mcyoung

Cool - thanks. No satisfaction without a challenge - good to know not to use aperture in this way.

Sorry - stills. Yeah, I'm assuming that artificial light would be a non-starter. The water where we are tends to be quite bitty (algae, maybe?) which you can sort of tell is there but not see directly, if that makes sense? But would definitely show up under lighting. I guess as the support diver it's up to me to take along some v. large lights...

Hello, So, putting together a system for a Sony a7RII. Diving in the UK in cold green waters. Visibility is pretty poor. Obviously there's a limit to when you can actually take a photo, but assuming I can see a scene through my mask (let's say 5 - 10 m vis) is there a generally recommended minimum lens aperture for those conditions, to help keep exposure times (and risk of camera movement) down? I assume that because large apertures (low F) increase background blur, which isn't ideal for a wide angle shot, in reality it's a compromise between setting the aperture get the DoF you want, and exposure to then get the light, but I thought I'd ask just in case...

These are great tips, thank you all! Need a new hand signal for "get out of my shot now, or else"! Hopefully other photographically challenged divers can also pick up on these to help their buddies

Some pretty defininte answers there. Useful checklist practice - I think I'll have to start incorporating that. Pretty sure we'd usually include a line about when to admit we're lost and turn around, too... Ta!

Hah thanks. I gave up my baggage allowance rights a long time ago... I guess I'll have to make sure my patience is tip-top! Ta

Hello, I see lots about how to take good underwater photos here but not too much about being a good diver whilst taking photos. My buddy and I only dive together, and she's the photographer. Do you typically find that you offload "normal" diving tasks to your buddy (buoyancy/depth management, general surroundings, gas management, timings/NDLs) or do you still take all that on whilst photographing? I appreciate no one is responsible for your safety but you, but do you share tasks to make your lives easier? Alternatively, any tips for the buddy of the photographer?

That's interesting to know. Do you find any benefit in getting in/out with SM and a camera rig compared to twin backmount, or does the worse posture underwater outweigh any benefit of just being able to clip stuff off in the water and climb in?

Hello, UK diver, relatively new but loving it. I'm primarily the buddy for my partner who is a keen amateur above-water photographer and is now dipping into UW photography. I'm a bit of a "research everything before doing anything" nut (even though I know I've made my choice within about the first 15 s - everything else is really just backing that up) so I get the task of finding suitable kit. We use Sony cameras (A5xxx, A7R II) so currently trying to find a suitable housing for the A7R! Mike