NOTA 2074 Underwater Photography- History

7/29/2019 NOTA 2074 Underwater Photography- History

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GKF 2074Fotografi Dalam Air

Zulkalnain Zainal Abidin

Fakulti Seni Gunaan dan KreatifUniversiti Malaysia Sarawak

Januari 2011


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Important dates in the history of underwater photographyIt's good to know what went before. Here is a list of events that were important to the history ofunderwater photography.

1828: Charles Deane and his brother John invented a dive helmet to which a suit wassecured with straps.

1837: Augustus Siebe sealed the Deane brothers' diving helmet to a watertight, air-containing rubber suit.

1850s: German inventor William Bauer takes pictures through the portholes of asubmarine he built for the Russian navy

1856: William Thompson takes poor quality photos of seaweed with a primitiveunderwater camera near Weymouth, England.

1860s: French photographer Ernest Bazin takes photos from a diving bell (1860s). 1865: first self-contained diving equipment with 'open air circulation' by Rouquayrol

Denayrouze for diving to 50m. 1870s: Eadweard Muybridge, famous for his chrono-photography of moving

subjects, takes underwater photos in San Francisco Bay.

1893: Louis Boutan, a French scientist uses a 'zero-pressure' underwater camera with acompressible air bladder, a principle still used today for large cameras in shallow water.Frame size: 5x7". Exposure time: 30 minutes!

1895: systematic exoperiments by the Frenchman Boutan with 8x10"sudio cameras andflash light constructed by Chaufour, a magnesium-coated ribbon within a glass spherewith oxygen.

1899: first underwater photographs by Louis Boutan in depths below 45m, utilisingwaterproof arc lamps for illumination!

1900s: Jack Williamson uses a large submersible sphere containing both the cameramanand cameras. It was used for filming Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1913)

1910s: Francis Ward photographs freshwater pikes, otters, frogs and diving water birds. 1915: John Ernest Williamson makes history's first underwater movie in which he kills a

shark. 1915: Commander Frederick Young of the Royal Navy developed an underwater camera

for the British Admiralty Salvage Department. 1927: National Geographic publishes the first underwater color still photographs made by

ichthyologist Dr. William Longly and staff photographer Charles Martin in the CaribbeanSea. It was lit with magnesium powder on a specially constructed float.

1930: Dratz of the Toulon Naval Arsenal in France, improved military underwater

photographic equipment.Dr Maurice Ewing and Dr Allyn Vine (USA) developed the Ewing underwater camerawith synchronised flash.Sir Robert Davis and U V Bogaerde conducted extensive underwater wreck photographyin Falmouth, England.

1933 - Yves Le Prieur modified the Rouquayrol-Denayrouse invention by combining ademand valve with a high pressure air tank to give the diver complete freedom fromhoses and lines.


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1934: Le Prieur invents self-contained cameras for still and movie in black and white andcolour.

Oceanographer Dr William Beebe (USA) shoots underwater films inside the Bathysphereat 900m depth.

1935 American Fenimore Johnson uses the self sealing principle in his commerciallyproduced underwater cameras, Ardmore Pennsylvania.

1936: Dr Hofmann (Munich, Germany) explores Lake Constance, photographing thelake's bottom at depths of 240m using an automatic photographic bathysphere.

1937: Danish-American Niels Christensen invents the o-ring for sealing hydraulicequipment. It had a major effect on technology and facilitated the design of underwaterhousings.Dr Hans Hass (Vienna, Austria) designs a watertight housing for the Zeiss 16mmMovikon camera.

1939: Dr E N Harvey and Edward R Baylor (USA) photograph small organisms at1260m depth.

1941: US Navy and British Admiralty begin extensive photographic underwater projectsfor salvage operations, hull inspection, demolition and underwater intelligence. Maurice Ewing and Allyn Vine (USA) design special cameras for the WoodsHole Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole, Mass.) to take photographs at 4860mdepth.

1943: Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan invent the underwater lung which

frees divers from surface-supplied air.

1943-1945: tremendous increases in underwater still and movie activities. Newequipment designed in England by Chesterman, Collins and Hodges. In France by LePrieur and Cousteau.

1948: first successful photographs at 360m by the US Atlantic Expedition, using remote

controlled magnesium flash. 1949: Hans Hass develops in co-operation with the German company Franke & Heidecke

the famous Rolleimarin underwater housing for a double-lens reflex Rollei 6x6cmcamera. It became the most successful underwater camera of its time, later replaced bythe single-lens reflex (SLR) Hasselblad.

Dimitri Rebikoff (Cannes, France) develops an electronic strobe flash torpedo for still picturesand one with continuous light for movie.

1950s: Harold E. Edgerton (famous for the stroboscope and multi-flash exposures)

and French explorer Jacques Cousteau develop sophisticated deep sea cameras to

take photographs of the deep sea bottom.

1952: Dimitri Rebikoff earns a Scientific Film Award at the International Film Festival in

Cannes for his colour newsreel Color Palace. 1953-54: Full length underwater feature movies Under the twelve mile reef,Hunters of

the deep,Moby Dick, Under water,I photographed the seven seas, and many others. 1954: Dr Harold Edgerton (MIT, USA) develops an underwater still camera with

electronic strobe. 1955: Captain J Y Cousteau produces The Silent World, bringing underwater mysteries to

a large audience. 1956 - Ted Nixon introduces the red and white "Divers Down" flag.


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1956 - The first wetsuit was introduced by researchers at the University of

California. Edco produces the first suits.

1960 - Al Tillman (Founder of the Los Angeles County Underwater Unit) and Neal

Hess (Columist and Director of the of the National Diving Patrol for Skin DiverMagazine), with help from Garry Howland and John Jones, create the NationalAssociation of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and hold its first instructor

certification course in Houston during the Underwater Society of America

Convention. Tillman adapts the Los Angeles County course to be taught toindividuals from any diving venue and NAUI incorporates as a non-profit agency.

NAUI becomes the first international certification agency. Early financing and

administrative assistance for the agency came from Skin Diver Magazine. 1957: the Belgian inventor Jean de Wouters makes the CalypsoPhot, the first waterproof

35mm amphibic camera that can be used both above and under water. It came on themarket in 1961.

1962:Life magazine photographers Elgin Ciampi and Peter Stackpole use plexiglassunderwater housings.

1963: the Nikon camera company develops the CalypsoPhot further and releases the

Nikonos I, first in a long line of 35mm amphibic cameras, the IVA with TTL light

metering (1980) and ending with the V in 1984. The Nikonos has watertightexchangeable lenses of 80, 50, 35, 28 and 15mm and is still today a good expedition

backup camera in case all else fails due to dust, dew, moisture or ice.

1964: IITRI and Rebikoff develop a corrected wide angle lens for the Nikonos camera,28mm in air and 37mm in water.

1970: Optical Sciences Division of the US Naval Research Laboratory develps a newwater-flooded camera.

1970 - Scuba Schools International (SSI) was founded by Bob Clark.

1971: Lockheed (USA) develops the DSRV-1, a rescue vehicle for 1000m depth,complete with elaborate photographic and television equipment.

1973: Dr Alexander Ivanoff (Sorbonne, France) develops a new universal wide angle

correcting lens for up to 105 degrees. It was extensively used for offshore oilexplorations.

1974: Nikon reveals their 15mm water-corrected wide angle lens for Nikonos cameras.

Dmitri Rebikoff develops a remotely controlled camera platform for depths to 2000m. 1992: the Nikonos RS 35mm SLR camera for depths to 100m, with an extensive set of

very high quality underwater lenses, sets the standard. It is taken off the market in 1996due to poor demand and internal restructuring at Nikon Japan.

2005: a large range of commercial underwater housings is available for nearly everymake and type of still, movie and TV camera. Digital cameras of 6 megapixels havebecome readily available and with it their underwater housings, but underwater photoswon't match the quality of those obtained above. Underwater photography remains a

special skill.

History of Scuba Diving

People who have a passion for water would definitely enjoy the marine sport known as scubadiving.


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Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus when abbreviated gives us the term SCUBA.The evolution of scuba diving continues to progress thanks to the ever improving development oftechnology. Other activities that relate to scuba diving include:

- Scientific diving. - Public diving. - Recreational diving.

- Technical diving which includes deep diving, wreck diving, cave diving andice diving.

- Commercial diving. - Military diving.


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Boyle's Law

We are used to living at 1 ATM of pressure, so we rarely even take notice of it. We normally

don't feel the pressure on us because the human body is primarily made up of liquid, and liquids

are basically non compressible. At times, however, we do notice changes of pressure, primarily

in our ears. You may have noticed your ears "popping" when flying, driving in the mountains, or

even going up and down in elevators. This is because our ears have an air space in them, and air,like all other gases, is compressible.

