May 9, 2008

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Shooting Wide Angle

Underwater Photography Tips and Techniques on Shooting Wide Angle.

Although underwater wide angle photography is practiced by far less photographers, it produces some of the most impactful images, as well as, some of the most marketable ones. The wide angle of coverage allows you to get closer to your subject, which reduces the amount of water volume between the subject and your lens. Since all water has some particulate matter in it, the less volume of water between the subject and your lens the more detail your images will have. This is always true of underwater macro photography where that distance is ussually only a few inches. But in order to get close to a larger subject such as a diver you need the larger angle of coverage offered by wide angle lenses.

Another advantage to getting close to your subject is that your strobe or artificial lighting will be able to reach your subject without travelling through too mch water volume, which will diminish its effectivness resulting in an image with pale colors.

Advantages

1. Alows you to get closer to your subject increasing detail, clarity and color of you are using strobes.
2. Ability to photograph larger subjects, such as wrecks, large animals and divers.
3. Increased Depth of Field

Challenges

1. Dual strobes often needed for even lighting across entire picture area.
2. Subjects, unless they are large often appear too small in the photo.
3. Watch the Corners - Unwanted objects such as other diver's fins can end up in the corners of your shots unless you are careful.