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The Oberwerth William is a gorgeous, pricey leather camera bag

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Luxury bag maker Oberwerth has introduced its latest model, the William. Handmade in Germany from tumbled, full-grain cow-hide leather, its camera insert offers enough space for a DSLR, a couple of lenses and accessories, such as a flash and batteries. There is also room for a 13″ laptop and an 11″ tablet in a padded exterior pocket.

The camera insert is covered with water-resistant Cordura fabric and lined with an adjustable padding. When the insert is not needed it can be removed to transform the William into a business or casual bag. The adjustable strap features leather padding and smaller items, such as smartphones or a wallet can be stored in two smaller front pockets. The Oberwerth William is now available in dark brown or black from selected retailers or directly from the Oberwerth website for €599 (approximately $ 665).

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 4, 2016
DPReview Asks: What was your first camera?

We recently asked ten well-known photographers a simple question: “What was your first camera?” Some of the answers may surprise you.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 4, 2016
How to Make Beautiful Portraits Using Flash and High-Speed Sync

The scene: Outdoors with full sunlight. The gear: Your camera, lens, and flash. The problem: You find that your flash only works at 1/200th or below so you need to be at f/16 or f/22 to get the shot. Everything is in focus, including all the cars and other distractions in the background. Those dust spots you keep meaning to clean are also perfectly visible. Why won’t it work with a higher shutter speed so you can have a wider aperture? Well, it’s all down to the issue of sync speed, more specifically using flash and high-speed sync.

A typical portrait shot with off-camera flash.

To overpower the sun and stay below the camera’s sync speed, you’re forced to use a narrow aperture. Here I’m at f/20 just to stop the backlight overpowering the hair and the sky from blowing out. The resulting aperture means that everything is pretty much in focus, leaving the background looking cluttered. This shot is for example only, you should generally make a point of choosing clutter-free backgrounds

Sync Speed

Sync Speed is the fastest shutter speed where the camera exposes the whole frame at once. When you fire any shot below this speed, the first shutter curtain opens fully, revealing the entire sensor to light. At the end of the exposure time, the second shutter curtain moves across the frame to finish the capture. Both curtains then reset together (this means you get no light leaking in).

Generally, the sync speed varies between 1/125th and 1/250th, depending on your camera. You’ll find some quoted sync speeds are not indicated correctly. For instance, the Canon 5D series are rated at 1/200th but often show a black band at the bottom of the screen at this speed when it’s used with flash.

When you go above the sync speed, the second curtain starts to move before the first one has completed its journey. As your shutter speed gets shorter and shorter, the gap between these curtains narrows to a tiny slit. Despite this, all parts of the sensor receive light, and a full exposure is made. On a bright day, with a prime lens, you can easily shoot at 1/8000th at f/1.4 and have a perfect exposure. All parts of the frame still receive light, because it’s continuous throughout the exposure.

The Sync Speed Problem

It’s when you introduce flash that you start to have problems. You see, when a flash is fired (usually when the first curtain is opened) all the light from it comes out in a very short space of time (in order of milliseconds). When you go above (faster than) the sync speed, the position of the curtains doesn’t reveal the entire frame at the time the flash fires. The means the shutter curtain blocks part of the flash and prevents it from reaching the sensor. Any ambient light will expose normally, but the flash gets hidden in part of the frame. As your shutter speed gets faster and faster, more and more of the flash is blocked until it’s no longer visible in the shot.

Here’s a set of images taken at 1/3 stop increments with a flash. Shot on the Fuji X-T2, the first is at 1/250th, the native sync speed of the camera. In order (left to right, top to bottom) 1/250th, 1/320th, 1/400th, 1/500th, 1/630th, 1/800th, 1/1000th, and 1/1250th. Even 1/320 is useable if the subject being lit is away from the edge.

Everything in Focus

Normally when you use flash outside in daylight, you end up having everything in focus. Remember the Sunny f/16 Rule? If your subject is in direct sunlight during the day, you can set your aperture to f/16 and your shutter speed will be one over your ISO value. So if your ISO is set to 100, your shutter speed would be 1/100sth (and f/16). As another example, if your ISO is 200, then the shutter speed would be 1/200th. To get a richer sky, you’d really need to be at f/22, making it a tough job for your flash. Because you can’t get faster than 1/250 (sync speed), you have to increase the aperture to expose the shot correctly.

Shooting at f/20, 1/160 to get a richer sky for this band promo shot. It’s quite an old shot, so there were few options for reducing the aperture at the time. Even the hills in the background are in clear focus. The beach isn’t exactly pretty either.

A behind the scenes shot – two flashes on full power.

Softer light

Most speedlights at full power, bare bulb, in close, can give you just enough power to look natural at these settings. Bare flash is not flattering, though it can add character. If you want softer, more flattering, light, you need more power. Most modifiers that give soft light will take two stops of power compared to the bare flash. That’s a lot of power. You could use a more powerful light, like the Godox AD360, the Elinchrom Quadra, or the Profoto B1. Alternatively, you could use a bracket that takes multiple speedlights. Either option allows you to get soft, flattering, light while outdoors.

A higher power option is the Godox AD360. This is coupled with the Godox 120cm Octa for softer light. This is shot at f/2.8, ISO200 and 1/125th. Because it’s after sunset, you can easily get wider apertures. just one of the options you have for the shallow depth of field look.

This solves the soft light issue, but it doesn’t solve your aperture issue. For creamy bokeh (the soft out of focus background look), you need to get our aperture down. If you’re shooting in the early morning or late evening, you can do this easily, but during the day it’s an issue.