A gas will compress proportionately to the amount of pressure exerted on it. For example, if you

have a 1 cubic foot balloon and double the pressure on it, it will be compressed to 1/2 cubic foot.

Increase the pressure by 4, and the volume will drop to 1/4 the size etc. This theory was

discovered by Sir Robert Boyle, a 17th century scientist. The theory known as Boyle's Law

states: If the temperature remains constant, the volume of a given mass of gas is inversely

proportional to the absolute pressure.

Let's follow an example...

Suppose you had a balloon measuring one cubic foot at the surface of the water. This balloon is

under 1 ATM (14.7 psi) of pressure. If we push the balloon underwater, and take it to a depth of

33 feet, it is now under 2 ATM of pressure (29.4 lbs) - 1 ATM of pressure from the air, 1 ATM

of pressure from the water. Boyle's Law then tells us that since we have twice the absolute

pressure, the volume of the balloon will be decreased to one half. It follows then, that taking the

balloon to 66 feet, the pressure would compress the balloon to one third its original size, 99 feet

would make it 1/4 etc.

If we bring the balloon in the previous example back up to the surface, it would increase in size

due to the lessening pressure until it reached the surface and returned to its one cubic foot size.

This is because the air in the balloon is compressed from the pressure when submerged, but

returns to its normal size and pressure when it returns to the surface.

We will achieve the same result with an open container, such as an inverted bottle, as we do with

a balloon. By inverting a bottle at the surface and descending with it, the pressure from the

surrounding water will compress the air and the bottle will start to fill with water. Even with no

air escaping, the container will be half full of water at a depth of 33 feet due to the pressure

compressing the air to half its original volume.

Along with the volume of air in the balloon or container, the surrounding pressure will affect the

density of the air as well. Density, simply stated, is how close the air molecules are packed

together. The air in the balloon or container at the surface is at its standard density, but when we

descend to the 33-foot level where its volume is reduced to one half, the density has doubled. At

66 feet, the density has tripled. This is because the pressure has pushed the air molecules closer


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together.

Let's continue with this line of thinking and try an additional experiment. If we take our balloon

and our open container down to 99 feet, we know that the density of air is four times what is was

on the surface and the volume of air has been reduced to 1/4. Now at this depth, suppose we used

a scuba tank and added air to the balloon until it returned to its original size. We will also blow

air into the inverted container until it is completely full of air.

We know the air at this depth is 4 times denser than at the surface. This means when we ascend

with our balloon and container, the lessening pressure will make the air expand. This will have

two different effects. The balloon will increase in size. It will attempt to grow to a size of 4 cubic

feet by the time it hits the surface. If this is beyond the capability of the balloon, it will pop. The

inverted container, however, will simply "bleed off" the expanding air that will harmlessly float

away as bubbles.

The main purpose of the proceeding material was to give you the theory behind the most

important rule in scuba diving... "Never hold your breath!" Your lungs can act very much like a

pair of balloons in your chest. As a breath hold diver (skin diver), if you fill your lungs with air

at the surface, hold your breath, and dive to a depth of 33 feet, the surrounding pressure will

compress your lungs to half of their original size. Upon ascending, they will return to normal

size. If however, you descend to 33 feet and breath compressed air from a scuba tank, an ascent

to the surface could cause you lungs to over expand and you could seriously injure yourself.

This is easy to avoid, however, by simply not holding your breath which will let your lungs act

like the open container in the preceding example, and you will simply "bleed off" the expanding

air and maintain a normal lung capacity.


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Barotrauma

The weight of water causes an increase in air pressure in any material that can be compressed

(lungs, wetsuit, etc.) in proportion to depth, the same way that atmosphere causes pressure at sea

level. Injuries caused by such changes in air pressure are called as barotrauma. These injuries

can be quite painful like ruptured ear drum or damage to sinuses. To avoid these damages several

techniques are used, for example, mask is equalized by regular exhaling through nose and dry

suit is equalized by inflation and deflation.

Effects of Breathing High Pressure Gas

Decompression Sickness: Decompression sickness, also known as the bends, is due tothe formation of gas bubbles in the body tissues. It could be avoided by slowlyreleasing the body water pressure at the end of dive to allow gases trapped inside thebloodstream break down and exit the body.

Nitrogen Narcosis: Nitrogen narcosis is something very similar to the state of alcoholintoxication. It happens to divers who dive at depth and breath high pressure gas. Itcauses dizziness, anxiety, hallucinations and tunnel vision. Adding trimix or heliox in thebreathing gas, reduces these effects.

Oxygen Toxicity: The pressurized oxygen in breathing gas tank becomes toxic withincrease in the pressure at depths exceeding a safe partial pressure. It directly affects thecentral nervous system, causing a seizure.

Loss of Body Heat

An interesting fact about water relating to the conduction of heat is that water conducts heat from

the diver that is 25 times better than air, and can lead to hypothermia even at mild temperatures.This is deadly but, can be avoided by wearing wetsuits or drysuits that provide thermalinsulation. Another method to reduce heat loss in wetsuits is to trap a layer of water betweendivers body and wetsuit. This way heat gets trapped within the wetsuit.

Currents

When at the bottom in an ocean or sea, the peril of strong ocean currents drafting the diver alongis always there. The diver may have to swim against the current to get back to the originalposition. Never get so mesmerized by the underwater beauties that you get lost because ofcurrent. A diver must always know about the current of the water where he is diving.

Scuba diving provides mysteries of underwater but, at a cost. The cost is that you need toconcentrate hard on diving rather than only enjoying the view. It requires great willpower andconcentration. Always scuba dive with a trained and certified professional, and do not ever givescuba diving lessons to friends until you are certified, no matter how expert one must be in scubadiving.
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Scuba diving is a form of underwaterdiving, wherein the divers use a scuba set to breathe, whileexploring the fascinating world beneath the surface of the water. Around two-third of the planetis covered with water, hence, there is an ample scope for exploring this till now untouched worldbelow the water surface. And scuba diving gives the opportunity to embark on this one-of-a-kindadventure.

Facts about Scuba Diving

The term SCUBA is an abbreviation for 'self contained breathing apparatus'. It is usuallyused to refer to the in-line open-circuit equipment which facilitates the process ofinhaling the compressed air and eventually exhaling in into the water.

In 1943, French seaman Jacques Cousteau invented the first self-contained underwaterbreathing apparatus (SCUBA), which was called the aqualung. Records suggest thatLeonardo da Vinci had prepared a blueprint of such an equipment 300 years prior to the

development of the aqualung. The wet suits worn by the scuba divers keeps them warm and also makes their body

buoyant. Sometimes the divers wear fins on their feet, which help them to propel andchange direction while traveling in the water. In more recent times, underwater vehicleshave also been used for propelling.

The regulator used by the underwater divers has 2 parts. The first part controls thepressure, while preventing the compressed air from shooting into the diver and inflatinghim. The second part is a valve which allows air to flow when the diver inhales, butautomatically stops the flow when he exhales.

Although scuba diving is considered to be one of the most dangerous activity in theworld, millions of people successfully obtain scuba diving certifications around the world

every year. The National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), and the Professional

Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) are the two premier organizations based in theUnited States which play a pivotal role in propagating safe scuba diving techniques.

Scuba divers can't determine the direction of sound, as beneath the surface of water soundtravels five times faster than it does in air. On land we just have a split second todetermine the direction of a sound, but under water even a split second is not enough.

Richard Presley holds the world record for the longest deep dive. He stayed underwaterin a deep module for 69 days and 19 minutes, a feat he accomplished in 1992, at Florida,United States.

A condition called nitrogen narcosis affects scuba divers who venture below the depth of

30 meters. This intoxicating condition, which initially leads to hallucinations andunconsciousness, can eventually result in death.

A large number of deep sea divers have lost their lives trying to set the world record fordeep sea diving. Therefore, even though the limit for recreational scuba diving is 130meters, divers are strictly recommended to avoid going below 40 meters.

Today, scuba diving is used in various fields, prominent ones being scientific, naval andrecreational. Underwater tourism has received a major boost due to development of scuba
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diving.

These were some interesting facts about scuba diving. It has lately become one of the favoriterecreational activity for many, and therefore a multi-million dollar industry. The rate at which itspopularity is increasing, it can soon hit the billion or even trillion dollar mark. So if you haven'tyet experienced this underwater thrill, now is the time. But with proper guidance.

