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Roman Kurywczak
08-18-2012, 09:36 AM
Decided to play around a bit last weekend with the Sigma 70mm macro. I have always wanted to do under water photography but my wife has drawn the line in the sand as to spending the $$$ for the housing. What to do? Well......I know macro mod Steve Maxson builds his own aquatic tanks.....so off I went to the local pet superstore to see what I could buy off the shelf. First, I found a small 2 and a half gallon tank for $14. Check. Then they happened to have a few fire bellied toads for sale......for only $2.50! Got two! A bit of gravel and frog food.....for a total of around $30 made the setup. The next morning I woke up.....went to the local pond.....took some duckweed home in a contained.....added it to the tank. Threw a rock in from my yard and voila! Hours of patience and one of my fake sky BG's.....this is the result.
Might be a bit over the top but it was a great learning experience as well as lots of fun. I will experiment with other BG's in the future.
Canon 1D Mark 3 with the Sigma 70mm macro lens at f/14 for 1/250 sec. and ISO 800 natural light, gold reflector, HH. Clean up to glass and water done in CS5. Almost FF.

Steve Kaluski
08-18-2012, 12:34 PM
Nice to see some 'grey' matter being used, excellent thinking Roman, with good results :cheers:.

I also like the thinking to get some blue above too and the % split water to sky, gives it a natural, look & feel. Nice vibrant, punchy, image. Quite like the central POV, but wonder if you could crop some off the RHS? Just an old mans thought. :w3

Hope to see more and how things develop too.

TFS
Steve :5

Andrew Merwin
08-18-2012, 01:33 PM
Roman, this was a very creative project. Way to go. I think your results are great! I especially how I can just make out the rear legs & feet of the frog. TFS.

Jonathan Ashton
08-18-2012, 01:36 PM
Roman you're the man, great idea - I like it very much indeed can't wait to see more!!

Maureen Allen
08-18-2012, 03:09 PM
Absolutely wonderful, Roman. Thanks for sharing your technique!

Randy Stout
08-19-2012, 03:37 PM
Roman:

I can see how this could quickly lead to having hundreds of new pets around the house!

Fun picture, and def. shoot it with some different BGs. This one screams out a mountain lake to me.

The transition from water to sky on the left side is a bit odd looking.

Cheers

Randy

Nick Palmieri
08-19-2012, 08:45 PM
Nice one Roman. The more I look the more I like it. The frog position and the sky look pretty cool. May have to go back and look at mine...

Steve Maxson
08-21-2012, 02:01 PM
Hi Roman. Looks like all your thinking and experimenting really paid off! Love the head-on water level view. The sky background is a nice touch too - I agree with Randy about the water/sky interface on the left - easy to fix. Very well done and I'm looking forward to seeing more! :cheers: