sea turtle

[greg cowle]

This little guy want past giving me the eye yesterday, off the Low Isles in FNQ. He went under the coral to wait me out!
24mm, 1/400, f22, ISO3200.
Ambient light, I need to get some strobes.
And didn't need f22 here, but was set up for an over/under shot of some terns when this guy came by, can't change setting quickly UW.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Greg!

I see this little chap is giving you the eye Lovely capture and I like the environment, subject well positioned within the frame and nice perspective too. Do not know much about UW photography, I am sure it's not easy but certainly very rewarding.

Felt the frame could do with a bit more "pop" so I tried a few things. Unfortunately I have no electricity right now, SA has ran out of coal and we are saving energy by "load shedding" - power cuts of a few hours every day...few times a day... very frustrating! So I am working on a laptop which is not reliable, especially in terms of colour.

See what you think of this, I might have exaggerated things a bit... Tried dehaze in LR to enhance the corals/floor and then in PS I did a curve adjustment. I did not touch the upper part of the frame, no sharpening applied either. Maybe something in-between your version and mine?

Have a lovely rest of the week Greg, and thank you so much for sharing. As well as for your kind comments on my images, I really appreciate it

Kind regards,

[John Mack]

The composition is nice and it is cool to see a underwater shot. Gabriela's repost in nice.

[Mike Poole]

Hi Greg, great to see another underwater shooter around here! You did well if you weren't set up fir this kind of shot - getting as close as possible is the golden rule of U/W but maybe thats something to consider when you're setting out specifically for U/W images. That will really increase the IQ, and near the surface you dont need strobes as much as you do if you're going deeper.

Tilting the camera has made the sky reflection look a little un-natural so if you can maybe try a version with a little less rotation. It doesn't matter so much with the reef as that goes off in all sorts of weird ways!

PP wise I think you could do with looking at the white balance. I tried taking a reading off a neutral area of the turtle, although for me that took things a little too far, so I went for something in between your shot and what the auto WB pipette gave me. Other than that, just a little dodging and burning to head and carapace with a little extra sharpening. Difficult to say without known the water colour, but when I was in FNQ 20 years ago ( I really need to go back!) I remember the water more blue than green. I also cleaned up the backscatter top left with the spot healing brush tool

Just an idea, let me know what you think



Mike

[greg cowle]

Thanks Gabriela, John and Mike for the comments, and particularly for the reposts, Gabriela's does pop a bit more, and Mike's show his experience in this genre for sure. I am a newbie, this was my first outing with the UW housing, but I intend to spend a bit of time snorkeling, so the critique is valuable. I think I need to be more extreme in post compared to normal work, I guess that is similar to working with flash. Very interesting how much more Mike brought out of the JPEG, so I should be able to do better in the RAW. This was a dull day so maybe not that blue, but who would know! Thanks. Have to wait for the cyclone remnants to pass before I head out again.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello again Greg,

Best of luck with the next snorkelling session

I like the colours in Mike's RP. Never tried UW photography so I admit I am clueless. I guess it is up to you whether you wish to stick with what you have seen or you want to push things a little...I personally love vibrance and colour

Looking forward to see more from you, and well done on this one!

Kind regards,