Welcome and good luckFor over thirty years, underwater cinematography and photography have held a never endingfascination for me. It allowed me to share my experiences with others, to learn more about theunderwater world and to maintain an accurate record for later reference. In this section I'd like toshare my experiences with you, hoping that you won't make as many mistakes as I did. I haveincluded the hard-to-get theory of light under water, tips, mechanical solutions that you can makein the home workshop, diving techniques and more. I am not ashamed to show my mistakes andof course, I am delighted to show my successes as well.

Many books about underwater photography have appeared and disappeared, the earlier onesbeing the most thorough. Many articles devoted to underwater photography have been printed in

dive magazines, yet the information you'll find in this section is hard or impossible to glean fromelsewhere.

My interest has always been in the biology and ecology of the sea. It is the reason why I haveconcentrated on taking pictures of organisms, how they live, what they do and how they all relatetogether. I have not been interested in photographing people under water because they do not livethere. But a diver in the frame can contribute to the excitement of the moment and translate theviewer's feelings. I have endeavoured to make my photos look like the underwater world, with itstransparency and depth, rather than resorting to effects caused by enlarged contrast, distortionand the like. It has also always been important to me to bring back good results for very littlewaste, which may explain why I have spent much effort in improving techniques, skills and my

equipment.

You may wish to take photos of what people do, their work or of fashion products, dive productsor you may wish to document your own research. Whatever your motivation, you will findyourself in that ever changing optical medium, the sea water. You cannot escape the effects it hason your photography and you will need to equip yourself with the knowledge and skills to takegood pictures inside this medium.

You will need to be a good diver, able to manage precious resources such as body heat and air.You will dive with or without a buddy and carry an underwater camera that may give you moretrouble than pleasure. You will need to gain expedition skills to go out to pristine natural places.

You'll need to spend money and you'll need luck too. In this chapter we'll look at general issues- what you need to have, know, and do.

Good luck,Floor Anthoni.


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Diving skillsPhotography is a creative activity exercised in a hostile, even potentially fatal environment. TheAmerican psychologist Maslow discovered that, in order to be creative, a number of humanneeds must be fulfilled first (see box below). One needs to be safe, well fed and sociallyrecognised (loved, esteemed, valued). When diving, particularly the most important need, that of

being and feeling safe, is easily upset. Humans' greatest fear is that of suffocating, becausewithin minutes death will follow. A diver who does not feel safe, can never become creative.Divers who cannot hold their breath for a considerable amount of time will never feel safe.Divers who cannot snorkel-dive to ten metres or more will never be adequate divers. So learnbreath-hold diving first and keep practising. Besides, almost half of your photo opportunitiesoccur while snorkelling and for most photos on SCUBA, you'll need to hold your breath tominimise movement blur.

Divers trained in warm and tranquil tropical seas will not have the skills needed in coldtemperate seas with currents and waves. Here they need to wear a thick wetsuit with a heavyweight belt, and they need to master the art of buoyancy compensation. In these conditions it is

important to adapt the weight on your weight belt to suit the occasion - whether you go deep,need to weigh yourself down in currents and whether you carry extra heavy batteries and so on.When pushing a camera with strobe and auxiliaries through the water, much water friction needsto be overcome and you need to be physically fit to do so. If you are a smoker, you will mostlikely never become an successful underwater photographer. If you fear the swimming back tothe boat along the surface, you'll start with a serious handicap.

You'll need to have the skills to avoid making dust - settling on the bottom and leaving it. You'llneed to be happy to do all dive operations with one hand only, leaving the other free for thecamera. You may need to change the hoses on your regulator around to do so and you may needa small side exhaust regulator for left- and right-handed use while allowing you to press your

face closer to the camera (which also steadies it better). You may need to have a split lens maskwith close-up lenses in the lower half, in order to be able to read the fine camera controls andsettings.

The American psychologist Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) is best known for his self-actualisation theory of psychology, which argued that the primary goal of psychotherapy should be theacceptance and integration of the self (id).In his major worksMotivation and personality (1954) and Toward a psychology of being (1962), Maslowargued that each individual's basic needs must be satisfied first before being able to be creative and self-actuated. He also established an order of importance between these needs. As each following need issatisfied, the next higher level in the emotional hierarchy dominates conscious fuctioning. Thus, people

who lack food or shelter or who cannot feel themselves to be in a safe environment, are unable to expresshigher needs and to ultimately fully integrate the components of their personality.His proposed sequence of needs has often been criticised but as a concept has been widely accepted. Safety: immediate threats to life like suffocation, war, fights. Not feeling stressed. Food/water: a sufficient level of nutrition and having fed recently; not feeling hungry or thirsty. Esteem: belonging to a group/family, being loved and playing a role, being needed. Creativity: being creative, able to learn, to be a self-actualiser, playing.


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Tip: ReadFloor Anthoni's Snorkel course, here on this web site, to master the essentials.

Your buddy and diving aloneIf you wish to take shots of a model, your buddy is very important. Besides, it is considered saferto dive with a buddy. But is your buddy really adding to your safety? Many seriousphotographers dive alone. They have trained themselves to cope with every kind of failureexcept for heart failure. They are the best divers around. Think about it.

Your buddy can help you carry your gear, hold your lights under water, add interest to your shotsand share your experience. But a buddy also brings twice the disturbance, dust and worries. Ifyour buddy runs out of air, gets colder or more fatigued faster than you do, you've got a liability.Spend time training your buddy and don't change them too frequently. Otherwise it is better (andsafer) to dive alone.

The buddies and models of advanced photographers receive a lot of flak under water and oftenafter the dive too. Somehow they never seem to do things right. Often the impatientphotographer is blamed, but does your model know what skills she must have and what isexpected of her? It is my experience that a model needs about two years of training and practicebefore becoming a true asset for every dive. So here is a list of what she needs to be able to do (Iassume a female model here for ease of writing):

air consumption: the model must use her air at about the same rate as the photographer.To her delight she will be able to excel because her bodyweight is less, her lungs aresmaller and she does not need to push a camera. Skip-breathing (see box below) is whatall good photographers do to to extend their time under water. It also helps making lessbubble noise. Likewise a buddy must learn this technique without getting a headache.

fitness: fitness remains important but it depends on what you do. I've seen very unfitunderwater photographers taking good photos with a lot of surface support. But thisdoesn't increase your chances. It is quite common to swim a couple of hundred metreswith all gear on at the surface, to breath-hold dive to ten metres and take a photo. Ingeneral, your buddy must be matching your fitness.

distance: how far should the distance between you and your buddy be? It depends. Whenscouting along, she can be leading up front, finding new subjects, but never above (or atleast very carefully), because debris could rain down on your photo opportunity.Likewise, bubbles can rise up to spoil your photo. When a buddy moves lower down, herbottom time becomes shorter, which is undesirable.

moving arms: most buddies have never unlearnt the habit of beating their arms forstability or by way of swimming or to remain buoyant. It has a devastating effect on youropportunities, as it scares fish witless. Never move your arms suddenly! Usually wrong

buoyancy is the main cause. In many cases it takes a year to unlearn!!! buoyancy: whereas the photographer often has to steady himself down, the model or

buddy should always be precisely trimmed. Wrong buoyancy leads to excessive use ofarms and kicking dust up, or not being able to hold her pose.

dust: dust is one of the worst problems. If the buddy swims ahead in a current, assuggested above, the photographer arrives in her dust, so in this situation she must staybehind him. Kicking up dust is usually caused by incorrect buoyancy. When rising upfrom the bottom, use your lungs and take a very deep breath, then with your fingers, push
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yourself up from the bottom. Resume kicking only when completely free. Tip: small softfins produce much less dust than long hard fins.

currents: strong currents are not conducive to good photography but if there is no currentat all, the dust and debris does not flow away. Plan your dive against the current, as this isalso safer and makes the return easier. Most currents are related to the tides. Mark neaptides on your calendar for the best diving opportunities, because then the currents areminimal and also the water clearer.

air bubbles: bubbles are unavoidable but when they disturb the subject, are a damnnuisance. Photographers must be able to hold their breath for prolonged times, in order toenhance their opportunities and not to shake the camera. They must also wait for a pausein the wave action. Of course the model does not know this, and breathes out at alll thewrong moments, bubbles hiding her face and eyes. So, time your breathing with the peakof the wave motion, and after the shot was taken. Models please watch the breathing ofthe photographer to get a clue.

sign language: there is no photographers' sign language, and you will develop your own.Wherever you are doing serious shoots with models, go up to the surface to discuss thesituation, so she'll understand what is expected.

donning gear: because the photographer has so many things to do and check and wear, a

buddy must be entirely self-reliant. She must don her own gear and get back on boardwithout the photographer's help. Sorry.

