Go Wide: Part 2

By Donald Tipton

Welcome back dive buddies! This is my second article as Seaduction's resident Photo Pro and I am excited about this teaching platform. Last month we covered some of the nuances and wide-angle techniques useful for shipwreck photography (after all, the Vandenberg was sunk May 27.  See our coverage of the Vandenberg). This article will explore some of the issues related to all aspects of wide-angle photography. As always, you can post your questions or comments in the discussion area beneath this article or in the Photography Form.  I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Tip #1: Get close - then get closer. Repeat.

[caption id="attachment_351" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="The water column acts like a blue diffusion filter and this effect increases with distance from your subject"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_352" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="Get close! The closer you get, the better they look. It's always a good idea to make sure your subject is OK with the "get close" thing. Just take it slow.... "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_353" align="aligncenter" width="536" caption="... then get even closer."][/caption]

One fundamental rule of photography is that you can never get too close to your subject. It's even more important in underwater photography. Why? For every foot of water between you and your subject, light from your strobe has to travel the equivalent of two feet. As I am sure you remember from your basic scuba class, the warm wavelengths of white light are absorbed as they pass through water. The first to be absorbed is red, then orange then yellow and so forth. When it comes to lighting fish, coral and all the other amazing colors in the sea, you have to get really close because the absorption of light is occurring in both directions - en route to your subject and again when it is reflected back to your camera.

Ambient light is also affected by absorption. The sunlight reflected off your subject has already traveled from the surface, so the final distance ambient light covers is equal to depth plus distance from the camera. As you can see, if you decrease the distance to subject, you can increase the amount of warmer wavelengths of light reaching your camera lens.

[caption id="attachment_354" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="You have to ask yourself, "why do I ever take shots like this?" Well it happens. Notice how edge sharpness and contrast are gone. "][/caption]

Another benefit of getting close to your subject is edge sharpness. Water acts as a diffusion filter over the lens, softening the light. Most of the time, this is not the desired effect. Therefore, the less water between you and your subject, the sharper your image.

Tip #2: Pick the wide-angle lens that best suits your subject

[caption id="attachment_355" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="The lens is just a tool, as is the camera, in the image making process. Choosing the right lens is like the painter who will diligently seek out the best brush. "][/caption]

[private_Supporting]Not all wide-angle lenses are created equal. Any lens with a focal length shorter than 28mm is considered a wide-angle lens, and the shorter focal length, the wider the field of view. (As a side-note: Wide-angle lenses will also make your subject appear farther away - another reason to get close. See tip #1.) It is also very important to know whether a wide-angle lens is a digital lens or a film lens. We touched on this in the first article, but I want to expand on it here.

[caption id="attachment_356" align="aligncenter" width="265" caption="This is a common film lens. Information about focal length and range of minimum appetures are given.  "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_357" align="aligncenter" width="265" caption="The "DX" on the lens barrel identifies this as a digital lens."][/caption]

If you are shooting with a digital camera, as most of us are these days, your images are captured on a charged coupling device (CCD) and stored on your camera's image card. The CCD has replaced film as the location in the camera where light is focused by the lens. The problem: The area of a CCD is usually smaller than the area of film. If you use a film lens on your digital camera, the image the lens captures will cover an area greater than the CCD, which effectively creates a longer focal length. Film lenses are great and can still be used, but be aware of the change in focal length. As a rule of thumb, multiply the focal length of your film lens by 1.5 and consider that to be your effective focal length when used on a digital camera. This conversion is not necessary if you are shooting on a digital SLR. Since you are looking through the lens, you are viewing the actual image area.

[caption id="attachment_359" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="The real beauty of an SLR is that you can compose the image in the viewfinder. This way you can see how you composition works before you shoot."][/caption]

If you have one of the newer digital cameras with a CCD that is the same size as a film panel, then you must use film lenses. Digital lenses, designed for a smaller image area, will not cover the larger CCD. This will result in a dark circle at the edges of the image and you will not see this through the viewfinder.

The other consideration in choosing a wide-angle lens is whether it is fisheye or rectilinear. A fisheye lens will allow your image to curve so that straight lines are bent. This bend is accentuated as you tilt the lens up or down. Sometime this can result in a great creative effect, but sometimes it just looks bad. If you use a fisheye lens, you must take into account this bending effect as you compose images. A fisheye lens is fine for reef shots where there are very few straight lines, but would not be my first choice for a shipwreck where straight lines abound. If you are shooting large pelagics, like dolphins, sharks or whales, a fisheye lens can be a great choice as long as you keep in mind the bending characteristics. The bending effect will be most pronounced if you shoot an animal at or near the surface or near the seafloor.

A rectilinear lens corrects wide-angle bend by the use of additional lens elements. This makes the lens more expensive, heavier and not capable of extreme wide-angle focal lengths of less than 12mm. Rectilinear lenses are also more susceptible to flaring, even when there are anti-flare coatings on the front element. A lens hood designed to accommodate a wide angle of view will help and is best suited for deeper dives where a great deal of sun is not an issue. You'll also need to watch the position of your strobes. A rectilinear lens will flare if the strobes are too wide or too far forward. A good rule of thumb is to keep the front of the strobe behind the line that passes through the CCD film plane.

With all this in mind, choose the lens that best suits the subject. There is no absolute right or wrong, but by understanding the characteristics of your lens, you will achieve your maximum creative potential.

Tip # 3 Check your background

[caption id="attachment_361" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="You can end up will some really funny things in your background like this scuba prayer meeting."][/caption]

How many times have you examined one of your more promising images only to discover a bubble trail in background? This is not the heartbreak it once was, thanks to the magic of Photoshop and the ability to tweak images on the computer. But as photographers, we should not be so lax that we shoot crap and then fix everything on screen. The hallmark of a great shooter is getting it right the first time.

[caption id="attachment_360" align="aligncenter" width="260" caption="When you check your corners and the rest of your backround, it will help your overall composition because you are forced to see the entire image."][/caption]

With wide-angle photography, the chance of background clutter is high since there is a lot more background. As you are setting up your shot, look over the top of your camera and identify the action in your background. Where are the other divers? Is there anything there that I do not want in my image (boat hull, anchor lines, bubble trails, etc.)? Then, just before you press the shutter, look in your viewing area from corner to corner for unwanted visitors. So often we concentrate on the subject matter in the foreground that we forget to look at the background.

[caption id="attachment_364" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="I love photographing sharks. It is the Zen of underwater photography. You have to be so absorbed in that moment and checking your background."][/caption]

If the process of all this set-up, checking and looking at corners sounds like you might never actually take the photo, I assure you that is not the case. As you make these steps part of the framing process, it will become second nature - and save you hours spent working in Photoshop.

[caption id="attachment_365" align="aligncenter" width="575" caption="There is a certain drama when everything seems to come together. Close, right lens, clear background and a pretty face."][/caption]

I hope you've enjoyed and benefited from this discussion of better wide-angle photography. Please join me next month when I'll share three more pro tips. In the meantime, I would love to hear from you in the Seaduction.com Photography Form. Let me know what topics you would like to see covered in this column and as always, I welcome your questions and comments.

Now let's turn off the damn computer and go diving.[/private_Supporting]