NEWS - Emirates Diving Association

UW PHOTOGRAPHY
PIC FIX
your images exposed and REFLECTED
FEATURE Marcelo Mariozi – PHOTO@EMIRATESDIVING.COM
In this edition of Pic Fix, I would like to discuss a bit about our path
in photography. Most people that buy a camera, be it an underwater
camera or a “normal” one, tend to think of it as an end product, one
that would solve all their needs to take photographs. But no matter
how good or “pro” a camera is, it generally creates more problems, or
generates more doubts than it solves.
Every photography course, underwater ones included, will start with a
famous phrase: “photography is painting with light”. The student’s thought
to this is “alright, let’s
skip to the important
things”. I know, it was
just what I thought
when I started, only
after years of shooting
did the concept really
sink in. It is exactly that!
Imagine a photographer
and a painter…one
uses paint, the other
uses light; the first
paints with charcoal,
brushes and spatulas
while the second uses
lenses, tripods, filters,
triggers…and finally
both of them needs a
medium to paint on. For
the painter it’s a canvas,
for the photographer
it’s the sensor inside
their camera.
And that’s what
cameras are, canvases.
Very advanced and
infinite (depending
on your memory card) canvases. But one could argue that the most
important thing, other than the vision of the photographer are the
brushes and accessories that he uses to express his feelings through his
art (this should be a whole new article!). And lenses, filters, and flashes
for underwater photographers ARE definitely the most important part
of his or her activity. It’s their mastery in the use of such tools that will
create, or more precisely “portray” a good image. And we had a night of
these examples at the 2010 EDA Gala Dinner where the Digital Online
results were presented.
In this edition of Pic Fix I will give my editing skills a well deserved break,
and I will present similar photographs from several participants. EDA
magazine readers will be able to draw their own conclusions.
In the image on the left by Karim Saad, you can obviously see the
difference an external flash makes…and it makes a big difference on an
otherwise very competent image, a good subject, nicely composed and
focused. But underwater the need for extra “paint” is enormous and
we need to carry our own colours, and for us that means an external
underwater flash head, strobes.
SHARK AWARENESS PHOTO EXHIBITION | 2010
In the second image above by Philippe Lecomte, you can see the
difference the strobes made, but then other factors came into play, such
as the subject orientation almost asking for a vertical format, distracting
focus issues on the foreground, and a competing background…but still
this image scored higher than the first, that’s just how important “light”
is to our “painting”.
I will not post a third image here, but you can check Peter Mainka’s
winning image in the Macro category in our EDA Digital Online
Photography Competition results. When we manage to put all the
factors together we have a successful image that was easily recognized
by our international jury.
Good shooting!
54 EMIRATES DIVING ASSOCIATION, SEPTEMBER 2010 SEPTEMBER 2010, EMIRATES DIVING ASSOCIATION 55