finding objects: while the photographer is spending much of his dive time peeringthrough a small rectangle, the buddy is often free to go ahead and explore. Naturally sheis the chosen one to find new subjects. Now she needs to tell the photographer, and waitand wait for the right moment when the shoot is done. Then she must be able toremember where this object was, and this very often fails. Thus a model must have goodspatial orientation but it's a lot of fun.

modelling: many girls like the kudos of being a model but underwater models betterbeware.

o outfit: her outfit is the best, without blemishes and with the least of clutter. So it

is her responsibility to put it on in such a way that the cluttering objects are tuckedaway and not half visible.

o clear mask: a model's mask must be spotless, without steam inside or water under

the nose or a bloody nose for that matter. But often she cannot see what thephotographer sees, so be prepared to clean your mask under water, which can beunpleasant.

o breath-hold diving: some of the most exciting photographs have a free-diving

model without the clutter of tanks and BCDs and heavy belts. When free-diving,the model has trained herself to hold her breath for at least 30 seconds, such thatshe can swim to her position, the water closes overhead with the ripple pattern asif undisturbed, and enough time to make two photos. Phew! Then do it again and

again. Should you have such a model, don't tell anyone because you'll lose her :)o playing: taking photos of models in situations requires a mix of direction and

freedom. Sometimes the photographer's creative idea directs the shoot but thenagain, sometimes (and this can be very often) the model makes the picture and thephotographer just grabs each opportunity. It can be very rewarding. We call itplaying. Good models have some grace and elegance in the way they move, andwhen theyplay, wow!


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o fear: fear for the environment, unfamiliarity or political correctness (please don't

touch anything) can diminish your opportunities considerably. Both photographerand model must have a good knowledge of the environment and what is reallydangerous.

o camera care: camera care is entirely the photographer's responsibility. But so

often a helping hand is on board with dry hands and can be the gopher forchanging a film or lens. Often the buddy does not dive because the photographer

is usually more motivated, and then it would be so nice if she could change a filmor lens skilfully and safely.

What is skip-breathing and how do you do it safely?We all need to breathe to stay alive. When working hard, we need to breathe more than whensitting still and the body regulates this by taking deeper or more shallow breaths and also by thefrequency we breathe. So why skip your breathing?Under water we breathe compressed air and at 10 metres depth this air has twice theconcentration of oxygen at the surface (at 20m 3x, at 30m 4x etc.). The body's breathingregulator does not know this, and we keep breathing at normal rates, consuming less of theoxygen that is there. Our breathing regulator works on the amount of carbondioxide in our blood(not on the oxygen level), and having consumed the normal amount of oxygen, we end up with

the normal amount of carbondioxide, prompting a new breath. So the extra oxygen is breathedout unused.Skip-breathing consists of consciously ignoring the urge to breathe in order to consume theremaining oxygen, which of course raises the amount of carbondioxide in the blood. Skip-breathing does not work well at the surface, but the deeper you dive, the better it works andsaves air. It works best between 10 and 20m. The problem is that a raised carbondioxide levelin the blood is poisonous, causing symptoms identical to a migraine when overdone. But it can'tkill you even though a migraine may last all day.The symptoms are a head ache combined with neck cramp - discomforting but you won't needto stop diving for it. The good news is that your body can get used to raised levels ofcarbondioxide without causing a migraine. You just need to ease into it during an expedition. Ifyou don't dive frequently, you won't be able to skip your breathing by much.When you do work under water or swim a lot, you can't gain much from skip-breathing. It isreally for the very calm photographers and it works best when you move very little indeed. Beingperfectly trimmed and swimming streamlined in a perfectly horizontal position is the secret.Being frugal with air brings another advantage. We now dive with 8 litre tanks (60 cuFt) whichstill give us a dive time of over an hour in most cases.

f031613: unstructured behaviour of the model, orplayingcan lead to surprising moments like befriending a wildgiant spotted black grouper(Epinephelus daemelii). It took

f027512: longfinned eels (Anguilla dieffenbachii) showingno fear of the model in a freshwater stream. It takes muchpatience to get to this situation, while time is running out.


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3 hours to get here. 28mm lens. 16mm lens.

Assisted snorkelling with a pony tankI've missed some terrific opportunities with dolphins because I could not stay down long enoughwhile also keeping up with them. The solution was simple: assisted snorkelling with a pony tank.

A pony tank is a very small tank (2 litre, 15 cuFt) which does not impede snorkelling much.

Attached is a regulator and contents gauge. You wear it while snorkelling, without BCD ofcourse. When you need to stay longer than breath-holding allows, the air is there and you cancomplete your photo sequence, resulting in fabulous shallow water opportunities whiledegassing from a previous dive. It allows you to go deeper and stretch your bottom time,because you know that you can always reach the surface. It is particularly valuable for trimminga freediver's weight at, say 15m depth. This is where you become too heavy and begin sinking(depending on the thickness of your wetsuit). A single breath overcomes this problem andmakes you weightless again, thereby saving much energy. So a pony tank extends yourfreediving considerably and thereby also your chances. Believe it or not, but this little tank canlast for an hour.I use it a lot for spot dives to see what the environment is like. Such spot dives may take me to40m depth where trimming by one's lungs only, becomes a problem (again, depending on thethickness of one's wetsuit). During such dives one should also bring one's dive computer. Spot

dives typically consist of swimming a long distance with the least amount of friction. They last 20minutes at most on a tank this small, but the distance covered can be substantial.


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Camera housingsThe era of building your own waterproof housing has perhaps come to an end. Yet knowing thetechnology of sealing will help you look after your gear and perhaps prevent that disastrousflooding (see tips and tricks chapter). Camera housings are now offered in all developed nationsfor competitive prices. You will have to make a trade-off between price and sophistication. This

is not the place to guide you through the minefield of options. Many books are doing this and arebecoming obsolete as rapidly as newer camera housings enter the market. Many good Internetsites exist to help you choose and buy.

My advice is to buy the smallest housing (both for flash and camera) with the most controls (thedearest). You'll notice that the cost of the housing often exceeds that of your camera and lenses.A small housing weighs less above water, is easier to push through the water and is also easier tocarry along. Your housing will have a selection of 'ports', the glass between your lens and thewater. Wide angle lenses need dome ports whereas normal and tele lenses work fine through aflat port. Often plastic dome ports are not optically precise or they are not precisely placed, thusreducing the sharpness of your lens. Wide angle lenses for the Nikonos 3-5 underwater camera

do not have this problem but this camera is rather primitive and no longer in production.

It is very important that you can observe the whole frame of the viewfinder through your mask.'Sport' finders are unacceptable for good photography. Likewise close-up frames such as used forNikonos cameras are not really adequate. Make sure your housing allows you to mount both aquality macro lens and one 2 or 4 diopter close-up lens or filter.

Please note that the Nikonos RS (Reflex System) is perhaps THE most sophisticated and easiestto use camera with the sharpest lenses ever made. I have been using this camera to fullsatisfaction since 2002. A full chapter will be devoted to this camera and how best to use it.

Managing resourcesEvery diver sooner or later learns to manage his vital resources. When running out, the dive mustend. But photographers have to manage a few more. Here they are and some advice on how tostretch them to last longer.

Dive air: sooner or later you will have used up all the air in your tank. The deeper yougo, the sooner. The era of sudden dive endings is over because of contents gauges anddive computers. You musthave a computer, because this allows you to stay longer and godown or up as you like in your dive profile. It allows you to plan your dive under water.

Although some dive institutions advise not to skip-breathe (holding one's breath), this isstill a safe technique to extend your bottom time considerably. A good diver with a 12litre tank (90 cuft) is able to stay at 5-10m depth for over two hours! A headache withneck pain (like a migraine) signals that you are overdoing it and you can adjust yourtechnique accordingly. The first dives of an expedition are always the most sensitive toskip breathing, so get into it gradually. Air can be saved by not swimming fast and


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particularly by compensating one's buoyancy precisely and frequently. Learn to becomeperfectly balanced.

Dive time: if your air hasn't run out, your dive time will, particularly during deep dives.You can extend your underwater time considerably by not using up all 'no stop' time atdepth, but instead returning to the shallows earlier. Here you can also use up all safety airunder 40bar/500psi.

Body heat: the colder the water, the shorter your stay. The deeper you dive, the thinneryour wetsuit becomes, and the more your inhalation air cools your lungs. You can extendyour stay by wearing thick wetsuits but these require heavy weight belts. Most importantis that your suit fits well and does not allow exchange of water. A hood comes next, thenbooties and finally gloves. Your hands are able to shut off circulation quite easily. Forvery cold conditions, use a drysuit but these are not a panacea. The air bubble withinmakes diving unpleasant and it affects many aspects of photography.

