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Finding a great subject is only half the quest. You also need to locate a background or setting to complement that subject. This particular Hermit Crab attracted me because of the shape & color of his shell, the color of his eyes and his fairly aggressive nature. Not very far from where I found the crab was a nice patch of green encrusting sponge. That provided a good setting, but the background was still too busy. By angling the strobe down and to the right, I could light the crab and shell and not light the background. After mastering f/stops and shutter speeds, it's important to understand how to photograph what your mind's eye sees. This picture was shot with a Nikonos and a 1:1 extension tube. Looking down on your subject can produce a different picture in your mind than the one seen by the camera at its angle to the subject. Confirm that what you want to shoot is what the camera sees. One technique is to drop your head down to the camera's level and look at what you are shooting from the same point of view as the camera's lens. |
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"Big Red" was a particularly inquisitive Coney. This made it easy to approach and photograph him (or her, I didn't look). This particular day, I photographed "Red" with a Nikonos Close-Up Kit on a 28mm lens. I visualized an outline of yellow against a dark background so I angled a single SB-103 strobe high and away from the side of the fish that was facing the camera. In this photo, that was my left side. This kind of extreme lighting produced a dramatic triangle of fish. To avoid a shadow from the Close-Up Kit's wire framer, I removed it for this shot. To keep the background dark, I exposed the film at f/22 and 1/90 sec shutter speed to minimize the ambient exposure. The strobe was held at a distance to allow f/22 amount of light to reach this very reflective fish. The camera is pointed slightly down, but far enough from the bottom to avoid any detail coming through on the film. Removing the Close-Up Kit's wire framer prevents shadows from falling on your subject, but you must keep the image of the framer's picture area in your mind. Otherwise, you could cut off some of your subject. |
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These fish faces can only be shot with the Nikonos Close-Up Kit. The wire framer corrals them into a narrow space, allowing for a tight grouping. Food is used to lure them in close. It's best to use a food that can be easily controlled. Let them know the food is there, but give them as little as possible. That will keep the water clean and will afford better control of the fish. They will stay around, but will not frenzy as they would if they were competing for exposed food. The strobe can be positioned to exposes the fish faces properly, but in order to get a blue background, you need to have a high value of ambient light. That's because you'll need a small lens opening of around f/16 to keep an adequate depth of field. A good way to get that bright ambient light is to aim the camera towards the surface where the bright sun is. Get the fish to come to where you want them. If the situation is working, shoot a lot for the best grouping |
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Sometimes, if you deviate from the unbreakable rules, you can wind up with a pretty spectacular image. This picture was taken with a Nikonos V and a 35mm lens equipped with a 1:2 extension tube. Instead of shooting at the standard f/22, I shot this at f/5.6. That did 2 things to this photo. It drastically reduced the depth of field from the expected 3/8" to less than 1/16" and it allowed more ambient light to reach and expose the film. That accounts for the blue background. The tentacles were exposed by the single SB-103 strobe aimed directly at them. Power setting on the strobe was reduced to 1/16 power. The pastel-like colors of the anemone's tentacles coupled with the complementary blue background makes the picture work. The strobe can have an incredible impact on the success or failure of this type of photo. Because the aperture is so large, and the strobe is very close to the subject, the TTL control may not be able to respond properly. If you are going to rely on the TTL, increase your ISO setting 1/3 to 2/3 higher. That means if you are shooting ISO 100 film, set the ISO dial to the mark that represents 125 or 160. |
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Truk Lagoon, located about an hour's plane ride south of Guam, is a truly amazing place. It's historical importance dates back to World War II. It served as an important naval base to the Japanese. In February of 1944 the Allies attacked the merchant fleet in the lagoon and sent over 40 ships and countless planes to the sandy bottom. For someone fascinated with history, those ships are time capsules of life in 1944. The sudden sinking captured everything on the ships as they were - including many of their crew. Now, the ships serve as a base for life. Pictured here is the helm of the Nippo-Maru. The wood of the ship's wheel has long since deteriorated but the remaining structure serves as a haven for many species of marine life. Several times a year, small baitfish school around the helm and call it home. To highlight them, I placed an SB-102 strobe set for slave and 1/4 power behind the helm out of sight of the camera. The low power setting was to prevent the fish from being overexposed. I shot the scene with a Nikonos V and a 15mm lens, lighting the helm with two SB-103 strobes that were connected to the camera. When the SB-103s fired, they set off the SB-102 behind the helm and that backlit the fish. |
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