diverdon

Matthew I do like what you have done in your image. My ambitions are a trifle simpler. I just want to do some of what the great photographers of yesteryear did in the dark room. Take my images and make them “better.†Here is one before and after Photoshop. The after Photoshop is just a little closer to what I wanted to come out of the camera in the first place. Which do you like more?

So does this thing work kind of like a magnifying glass in front of the lens or what? Can anyone provide a link to an explanation?

The Kelp shot is stunning.

IMHO If one were to follow the anti Photoshop logic to its logical conclusion then it would not be allowed to use any artificial light and all images should be calibrated to a gray card. In science colure should be accurate, in art it should satisfy the artist and perhaps his customers. I myself must please myself first with my effort. Photoshop is part of that process. I value the opinion of others as a tool which I can use for continued growth. I do not seek the opinion of others on ways I should limit my growth. Undoubtedly I could learn a great deal from Dr. Mustard about how to get better results out of the camera. The way I see the process it something like this: 1) I see something I which evokes a feeling I wish to capture. 2) I mentally compose 3) I manipulate the camera to capture the result to the best of my ability. 4) I check the result. 5) If necessary I modify settings and try for a better result. 6) I download to the laptop and see if I got anything worth the idea I had in the beginning. 7) When I am fortunate enough to have something worth further work I fire up Photoshop and adjust it to the best of my abilities. 8) I look at it and ponder how I can improve. 9) I display it to the world and seek too: A. Provide for the enjoyment and enlightment of others. B. Get advice and ideas on how to continue to improve the art. For me Photoshop is a vital part of the process. Indeed who among us does not take most of our underwater photos with the camera set for its most vivid color? Who does not use the strobe to bring up all the color that would not otherwise be apparent in natural light? If for someone else they do not need or desire Photoshop that is their choice. For me it is a vital part of the process. I alone own the copyright to my image, therfore it is only I who must be pleased with the result.

Nice work! How hot was it in PG? I will be going at the end of July. When I was their this Feburary I was wishing I had brought my winter jacket.

Nice shots! I like your framing technique. If you shot in raw, I might play with the clown fish picture to try to get a little more eye detail to come out in the picture.

I am simply flabbergasted here. I have never met another diver who considered it acceptable for a dive master in his pay to hunt/fish while on scuba gear and in their employ. You really are the first! In so far as you are not the one holding the other animals. Yes that is what the pictures show, The dive guide is terribly distorting the flesh of that poor white spotted file fish. You can actually see three wrinkles in his flesh near where your guide is griping him. Yet you took this disgusting photograph and posted it in your flickr account to show your friends and associates what a great underwater photographer you are. Most interesting is your totally unfounded slander that I am dangerous. I truly hope that any board member considering using your financial portfolio planning services carefully review this thread.

You want the last word you can have it! Here it is right from YOUR flickr photostreame contradicting your eariler statments. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremypayne/2191074276/sizes/l http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremypayne/2191007244/sizes/l http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremypayne/2191005322 http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremypayne/2190208047

I have been involved with exchange of PM’s with certain members. Some people have taken some of my comments very personally. I feel that perhaps my writing skills are simply not up to the job of expressing myself in the manner I intended. I am not absolutely against any handling of sea life. I eat sea food. I am an occasional sport fisherman. The very front page of my website has a photograph of my brother holding a Maine Lobster. Without boring anyone too much, Maine Lobsters are both more plentiful and hardier than nudibranches, but the principle may be similar. My intention on this thread is to argue against any form of elitism. DD has a partner who is a Marine Biologist? So, the top experts in any field usually express themselves in probabilities, not certainties. As one of the top people in the field he should be a leader in ethics as well as photographic technique. Yet I fear that my violent opposition to this form of elitism has caused me to make statements which are being read as being quite nasty toward other wetpixel members. This is wholly because I do not express myself that well in the written word. So let me now proclaim in public and for all to hear that I intend no offence toward any wetpixel member. I may disagree with an idea that you expressed, I may even attempt to do so forcefully but, that does not mean I intended to attack you as a person, a board member, or a photographer. Furthermore it is nearly certain that I will be asking you for your opinion on a technical issue, or a photographic composition in the near future. Where I have been overly offensive that was not my intent.

Marc, I wonder if you could have helped your self by dialing in some compensation? Looking at the images about -2 fstops.

I will leave a blank spot on the card. You can add marine life as necessary, depending on what you can sell that month. I read the inside front cover of a Marine Biology book on Amazon so I am sure I qualify also. You say this well. It is a rare image indeed which can not benefit from a few small tweaks in photoshop. :-)

Exactly---They have to be a little different from other shots in order to be more SALABLE! I apologize for everything I have said earlier on this thread. I finally have got it pounded through my thick skull. It took me a while but now I understand. So Long as I am successful and lots of people view, enjoy and are educated by my work, as long as I make enough money and take steps to educate my self and minimize the impact anything I have to do is justified. I Hereby proclaim myself as one of the elite with all the special privileges therein implied. I am having membership cards printed, preorder yours now! Send $10.00 to diverdon ;-)

Graham Abbott, Sir your reply is very enlightening. It is not clear how you got the job but now that you have revealed your self we now all know who is the final arbitrator of who may do what. How did you get this august position again?