Slow hypothermia: most diving results in acute hypothermia, characterised by feelingcold, followed by shivering. It is the safest form of hypothermia because it gives veryclear unpleasant signals. What you need to watch out for is slow hypothermia, which canoccur by staying wet for too long; standing in cold wind and so on. Make sure you

recognise it because it can be a slow killer. Slow hypothermia does not give strongshivering but is first noticeable by feeling lacklustre. On cold days, make sure you getinto dry clothes again with a jacket to protect from the wind. When your wetsuit is wet,while in a boat, you will suffer slow cooling until the wetsuit dries up from the outside. Ifyou need to wear it, wear a wind jacket over the top. It makes an ENORMOUSdifference.

Fatigue: as you grow older or become unfit, fatigue sets in earlier. You'll miss out on thethird dive of the day and give some night diving a miss. In order to make the most of yourexpedition, you'll need to be well prepared and trained beforehand. Don't indulge inexcess alcohol during the trip, get good sleep and light meals. Let the doctor check ifyour hormonal levels are normal (Testosterone!). Note that some alcohol can be

beneficial. When feeling very cold, particularly in feet and limbs, a small amount ofliquor can help you get warm very much more quickly.

Being fat: fat divers know that they are a greater risk to decompression because fattytissue absorbs nitrogen gas in higher densities while releasing it more reluctantly, just assmokers know that their lungs could rupture more easily during ascent. But what isinsufficiently known is that belly fat take space that would otherwise have been used forbreathing. A wetsuit furthermore exerts pressure on the chest, and these two factors makethat fat people run out of breath very quickly. They can seem fit and strong in non-aerobic exercise (such as lifting) but fail badly when air is needed in aerobic exercisesuch as swimming back to the boat in a current. You can't be fat as a good underwaterphotographer!

alcohol and diving: the politically correct notion is that diving and drinking do not gotogether, but this is not strictly true. Sure, a booze-up may reduce your judgment andsense of responsibility, but divers routinely experience nitrogen narcosis to the equivalentof one drink for every ten metres of depth. So, what can be good about a drink and shouldwe be dogmatic about it?

o headaches: a headache at the end of a dive is so common that divers don't talk

about it. Most headaches come from sinus problems. Being unable to let air intothe sinuses, the tissues rupture and they fill with blood. Hence that bloody nose at


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times. Of course you should have taken yourPseudoephedrine tablet before thedive, but did you know that half or a whole drink of carbonated alcohol (beer orfizzy wine) helps? It also helps against those migraine headaches from skip-beathing, but in both cases best when taken before diving.

o seasickness: a single drink of alcohol helps to avert mild seasickness when taken

well in advance. It is thought that the reason drunks swagger is their loss of asense of balance. It is this same numbing of the balance organ that prevents

seasickness.o warming up: the general idea is that alcohol should not be used to warm a patient

suffering from hypothermia, because as the alcohol improves circulation, it alsocools the warm heart with the cold blood from limbs, and the patient dies. But thisis an extreme and hopeless case. For divers who have difficulty warming up aftera dive, a toddy of brandy performs miracles while also warming their feet insidethe sleeping bag.

Photographic film: if you run out, you've had a good dive. If you have film leftunexposed, you'll be faced with a dilemma: use it for the next dive or load a new film?I've seen a professional photographer for the National Geographic magazine take downover a dozen cameras during one dive, with the aid of a helper whose task it was to ready

them and to place them at strategic points under water. This photographer would shootsome 500 frames during a single dive. It is much better to learn the skills of taking manysuccessful photos with only little waste. You'll learn these in this course.

Having two cameras, one for wide angle shots and one with a zoom lens, is definitely anadvantage if you can afford it and have a buddy willing to carry one. Having patientsurface support, allowing you to reload film, swap cameras and go diving again, is also agood solution. Preferably train someone who stays dry, to reload the film. Cameras areeasily damaged by a single drop of salt water. Tip: use the type of towel cloth wrist cuffsused by tennis players to prevent water droplets from leaking into the camera while

changing a film or lens.

Battery life: Practically everything runs on batteries these days. Movie makers run out ofbattery power very quickly. Make sure to be able to charge batteries on expedition. Keepa log of battery replacements in your various cameras (when was it that you replaced thatbattery?). Mark the date of replacement on the battery. Use only long-life lithiumbatteries. These are cheaper per unit of electricity and perform better too (more power inlow temperatures and they deliver more current). Most important of all, learn to switchyour gear off when not in use. Long-life batteries also require you to do fewer changes,reducing the chance of equipment flooding. My worst mistake on expedition is usuallynot switching cameras and strobes off.


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The graph comparestemperature performance ofLithium iron disulphidebatteries with Alkalinemanganese or 'standard'alkaline batteries. Althoughtheir capacity ratings do notdiffer very much, they do

differ significantlyperformance wise. Whereas astandard AA alkaline battery israted at about 2.5Ah, it candeliver this energy only whenused in low currentapplications like transistorradios. Once current isdemanded as required forrecharging a strobe light, itscapacity drops to half itsnominal value. When the temperature furthermore drops to close to 0C, it performs at about a quarter ofits rating. Here is where lithium batteries, with their very low internal resistance, rated at 2.7Ah, make an

enormous difference. Whereas alkaline batteries degrade gradually, extending the recharge time from 4 to10 seconds, lithium batteries die rather suddenly, extending recharge time from 4 to about 6 seconds,which can be a nuisance.Note that a D cell has about six times the capacity of an AA cell and a C cell about 3 times.

Lithium batteries have exceptional shelf life of over ten years! It means that you can leave batteries inunused equipment without running the risk of them leaking and damaging it. It also means that theirinternal leakage is very low and that they retain their capacity for very long periods. They are excellent totake with you on expeditions.


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Expedition skillsMany of your photos will be taken in far away places, often while out on a boat with very littlecomfort and facilities. Such photographic dive expeditions can become a treasure trove ofopportunities or a sequence of unmitigated disasters. Here are some tips to enhance success.

Scaling up: if you are going on a two week expedition, make sure you have recentlydone a weekend expedition. It should have revealed the weaknesses in your equipmentand yourself. If you are going to an extremely cold or warm place, make sure you havedone something similar beforehand.

Health: expeditions have the habit of wearing you down, gradually. Prepare yourself bystarting fit and keeping yourself fit with exercises that can be done in a confined space(like yoga, push-ups, sit-ups). Treat the expedition as a training exercise and do not exertyourself on the first day, but rather build your programme up gradually, from day to day.

Wounds and scratches are a serious handicap to diving. They heal slowly because of

repeated salt water exposure, become inflamed and eventually prevent you from diving.Just be extra careful and carry several pairs of surgical gloves for those hand wounds.

Seasickness: getting seasick should never come as a surprise. You should long beforehave tested your susceptibility. Take those tablets when you think you need them. Canseasickness be cured? The literature denies this - once sick, always sick. But since I hadmy own boat, I have never been seasick again, so experience cures some people. Someboats make you more seasick than others. Slow, rolling motor vessels are the worst;sailing boats next, and catamarans the best. Diesel fumes and the smell of vomit arealmost certain to make you seasick. If you can choose your ship, let seasickness be aconsideration because it is a very serious and disabling condition.

Nasal decongestion: most people suffer to some degree from blocked sinuses. It appearsto be related to city life with its challenging fumes. Don't take your chances but usedecongesting pills, particularly in the beginning of the expedition. The substancePseudoephedrine is the stuff that helps, but nowadays you have to sign your life away toget it. Diving without head aches is just so nice! Very recently a new form ofPseudoephedrine has become more readily available, one that is not easily converted tothe street drugP.

Batteries: make sure you can charge those rechargeable batteries. How long is mainselectricity available each day? Perhaps you need to have fast rechargers. Try tostandardise the voltages you use, rather than carrying a dozen different types of batterychargers. Use long life lithium batteries only. In cold places you need twice the number

of batteries because they perform worse. The most important expedition skill is justturning equipment off when not in use and never forgetting to do so. Before going to bed,check those switches again!

Equipment rinsing: all photographic underwater equipment corrodes when exposed toconcentrated salt water. If you have a facility to rinse your equipment with fresh water,then do so. Failing that, keep the gear moist and do not let it dry up because when the saltconcentrates it becomes corrosive. Wrap it in a moist towel; keep it in a cool place; in asealed box; out of the sun. Same for your dive gear. Contrary to popular opinion, fins,


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masks and wetsuits do better when staying salty, so they do not need to be rinsed. Plan abig bucket of fresh water as necessary expedition equipment. Gently wipe your preciouslenses dry after each rinse, otherwise their hard coatings will show spots. I use a bucketwith 5 litres of fresh water for my cameras and this may last for five days beforerequiring to be refreshed. Give your regulator a daily dip too.

