tyanea

Thanks guys, I appreciate your additional comments. It helps me better understand how things work and what to expect. I clearly had a misunderstanding of what I was seeing on the LCD vs the RAW image in LR. I am definitely making a bit of a mental shift now and resetting my expectations so I don't get as frustrated when I load the RAW file. I also read about the strobes in Alex Mustard's article.....found that to be very helpful information. Thanks Again!

Adam....You Nailed it!!! Your words express my exact feelings after I upload my images. I should have questioned the camera LCD vs LR, but I just kept thinking I was missing something else. While I feel I still have a lot to learn in making quality Wide Angle images, I will admit it is nice to hear there is a reason for my madness. I think I will stress less now about the LCD vs LR....Make sure I am happy with what I see underwater and know I can get it back with a few tweaks. Now I need to focus on subject and composition....as well as continuing to improve my strobe lighting. I really appreciate everyone's comments......I must admit I am happy to have a better understanding of what is happening. Time to start brainstorming on where to go next......

Hi Gina - thanks for your comments. I appreciate the suggestion of the monitor calibrator. I do use the Sypder4Elite monitor calibrator. Thanks Again

One more note.....I totally agree with you on the post processing. I have no problems with doing a few tweaks to get the image that was in my mind.....just trying to figure out if there is a fundamental thing I am missing, or setting....etc... :-)

I really appreciate everyone's suggestions and kind comments. I am thinking, as I look at these images on the web vs. how they look in Lightroom that I might be starting to discover possibly part of my problem. Adam - My white balance was set to Auto White Balance - I am going to read Alex's link you gave me....sounds like I should probably be doing something else there. Ok..this might be a bit winded......but here goes.... When I compare how these images look on the web vs. Lightroom 4.1 - it is definitely a bit different. These images look "more blue" than they look to me in Lightroom (which as tired as I was yesterday I don't think I was paying close enough attention to notice this) My process to get these images into my post was as follows: - I took my raw files and did an export to jpg from Lightroom so I could upload them into Flickr for the ability to put them in my post here. As I look at the pictures today and compare them to Lightroom I can definitely see some differences. I looked at my export settings and it converted the raw files to sRGB, which is the correct format for the web......but the output is definitely a little different than the pure raw file. I use a Syder4Elite calibrator to try to keep my monitor in check...but I am realizing there are so many factors that impact how the image looks....it can be overwhelming. Steve - I think you are probably correct in that most people do post processing to get that pop.....and is it unrealistic of me to think I can get that rich blue from a Canon raw file without some post processing? What do most people convert their images to when all is said and done and ready for print? Thanks again!! I really appreciate everyone's feedback.

I have been shooting photos underwater for a few years now, but I haven't had a lot of opportunity to shoot Wide Angle. There are A LOT of questions that I have....and A LOT of things I need to work on.....but I want to start with my Blues (or Greens given location). The Wide Angle I have shot I am often frustrated that I am not able to get the wide range in my blues as many other great photographers do. Honestly I often wonder.....Can you REALLY get that deep range of blues when you are shooting or do you have to do some tweaking in Photoshop to make a RAW file Pop As a comparison....here are just a few of many links to other photographers that I really like their Blues: http://underwa.ter.n...p?g2_itemId=147 http://www.bluereefp...b74f9#h3afb74f9 http://www.philsokol...19584&k=GFdFChF http://www.stephenfr...1&p=10&a=0&at=0 http://www.aaronspho....php?wide-angle Here are a few sample shots of my own.....I am having a hard time finding the right words to describe how I feel about my blues when compared to others. I feel like they are kind of flat.....they don't have the pop that others photographers blues have. Any Advice is welcomed...... All Images shot were with a Canon 5D Mark II (Also, all images are raw - no editing unless specified) Photo 1: Komodo Photo Info: Lens-8-15mm Fisheye (shot at 15mm), ISO-160, f/13, 1/200 - with 2 x DS161 Ikelite Strobes _MG_7505-1-raw by TyDivChic, on Flickr Photo 2: Bonaire Photo Info: Lens-15mm Fisheye, ISO-160, f/16, 1/200 - with 2 x DS161 Ikelite Strobes _MG_2758-1_raw by TyDivChic, on Flickr Photo 3: Red Sea Photo Info: Lens 17-40mm (shot at 21mm), ISO 100, f/8.0. 1/100 - with 2 x DS125 Ikelite strobes IMG_1151-1-raw by TyDivChic, on Flickr

Hi All I am shopping for a new lens and I have a couple of questions. I shoot the 5DMrkII (full frame camera) in an Ikelite housing with the 8" super dome. Money not being an issue in my decision process.... I am looking at the Canon 8-15mm vs the Sigma 15mm 1: Which lens would people recommend? Any pros/cons to one vs. the other? 2: If I shot the exact same photo with the Sigma 15mm and the Canon 8-15 at the 15mm end and placed them side by side would they look the same? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Nicholas, Comparing these destinations is not that difficult. There isn't a comparision!!! The Red Sea, and Southeast Asia have a much a higher density of life than florida. The diving in florida (have dove the keys) has much fewer critters, and the coral life there is dull (very brownish). So there is much less fish life, and reefs are not as pretty. However, it is diving in warm water, and if you just like to blow bubbles it will work. But if you are looking for the quality as the other locations mentioned you will be very dissappointed. You can find the critters you mentioned, but they are few and far between! However, there is some great diving with sharks and dolphins on some bahamas liveaboard itineraries. which is a very short distance from the miami area. There is some of the best in the world in terms of sharks and dolphins. As far as the oil spill that has affected mainly the western side of the gulf and hasn't had any impact on the eastern side of things. Shouldn't be a problem there.

