the underexposure button but I guess the moment'd gone if I tried anything fancy. And that's the thing there... I don't really mind the burn. Cuz that's how it was
Nevertheless I shall remember that button next time. If you think it's just perfect you should go down a few notches.

Kyrre

[turbanator]

Hi Kyrre,
You seem to be a good year or 3 in front of me :-).
The pics I posted were snaps - 'oo, that looks nice "click"', so seem to be thinking about comprosition and all that good stuff.

My jellyfish happend to float by, so I took a pic, whereas you seem to have thought a lot more about your position relative to the subject, background and your model.


r
Paul

r
Paul

[Norseman]

Originally Posted by turbanator

Hi Kyrre,
You seem to be a good year or 3 in front of me :-).
The pics I posted were snaps - 'oo, that looks nice "click"', so seem to be thinking about comprosition and all that good stuff.

My jellyfish happend to float by, so I took a pic, whereas you seem to have thought a lot more about your position relative to the subject, background and your model.

Hehe! Glad I give that impression!

I got my camera housing 1,5 years ago. In that time I can imagine I've taken a few thousand underwater images and I can safely say there have been a majority of ohh-that-looks-nice-pictures! Gradually I have seen what works though, works for me at least, and therefore I'm now at the stage where I can actively go in and say to myself: "Leave it, it's gonna be crap!" Nevertheless I came up with 35 pics yesterday, three of which I thought I should keep. 32 of which were more or less crap.
I do like to think composition though. Of course it does help taking the pics in RAW format which leaves a lot of room for cropping before uploading them in 800 x 600 format.

If I was going to give one advice it would be: Get down and below. That's it. Get down and below.

Kyrre

[Jules]

I really like number 1 , i often use shooting into the sun and get some interesting results.
Jules

[Tim Ingmire]

Hi Kyrre,

Its a shame you don't have a big 'ol external strobe as this would've really transformed these pictures. Compositionally they all work for me and, of the 3, the first has the best lighting but the others really would've benefitted from a little extra illumination on the jellies - I'm especially picturing the last shot with the jelly illuminated by the torchlight of your buddy to make it glow.

In fact doesn't your buddy have a slave fired Inon? If so could you not use your internal strobe to fire his?

[Dr Stevil]

I agree with Jules, pic one is great! Looks like a solar eclipse behind the jelly, I take it that's the light refracting off the boat's hull?

[Norseman]

Originally Posted by Timing

Hi Kyrre,

Its a shame you don't have a big 'ol external strobe as this would've really transformed these pictures. Compositionally they all work for me and, of the 3, the first has the best lighting but the others really would've benefitted from a little extra illumination on the jellies - I'm especially picturing the last shot with the jelly illuminated by the torchlight of your buddy to make it glow.

In fact doesn't your buddy have a slave fired Inon? If so could you not use your internal strobe to fire his?

Thanks for the input Tim. And yes, it is a shame I don't have a proper strobe. I might add that it IS my intention to rectify this before the winter season sets in. We've just decided we're going to stick to the two cars we have and that might improve the cash-flow...

As to my buddy and a torch he just bought one. I haven't told him about the dos and don'ts of posing - in fact in this particular shot he didn't even know I was taking a picture!

I'll try out a bit of strobe-practise with Erik too. Lately he's been busy and not in the water. Good chance the slave will work well with my camera too... only problem most of the time Erik is busy using it...

Kyrre