Check lists: maintain check lists to jog your memory. They represent your accumulatedexpedition experience and give you peace of mind. Use someone else's check list if you

have none. Don't forget that roll of paper tissues and some gaffer or ducting tape!


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Better chancesEvery good photo requires a stroke of luck because it would be impossible to control allcircumstances. When taking natural photos of unco-operative subjects, luck becomes even moreimportant. But it is possible and necessary to make luck strike more often. Learning from otherpeople's experiences is one way (through books, clubs, magazines) but most you should learn

from your own experiences. Make it a habit to analyse your pictures before tossing the bad onesin the waste bin. You should see gradual improvement as you improve your methods. Tallyingmy mistakes by the following categories helped me improve my techniques considerably:

Out of focus/ depth of field: photos should be sharply in focus where it matters. Do youneed to guess distance settings? Do you need better glasses or an auto-focus camera? Doyou need to use a faster film? Do you need to recalibrate your distance settings (formacros e.g.)? Did you shift the camera after it focused automatically?

Movement blur: do you need to use a faster shutter speed or more flash light? Do youneed to use a faster film? Do you need to use a tripod? Do you need to click at a bettermoment (the pause in wave movement, e.g.)? Do your hands shake? I use a small tripod

whenever I can, except for macro photography. It does give the sharper images. Exposure: is the film under- or over exposed? Do you need to alter your strobe light

intensity? Is the light optimally balanced for foreground and background? Do you need touse faster film? Do you need more bracketing? Do you need to use a more tolerant film?There's never enough light and every photo entails a compromise.

Wrong moment: did you click at the wrong moment? What do you need to improvethis? How can you anticipate the way a situation develops? Do you need more skills inhandling animals or models? Are you synchronising with the wave motion? Are you tooimpatient? Are you too lacksadaisical? Are you clicking too soon or too late?

Composition/framing: What is the reason you did not compose the image optimally? Doyou have parallax problems? Can you see the image completely in the viewfinder? Does

the viewfinder need calibrating? Did emotion make you blind? Do you need to brush upon theory? Are you too hurried?

Colour/contrast: The quality of the light changes enormously from moment to moment,from shallows to depths and from one position to another. Are the colours right and thecontrast optimal for the prevailing conditions? You may need to aim in a differentdirection. You may need to use colour correction filters. Are you using the right film?

Help light: Did your strobe or other light source cause problems (scatter, bleaching,shadows)? Was it aimed correctly? Did it fill the way it was needed? How can youimprove it? Does your buddy need to help? Do you need a modelling light attached to thestrobe?

Repetition: Some repetition is necessary for bracketing and other reasons but how many

unnecessary repetitions did you shoot? Can you vary your angle or distance or aspectwhile repeating shots? Did you forget what shots you took before?

Irrelevant: how many shots prove irrelevant because you would never be able to use theresult? Did you just click away? Did you think about what to do with the photo later?Does the photo tell a story and what would be needed to make it do so?

Experimental: Experimenting is necessary to improve skills, to test your methods andimprovements and to just try surprising ways, but many fail. Did you learn from theexperiment? How can you improve it next time? Can others learn from your experiment?


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Did you do it in a systematical way? Can you do it again next time and include it in yourportfolio of tricks?

Good ones: the ones you wish to keep. They may have been marked in some of thecategories above but do not need to be rejected as such.

Try to treat every photo as the one and only, last opportunity.

Analysing your failuresI may sound a bit like a school master but the reality is that you will forget about your failures ornot analyse them properly to learn from them. Have you studied the many questions above? Doyou really know how to recognise them in your work? Don't be so sure. Cut this page out andkeep it handy. You must be asking these questions all the time, even under water.Take a sheet of paper and draw a table with rows for each film and columns for each categoryabove. For each frame of the film, tick one or more columns that apply. Do it for each film. Apattern will emerge, showing your wastefulness of resources (money + time + effort). You needto do something about it and change your ways. It taught me quickly that I needed a differentkind of camera, another lens, change the strobe bracket, bring variation in bracketing my shotsand much more.


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Clouds, waves and visibilityWeather, waves and visibility have a decisive influence on your under water photography.

Clouds: clouds quickly diminish the quality and quantity of light under water. You mayhave to resort to close-up strobe-lit photography. In temperate seas the amount of light

under water in winter may be three f-stops less than in summer, making winter shoots allbut impossible. Blue skies create opportunities for wide angle lenses. Half overcast skiesoften introduce more light under water, particularly inside caves and archways and on theshaded sides of rock walls. Clouds provide soft lighting, often good for fish portraits inshallow water, using fast film.

Waves: waves introduce water movement, sometimes creative for the cinematographerbut for the still picture photographer they create extra problems. It may be necessary tostrap extra weight on your belt or to dive deep. Perhaps use a faster film as well. Largewaves are invariably damaging to equipment, particularly when boarding after the dive.Just give big waves a miss. Seek sheltered places. Waves stir up sediment and reducevisibility.

Currents: under water life is richest in areas with sea currents but diving becomes moredangerous. Strap an extra weight on your belt to improve bottom stability. You may needthat tripod too. Currents quickly carry away the dust stirred up and may be advantageousthis way. Most currents are tidal, allowing only one dive per day on the high or low tide.Make sure you have alternative dive sites too. In some places the only way back is overthe bottom back to the shore, as if doing a dive inside a deep cave, because you can't do adecompression stop or safety stop in a racing current. Be aware.

Visibility: poor visibility invariably leads to poor pictures. Use wide angle lenses orresort to macro photography. In the shallows, poor visibility can be used very creativelyto accentuate the sun rays penetrating the water, to shoot misty moods and to separateforeground from background.


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Photographer or diver?Is it better to be a diver who learns to take photos or a photographer who learns to dive?Obviously both skills are required and more. In practice, only the amateur photographers wholearned to dive, became good under water photographers. But your prime interest must bephotography. Ironically hardly any professional photographer has made the transition to the sea,

perhaps because it would constitute a considerable loss of income. You should be familiar andcapable of taking good pictures above water if you ever want to take good under water pictures.Under water photography is much more difficult than above but above water photography hasbeen refined to a very high degree, which makes it hard to excel in.If you have never taken good photos before, don't expect to be able to take good photos

under water. A snapshot on the land taken by an automatic camera may look great, but

that same camera in an under water housing produces very poor under water pictures.

The most difficult question to answer is: What makes a good photo? Eventually I narrowed thisdown to the following list of qualities:

Serve its purpose: many photos are good simply because they do the job. They arewanted. This is the most important quality but not necessarily for winning competitions.

Technically pleasing: the technical quality (sharpness, composition, etc) must serve itspurpose. A blurred image is not necessarily wrong. The technique used must serve apurpose, any purpose listed here.

Best option at the time: shows the skill of the photographer. Can the image be improvedupon? If one can, you have missed an opportunity.

Element of surprise: an unusual situation, the right moment, an unusual angle, atechnical trick. This is usually rated highly in competitions.

Co-incidence of 2-3 themes: for example a leaf, with dew in the morning sun and acaterpillar gnawing it. Always look for the confluence of more than one idea and take the

time for it; otherwise enact it. This is also rated highly in competitions. Tell a story: as above but it is the story that matters, not so much the photo. An

illustration of an idea. Often judges and the public do not get the story, reason why thistype of image does not rate highly. But in a book, accompanied by text, these photos arethe most desirable ones of all.

Colour: the gaudy colours of the underwater world are addictive, surprising and pleasing.Colour always wins over monotone. Spend more time on your most colourful subjects.

Transmitter or receiver?

In the photo and film industry realising ideas and dreams is the mode. The shots are driven byan intense desire to create, to enact, to fake. It is the transmitterat work, sending out his ideasand pushing others to fall in line.While taking movies underwater, I had a couple of terribly unproductive years, and I did notunderstand why. What I was doing, was finding the finishing shots to complete a number ofstories. I had my mind set and wanted nature to comply. I was diving as a transmitter, wantingmy way, and as a result I did not see the opportunities that presented themselves. I washopelessly unproductive because I had my receiverturned off.Now you know that you can't both talk and listen, and you also know that those who talk a lot,


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are poor listeners, and visa-versa. You cannot transmit and also receive at the same time. Whatthis means is that if you are out there to take photos of nature, you must have yourtransmitterturned off and be receptive to whatever opportunity that presents itself. I had to tell myselfspecifically that I didn't dive for film (but my camera was 100% on stand-by) but for fun. It was ahard lesson that I won't forget. Think about it.