We took a trip to Fiji over thanksgiving a couple years ago. The water was starting to warm back up and had a bit of plankton in the water. We ended up doing the aggressor liveaboard (now Peter Hughes) and they went around to different islands so we got a nice mix of everything. Jim's alley off the island of gau. Was the best dive all week. But any dive in namena reserve is great too. I heard the NAIA is a great liveaboard too. Also my local dive shop goes to Fiji often and always goes to taveuni. So I have heard the is good land based. But don't know from personal experience. Hope that helps.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I will give these options a go.

I would be interested in seeing or getting more detail on the wings you mentioned.

I think footage is excellent without lights. I don't have plans to even get lights for it. With macro you would probably want light. I tried the magic filter for a couple of days and found it harder to get a good wb. And as a beginner I took the advice from a post that said to leave it off until I got a little better and the dive suited it. (the right depth and time of day) Here are some threads that you will find interesting http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40133 This next one has some nice posts by Simon spear. He has some excellent example of what you can get with no light. I have dove the sites he is referring to and they are dark dives. http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39662

Hi all: I have had problems on my last trip with a couple of buttons sticking on my ikelite housing. It seemed to be worse at depth. Sometimes they wouldn't move until I was out of the water. I tried to work the buttons in and out in the rinse tank. I still had problems. I could always return to ikelite to service, but this was done maybe 60 dives ago. Any ideas of how I can correct this?

- I actually tried not to zoom while shooting footage. I think that zooming while recording looks very unnatural. So when I used the 17-40mm I would zoom or zoom out, focus, then record. -I actually stopped using the 17-40mm (underwater) in favor of the 15mm fisheye. The corners were very soft. It was very noticable. I don't have the diopter for the lens. Some people say that helps a bit. FYI, I have the 8 inch ike dome as well. Again, I just like the way the fisheye looks. It was much sharper than the 17-40. I felt the 17 was wide enough for me, (of course I wasn't shooting anything huge) I am by no means an expert on this. But to my eye the 15mm looks better. -The Ikelite out of water is heavy I think. underwater, with the 8 inch dome, and no lights, it would want to flip on its back, with the dome towards the surface. I need to figure something out to make it more evenly balanced. This would obviously affect the smoothness of the shots. I found that it is difficult to be steady. I also found that when you hit the record button, that will move the footage and not look good at the very first. This might just be my technique that is screwing it up. I didn't find it to be too big of deal though, when I edit it, is just cut off the first fraction of a second and it looks good from there on out. As a side note. I didn't take the sensor dust too seriously. I ended up with a full day with a big black speck on the footage. I will be more careful with this later from here on out. Do you have the ikelite housing? I looked at your profile and it looks like you have it already. What are you thoughts regarding it?

Christophe, Having only dove with it maybe 20 times (I have read up on this quite a bit), here is what I can tell you -I am not 100% sure on the view finder question. I believe it shows the entire lcd. I never found it limiting. -I have only shot wide angle with the 15mm and the 17-40mm. I have not tried to switch over the zoom ring to focus. To be honest, I don't find it that difficult to focus. Especially with wide angle. I try to keep my f stop between f11 and f8. Then I focus on something maybe 2-3 feet away, using the cameras auto focus. Then you can leave the focus there. Again, with wide angle it isn't a big deal. If you are shooting macro I can see it being a problem. But if you want to shoot macro, ikelite, I believe has a port for the 100mm that allows manual focus. A tri pod will also be necessary for perfect footage. - As for distortion. I personally have no issue with it. I guess it depends how particular you are. In my opinion, the underwater footage, for an untrained eye, they wouldn't notice anything looked distorted. The topside footage however is much easier to see the distortion. There is a ton of video out there. I know Captain Caveman (member of wetpixel) shoots everything with a fisheye. And his footage looks great! Do a search for his posts and you will find them. All in all the ikelite has its pro's and cons. I like that I can see the o-ring and see leaks if it ever occurs. I also like the price point. As I only do about 2-3 dive trips a year, I can't justify the more expensive housings. And not being as comfortable with the camera's functions, I like that the buttons are located where they are at on the camera. However, I'm sure for people with more experience view this as a con. other housings have the buttons that are more convinently placed. Ikelite's support is also excellent. The 4 lock port system is also a big improvement. It weighs a lot. Hope that helps