PLANNING A PHOTOGRAPHY DIVE
Following his last article on working the subject, Martyn Guess provides some insight into his thought process when pre-planning a photography dive to help create stand out images Photographs by Martyn Guess
M
y last couple of articles have looked at different photography techniques and observing behaviour to get some more interesting images. I touched on planning ahead in these articles and I recommend readers check them out and refresh their memories as I want to expand on the planning aspect. I see a lot of budding photographers that turn up to dive and the only pre-dive decision they have made is maybe the choice of lens they will be using, be it macro or wide angle. In part, the decision is already made for them by the destination they are diving, such as a muck-diving macro location or a blue-water shark dive, for example, or maybe they are using a compact camera with a fixed lens. When diving they react to what subjects and scenes are in front of them. This is, of course, fine, and I know that when reacting to opportunities some good photographs are taken, but with a bit of pre-planning and thinking, maybe a different lens choice or technique can be planned and then brought into action and some more pleasing and different images created. A lot of photographers get into the water and then forget to try different techniques, camera settings or types of lighting or strobe positions as they go into a safe mode and just want to get a shot in the ‘bag’. It is perhaps only when they are back at their computer that they start to think about what if I had tried opening the aperture or back lighting Image 1. Turtle silhouette. The camera was set up for this shot as I knew there were a lot of turtles the subject, or using on the site and I planned ahead. 1/320th F18 no strobes inward lighting techniques
Image 2. Motion blur grey seal. Dark overcast day so I pre-planned for this type of shot and set up my cam-era in advance 1/8th Sec ISO 100 F16
or made a silhouette (Image 1) or tried slow motion blur (image 2). Thinking specifically about different techniques to adopt before diving, taking into account the time of the day and conditions, will help concentrate the mind. As an aide memoire, I print cribs and messages to myself and stick these on the back of the camera housing and recommend this to help you remember what you have planned. My thought process starts from notes taken during a previous trip and at home before a new trip. I am an avid note taker, and I will review the notes I made of what happened on a trip, camera settings and type of lighting for certain types of images that worked or failed, equipment used or required. I then compile a synopsis which is usually made sitting on a plane coming home. When I go on the next trip, I refer to these notes beforehand and start to plan what I want to achieve. I will usually have seen an image or two from another photographer that I like and plan to try something similar, or perhaps I had tried something which didn’t quite work on the last trip so I plan how I can achieve
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