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Light is all you seeTaking pictures is all about light, how it interacts with substance and how our eyes perceive it.Why can we see three dimensions (depth) in a two dimensional (flat) image? Why do we seecolour? How does colour arise? Why are some images more pleasing than others? There'sobviously a lot of helpful theory to learn about light and photography, knowledge that I found

extremely hard to obtain. Yet, in this course on under water photography I have to assume thatyou know it all or pretend that you don't need to know. One day, when pushed a little, I may putit all on Internet, because it did change my life profoundly and it may change yours likewise.

You are supposed to know about the properties of light, film exposure, depth of field,composition, subject separation, saturation and contrast, use of filters, use of artificial light,cameras and lenses. Or do you?

IntroductionWe live in an exciting era where old values appear to crumple. Knowledge changes rapidly,

assisted by the flight of technology. It is hard to imagine that before the second world war,colour photography was rare and those using it regretted doing so. Their images no longer exist,faded by time. But the century old images recorded in silver, remained. When I started usingcolour in the sixties, I didn't know that even those images would fade to oblivion. Still manyprofessionals and amateur photographers today, resent the way film suppliers pushed theirproducts, while perfectly aware that they could not last the test of time. Even today it isimpossible to get longevity data of any film on the market, although most film stocks haveimproved. Neither can one get longevity data for CDs and DVDs!

Back in the sixties Kodak came out with Kodachrome, an emulsion without colours. The coloursare added during development through a laborious process, known to Kodak alone. This

transparency film is used by organisations such as National Geographic, who also takeexceptional care in storing their photographs in cool, dry and dark archives. In this manner thefilm can be retained for over 300 years. Other slide films, in ordinary filing systems, last only ahuman's life time or less. But now we can save images electronically on CDs. The aluminiumCDs we buy can perish through aluminium 'rot' but the gold 'write once' CDs could last forever.Once in electronic form, images can be cropped, cleaned up, colour and contrast corrected andsharpened. For under water photography such manipulations can be of enormous benefit.

In this chapter we'll look at the suitability of various media you can choose and we'll also discussthe lenses you should use.


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Large or small format?In the beginning years of under water photography, the medium format (60mm square) was thepreferred choice. Armed with Hasselblad and Rolleiflex cameras, our pioneers opened up theunder water world. But these cameras were large, and suffered from a lack of depth of field(about four times worse than 35mm cameras). As film emulsions improved, the field was taken

by the small format (35mm frame) cameras.

Because under water photography is best in close-up, depth of field is very important. Resolutioncan be attained by using low speed film and longer exposure times or by resorting to negativefilm.

Slide, negative or digital?At the moment there are three basic options toconsider: slide, negative or digital.

Slides and transparenciesTransparencies are the professional's choice fordelivering pictures to printers and publishers.Their advantages are obvious: what you see iswhat you get. The slide is both the original andthe finished product. It can be shown in a vieweror a projector. Each slide is packaged on its own,can be manipulated and stored on its own. Slides have good colour rendition and sharpness. Theylook like the printed image and the printing industry knows how to handle them and turn theminto colour plates.But slides also have their down side. Because they are the unique and finished product, they can

easily be damaged or lost. Printers often remove slides from their frames and greasy fingerprints,and miniature scratches are often left behind. Although good copies can be made of slides,printers often demand the originals. Slides fade when used regularly in projection, so only copiesshould be shown.Slides have high contrast, desirable to blacken the dark parts for projection. They show the worldnot exactly the way it is, with brighter colours, deeper shadows but the public has becomeaccustomed to this, often demanding the postcard look rather than reality, particularly foradvertising.

Because of its contrastiness, exposing slide film correctly is rather critical. Even half an f-stop(25% light intensity) can spoil the result. To cope, photographers take many repeats of the same

shot with varying exposure settings ('bracketing'). When an artificial light source is used such asa strobe, the number of repeats becomes very high, resulting in high wastage, costs and time.For under water use, slide film is often disappointing. Under water one cannot reload films. Onehas only very few chances to shoot more than a few photos of the same subject in the samesituation. Bracketing then becomes a hard liability.

Negative filmThe colour saturation and sharpness of negative film has improved quite considerably in recent


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years (1990s). It is the favourite choice for amateurs but also for wedding photographers whooften can not bracket their shots, or re-do them. Prints made from negative film can be handledwithout the risk of damaging the original. But negatives need to be left in strips of four to eightframes. So when a printer needs the original, he receives a strip of several frames. Printersdislike negative film because the result may change and there is no visual original to compare theprinted image with, unless the corrected print is supplied as well. For a photographic library orstock clearing house, negatives are unacceptable because of this. But for the private

photographer, shooting negative film gives the best value.Negative film is very tolerant to exposure, producing good results within a three f-stop tolerance.Negative film has low and linear contrast and portrays the world the way it is, much more sothan slide film does. Prints can be enhanced by reprinting them lighter or darker. Negative filmhas very fine grain which allows one to use faster films. For nature photography under water,shooting negative film is very rewarding.

Now that photographic images can be saved, filed and traded in electronic form, negative filmhas lost its earlier disadvantages and is rapidly becoming more popular for the professionalphotographer who wants quick, reliable and cost-effective results.

A baby pink maomao is found

sleeping in a safe place inside the

giant Rikoriko cave at the Poor

Knights Islands, New Zealand.

Because the camera's aperture failed tonarrow from f4 to f22, this photo wasover exposed by 5 f-stops! Hardlydiscernible on the very black negative,it still produced this amazing image,with true colours.

Film: Fuji NPH400Lens: approximately 100mm

Digital camerasWhereas progress in film emulsion technology has been slow, progress in electronic imaging hasbeen rapid. Cameras now claim as many as 6 million pixels per image (a scanned 35mm KodakPhoto-CD image has 3000x2000 = 6 million pixels, compressed to some 6MB, about 80 lines permm, the resolution of most slide films)

Digital images show the result immediately, allowing for on-the-spot improvements to lighting,exposure and even contrast. Digital cameras are more sensitive, being able to take pictures in lowlight conditions. The CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) is small, allowing for short focal lenseswith vastly superior depth of field characteristics. Very recent digital cameras now provideresolutions comparable to the 35mm frame.

For the amateur under water photographer who wants immediate results that can be reproducedprofessionally up to sizes of 100mm across, the digital camera is the solution. In the past few


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years digital video has stormed the world, providing superior pictures that can be obtained withease. The digital colours of 3-CCD cameras are 'additive' as opposed to the 'subtractive' coloursof slides and negatives, making a whole new range of 'fluorescing' intensive colours available.Unfortunately these can not be rendered in print. Most still digital cameras, however, use a singleCCD colour technique which renders colours subtractive. The most standard method of savingthe image, is in the standardised sRGB (scanner-Red-Green-Blue) computer format, which printsbeautifully, the way one sees it on the computer screen.

The digital image is made up of (square) pixels, each containing three colours, red, blue andgreen, much the way a television image is composed. Each colour can assume only discretevalues, ranging from 0 to 255. At mid-exposure of 150 units, a picture looks rather dark whereasa one stop over exposure (2 times) at this point would overexpose the image to 300 units, whichis 'clipped' not to exceed the value of 255. So working with a digital pictures can be even morecritical than working with slides.Fortunately, the high quality end of the digital cameras produce images with 10 or even 12 bitscolour depth, thereby extending the range considerably (from 255 steps to 4096). But the JPEGcompressed file format has only 8 bit precision.


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Slide films comparedThe following drawing may help to understand how light, falling on the emulsion, results indensity (blackness). To the left is the real world with objects of varying intensity. The checkeredscale is in f-stops, each square representing a factor of two (one f-stop). Both horizontal andvertical axes are thus logarithmic, corresponding to how our eyes experience light.

The art of exposing correctly is to dim the intensity of the real world, to that required by the film,and we do so by means of shutter speed and aperture. The diagram depicts a typical slide filmwith a range of 8-9 f-stops in density. Just to put this scale in perspective, prints in books have adensity range of only 4 f-stops (1:16); prints in newspapers only 3 f-stops (1:8) and slidesprojected in a dark room 6 f-stops (1:64). So the scale at bottom right runs over 6 f-stops fromwhite to black. But because of the contrastiness of the slide film, this corresponds to only 4 f-stops in the real world (which covers 10 f-stops from direct sunlight to deep shade), reason whyexposure of slide film is highly critical. This is much less so for negative film. But the situationis even worse because the colours in the highlights are truly bleached, missing colour

information, AND those in the shadows are mixed with black, which also reduces the amount ofcolour information. To sum it all up, colour slides provide only 3 f-stops of true colour, whichexplains why they are so difficult to expose right.