At least now, we all know how he got the pictures that got him the job at nat geo. This is what paid for his 40 years of experience. Jeremy you mention the fact that his business partner is a marine biologist. So let me remind you that they were not engaged in the science of marine Biology, they were engaged in the enterprise of taking Pictures for PROFIT! Photography is a trade. Underwater photography is a specialty. We here are all engaged in this Specialty. Suppose our specialty were not Under Water Photography but that our trade was medicine and our specialty was dermatology. What can a more senior dermatologist do to a patient that a Junior one cannot do? To me it is quite apparent that neither can take any action not in the best interest of the patient.

When you get the list send it on to me. I plan to make my own out of a old milk jug.

So being world-famous carries with it privileges not shared by lessor people. Is it ok if a daughter is raped by a rock star but not by a delivery boy? I just ain't buying this.

There is a big difference between accidentally touching something with a fin once of twice every hundred dives and setting out on a dive to handle a great deal of marine life. I was on a dive once when I saw a photographers assistant use a rock to bust open a sea urchin. I am sure he got some good shots, of the ensuing frenzy. These people were from another dive shop so I did not have the opportunity to express my opinion until now. What they did was wrong! What David did was wrong!

I see no difference between him moving the nudi into his portable little studio and you or I pulling one from an inconvenient location and placing it into a better setting for the pic and then putting it back. Is that ok? I have done that with crabs and lobsters. Indeed the front page of my website has a pic of my brother holding a Main Lobster (Man was that a cold dive.) So perhaps I do have a double standard, none the less I feel it is wrong to handle the nudis this way. I would not do it. I would not dive with anyone who did it. Nor would I dive with a dive shop that permitted it. And I think it high time for NG to set a higher standard.

I believe you are correct. A background can be changed in photoshop but the studio perfectly uniform soft lighting can not be created from a normal use of the flash. I could have many more stunning Nudibranch shots if I would have only moved a piece of coral out of the way.

Marjo, I agree with nothing that you have said! If David Doubliet can handle marine life to make money then so can DiverDon. So if you do not think I should be doing it, then you are way off base saying this guy has some special privilege which the rest of us lack. Whats next David Doubliet using a sea turtle for a DPV? By you logic thats fine, after all he is the worlds foremost yada yada!

Thanks for the Ideas. I have changed the Green and Orange things. I have reduced the thumbnails so they load quickly. Further I added a larger sice for many of the pics and have made other enhancements to improve functionality. Again I appreciate the ideas you guys gave me.

Very good question, I have no idea. I have found a lot of good info on wiki-pedia on my some critters. I am currently (as you could see from my website: uwworld, fascinated by squid, cuttle fish and octopi) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish But this is probably not quite the specific detail you are looking for. A lot of what you want may be available only by talking to the local dive shops. For example: when are the whale sharks in southern Leyte. check out the local dive shop Peters Dive resort www.whaleofadive.com ans: usually late November through early April.

When the Subal for my D200 needed a new circuit board it was Ryan who got it fixed for me. Ryan said that the corrosion on the board made it look like I had allowed salt water to get onto the housing. I assured him that I had not had any flood and he replaced the board at no cost to me despite concerns that he might have trouble getting compensated by Subal. I guess that there are various ways you might interpret this story. I would discuss this issue with reef photo. If I wanted to buy a Nexus from them I would ask them to send me a email assuring that they would get any warranty work required done for me. Once I had that email I would buy it and not worry about it again. I know that anything that can be fixed on a housing can be fixed at reef photo. JMHO

Loftus, you are probably correct to be skeptical. Only 17MP and not released till July 2009? I much prefer the 24MP with release to come in May 2008 rumor. And 24bit color depth? I hate to be a troglodyte, but what would you need more than 16 bit color depth for? And what would you do with it if you had it? I apologize to the board for not vetting the source before posting.

Purported Nikon D3H samples revealed? http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/05...amples.revealed Follow the link to the story if you want to use the links embedded in the story. A video from an alleged insider shows sample images from the as-of-yet unannounced Nikon D3H, which illustrate the overall scale of precision the camera could provide. With an advertised boosted ISO rating of 51,200 (25 to 12,800 native), it would indicate that Nikon is making great strides in reducing sensor noise. The video claims that the photographs were shot with a second generation prototype under various lighting conditions. The video is not the first to surface from the individual, identified on YouTube as Lilkiwiguy87, who has also posted videos with specifications of both the unofficial D3H and D3X, as well as a sneak preview of the cameras’ chassis designs. The sneak preview alludes that he is one of several worldwide to test the cameras, which may not see release this year. The alleged leaks follow Nikon’s unveiling of the standard D3 in August of 2007, which offered users a large upgrade from the company’s flagship D2/H/X platform. An upgraded firmware was also unveiled, citing a maximum pixel size of 24.4 megapixels, which was not authenticated by Nikon.