In the diagram, the 1:1 contrast line has been dashed. A film with this density curve would beideal as a duplicating film to make copies of slides. A steeper incline means less contrast (softfilm) whereas a flatter line means more contrast (hard film). As you see, most slide films are soft


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in their highlights but contrasty in their shadows. This explains why correcting an under exposedslide by duping (duplicating), results in very high contrast.

In the diagram below, a number of typical slide films of the 1980s are compared. As you can see,there are distinct differences between them, reason enough for careful selection. Notice howEktachrome 100 follows a smooth soft density curve. It has been the preferred film for underwater photography for many years.

As far as negative film is concerned, a similar comparison can be drawn. But the result dependsalso on the qualities of the print material used.

When plotting the latest offerings in slide film on this chart, remember that suppliers' technicaldata sheets show density on the vertical axis and exposure on the horizontal axis. Note that the f-

stop scale is missing on the technical data sheets which show optical densities (0,1,2,3) instead.One optical density is a reduction in light of 90% (factor 0.1 or 1:10).

So which film do you choose? One advice is to stick to only one film type and to learn to workwith it. But differences in film can be used to advantage. For instance, tele lenses 'dilute' thelight, causing contrast-poor images with watered-down colours. Use a high contrast film tocounteract it. Likewise, wide angle lenses 'concentrate' the light, resulting in contrasty, oversaturated images. Use a low contrast film to balance this.


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Most under water photographers are obsessed with sharpness of detail, resorting to low speedfine grain film. But in doing so they cannot capture natural light and they waste much film onmovement blur, poor depth of field and so on. Adapt your film type to how much light isavailable (much in the tropics, little in temperate seas) and accept graininess as part of the trade-off. For macro photography where enough artificial light is available, go for the finest film if youlike.

My choice has been overwhelmingly for negative film because its softness captures the underwater atmosphere best. It is tolerant to exposure and gives me a large number of good results. Iam mainly using Fuji REALA (100ASA) which has good colour separation and density but alsovery fine grain. For higher speed, I used the Fuji SUPERIA range of films, of which the 200 and400 ASA films stand out by their sharpness, colour and fine grain. Note that the SUPERIA 100is much grainier than the REALA film. Recently I have been push-developing Reala 100ASA to400 ASA with fine grain results but increased contrast. After digital scanning this option givesme the best results: both finest grain AND finest colour reproduction. Note that the most recentbatches of Fuji Superia films now also contain a fourth colour layer, like Reala 100. This newtechnology reproduces fine colour nuances much better than any other film on the market.

My MistakesPreviously I was using the FUJI NPH400 film, which gave nice looking prints, as the printmaterial was well adapted to its characteristics. But since I have my NIKON Coolscan 4EDnegative/positive scanner, I gained close insight in the graininess and other aspects of this film.It allowed me to compare other brands and types of film with precision. This made me choosethe FUJI REALA 100 ASA film, because it is far superior to others. Unfortunately, it is made in100 ASA only, and for higher speeds I now have it push-processed to 400ASA. That gives methe added advantage of having only one type of film on expeditions.What was wrong about NPH400, is that it is a portrait film. In portraiture, there is little contrast,compared to landscape photography. So the film was designed to be soft and underexposed. Inaddition it desensitised the blue component to achieve nice skin tones. These characteristicsare all unsuitable for the underwater world.

Before I had my own scanner, I submitted my films to a professional KODAK scanner, andthese results were superior to those of other scanners I have seen. However, the Coolscan4EDwith 4000 pixels resolution, and excellent software, allows me to achieve far better results (it isnot easy though). In all, the combination of a super fine grain negative film and a high qualityscanner, now beats slide film hands down in all respects. See the Kermadecs photo libraryforexamples. It produces a very high rate of return, and complete control over post-processing onthe computer.

In order to save costs, and to get exactly what I wanted, I constructed my own underwaterhousing for a NIKON F601 with macro, zoom and wide angle lenses and lens ports. I also useda Nikonos 5 with 16mm Sea&Sea wide angle lens. However, in the end I was not satisfied withthe lack of sharpness, and distortion towards the edges of the image.

A boating accident with loss of all gear, fortuitously enabled me to lay my hands on a usedNikonos RS camera with 50, 28 and 13mm lenses. These lenses are truly sharp and a delight touse. The benefits of the RS system cannot be overstated. There is just no comparison.
http://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/res/kermadec/kermfoto.htmhttp://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/res/kermadec/kermfoto.htmhttp://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/res/kermadec/kermfoto.htm


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Some notes on film type, exposure and contrastTransparency slide film was developed for slide projection in a dark room. Its contrast has beenadjusted for this purpose, resulting in a colourful but contrasty image with a deep blackbackground. Although pleasing to the eye, this image is not a true reflection of the real world.Many photographers like colour contrast so much that they exaggerate it further by push-developing (underexposing and overdeveloping). So why this obsession with high contrast?

In order to find an answer to this question, remember that the registration of colour in slides and

negatives is by the process of subtraction. A red dye blocks the red light, while letting othercolours pass. The colour orange is obtained by blocking both the red and yellow wavelengths.Remember also that the colours on film and in print are not true reflections of the rich colourscales in nature. Colour photography is based on the perception of the human eye, which issensitive to three colours only (red, green and blue). By capturing only these three colours, theeye is fooled in believing that we have captured the full colour image, but this is not true. Onlyhuman eyes see similarity between a photo and the real world.

In each of the steps in the process of capturing colour, some of its intensity (chroma) is lost, butthis can be made good by increasing contrast. In this age of electronic images, colour intensitycan be enhanced electronically, reason why digital cameras can produce very colourful images.Computer-scanned negative film can likewise be colour-enhanced, resulting in colourful imageswith any level of contrast. Such images better resemble the real world.

A slide photographer is hampered by the shape of the contrast curve of his film. In thehighlights, it gives soft colours, but in the low lights, it becomes quite contrasty. For optimalcolour rendition, the mid tones are used, resulting in rather dark images and a reducedexposure range. For instance, a colour consisting of 80% red and 20% blue, needs at least 3 f-stops to reproduce faithfully. Overexpose it and the red component bleaches out, shifting thecolour towards blue. Underexpose it, and the blue component is suppressed disproportionately,shifting the colour to red.

By comparison, a negative film has essentially a linear exposure-density curve, enabling it tocapture the real world more faithfully, and with wider margins of tolerance. When scannedelectronically, the image can then be adjusted to suit a variety of uses. But when printed onphotographic paper, contrast is again enhanced (by the photographic paper) to achieve contrast

and colour. The main problem with negative film is that true colour is difficult to achieve,because negative film and print film are often badly matched and commercial printing machinesautomatically make colour adjustments, which are often incorrect. However, with the help of anegative scanner, negative film yields beautiful and faithful images, particularly when printed bycomputer printers.

Although a film's graininess is fixed for slide films, it is variable for negative films. Underexposeit, and large islands of emulsion will form. To keep the grain fine, negative film must beoverexposed slightly, and this means an extra f-stop when using wide angle lenses which lookat the bright sky as well as the dark deep.

Despite tremendous progress, colour technology has remained full of frustrations from thecapturing of the image to its reproduction in print. Film manufacturers sell their products basedon hype, often hiding technical specifications. One would have expected to find all technicaldata sheets on Internet, but this is not so. Often datasheets of new films are a copy of some olddata sheet. Manufacturers are also not clear about the purpose of the film. Some films havebeen 'blue-desensitised' to 'better reproduce' (flattering) skin colours or to please underwaterphotographers. Other films have been tinkered with to produce 'acceptable' results in bothoutside and inside lighting situations. But users can be finicky too. If ever the ideal film arrived,pure in colour and fine in grain, many would find it 'too ordinary', 'not gutsy', 'characterizes','unflattering' and so on. Open any issue of National Geographic magazine to see what the worlddoes NOT look like.


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Lens typesCamera lenses are available in acontinuum of focal lengths from16mm to over 100mm (for 35mmcameras). But the practical rangefor under water is 13mm to100mm. The super wide angle

13mm lens has good depth of fieldbut is not able to take fishportraits. For sharp macrophotography often a 100mm lensis used. The table compares theproperties of wide, medium andtele -angled lenses.

In general, the 13-20mm lens isfor people, large animals and seascapes. The medium angle lens is often a

NOTA 2074 Underwater Photography- History

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