The Solution: High-Speed Sync

You’ll need to find a way to get around the issue of sync speed for daytime shooting. Fortunately, there is a solution. It’s not perfect, but it does work. It’s called High-Speed Sync, also known as Focal Plane Sync. High-Speed Sync (HSS) works in a unique way. Instead of firing the flash at the start of the shot, HSS pulses the flash throughout the whole exposure, trying to simulate the effects of a continuous light.

The AD360 set to High-Speed Sync. Usually, there’s a single button hold, or a double button combination to turn HSS on.

It works well, but it comes at the expense of power, and heat. HSS works the flash really hard. After a few shots, the flash may even shut down for cooling. For HSS to work, you need the camera to transmit HSS to flash, and for the flash have HSS built-in. All major brands allow it, though Fuji only just introduced it. Cactus Image makes a trigger called the V6II which allows you to use any HSS flash with any camera. Read my review of the Cactus V6II trigger here.

The Cactus Image V6II allows power and zoom control over a wide range of speedlights, as well as offering High-Speed Sync abilities.

The Look of HSS

You can use HSS to go over the sync speed barrier, so settings like 1/4000th at f/1.4 are achievable with flash. You get the complete control of the light using flash, but with the wide aperture you usually associate with natural light photographs. Yes, please!

Photographers like Dylan Patrick use this technique to create cinematic portraits. By shooting wide shots with shallow depth of field, you really have the option to create images that look like they were stills from the silver screen.

Settings for High-Speed Sync

Let’s look at a typical setup and settings for a shoot using HSS. This shoot happened to be done on an evening, but I really wanted shallow focus. The camera was set to f/1.4 for super shallow depth of field. To get the clouds properly exposed, I had to drop the shutter speed to 1/4000th. To get the flash (an AD360) to work I had to set it to HSS. Using a Cactus V6II trigger, I could easily get my Fuji X-T10 to shoot with HSS.

An evening HSS photo shot at 1/4000th, ISO200, f/1.4. Notice the shallow depth of field in the image.

The BTS, an AD360 with 120cm Octa, shot by my assistant Ola.

If you use Canon, the Cells II trigger provides HSS with the AD360. It would also work speedlights like the v850.

Using HSS on the AD360, I captured this shot at about 3:00 in the afternoon with the sun high in the sky. Shot with an 85mm lens at 1/2000th at f/2.5, ISO100 on a Canon 5DIII. The sun acts as a second light in the shot. Again the background is nicely out of focus.

Another High-Speed Sync portrait example.

1/1000th, f/4, ISO800. An issue with shooting outdoors on overcast days is your shutter speeds can be low enough to cause camera shake. By bumping up the ISO, you can get a faster shutter speed, keeping you safe from camera shake. Using HSS then lets the flash do the work. I’ve shot to keep the flash looking as natural as possible here.

The Alternative

High-Speed Sync isn’t the only way, you’ve got other options. The first has been mentioned. Shoot at the beginning or end of the day. You can get great sky color and you’re not fighting strong sunlight. Of course, if you’re doing any work, even as favors, you often have to work to the subjects schedule rather than your own. So, you may have to shoot at midday to suit them. That leads to the next option.

A shot of the band Drown for The Thin Air magazine. The evening light makes the shot. I needed a higher aperture to get the whole band in focus, so opted not to use HSS here.

Using Neutral Density Filter

If you shoot landscape photography, you will be familiar with Neutral Density (ND) filters. This filter allows you to slow the shutter speed down to get nice silky water. Neutral means that it adds no color, while the density part refers to blocking light. You can get them in a range of values from 1 stop to 16 stops.

For portraits, these allow you to drop the aperture down instead of shutter speed. So a 4 stop ND would take you from f/16 to f/4. The drawback is that as you block light, focusing can become harder. Another potential issue is that not all ND filters are actually neutral. Some tend to have a color cast. I have a Firecrest 10-stop for landscapes, which is neutral, but the older 4-stop I have from the same company is slightly pink.

Without the ND filter applied, the entire scene is in focus. ISO 200, f/16, 1/250th.

With the 4-stop ND filter applied, the background can be rendered out of focus. The flash is still at the same power as the shot above without the filter. The filter does have a color cast, which is hard to remove completely. ISO 200, f/4, 1/250th.

Conclusion

I hope this gives you some options and ideas for how you can make portraits outdoors even when the sun is bright, by using flash and high-speed sync. Please put your questions and comments below, and share your high-speed sync portraits as well.

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The post How to Make Beautiful Portraits Using Flash and High-Speed Sync by Sean McCormack appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

November 4, 2016
TIME to celebrate 175 years of photojournalism

TIME magazine is celebrating the birth of photography and photojournalism with a ‘multimedia experience’ telling the stories behind 100 of history’s most influential images. The project goes live at time.com/photos on November 17, but you can get a preview by way of the trailer above. A hardcover book is also available.

Are there any photos you don’t see in the trailer that you expect to see in the top 100? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 4, 2016
500 Leagues: using the Nikon D500 underwater

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By Adam Hanlon – Editor, www.wetpixel.com

The arrival of Nikon’s new DX camera, the D500, created a stir among wildlife and underwater photographers.

At Wetpixel.com we set out to thoroughly review the camera and we’ve been shooting it for over a month continuously during the Wetpixel Raja Ampat Expedition on Damai 1, the Wetpixel/Alex Mustard Lembeh Macro workshop at Lembeh Resort and in the UK’s Farne Islands with Farne Islands Divers. In the course of the past few weeks we have produced just under 9,000 images in a wide variety of conditions and photographic genres.

Nauticam NA-D500 housing, Zen 170mm dome port and Inon Z240 strobes

Underwater, the D500 produces very pleasing images straight out of the camera, with sharp details and vibrant colors.

The DX sensor delivers a 1.5 X crop factor which makes wide-angle lenses less wide and macro lenses more magnified. It also increases depth of field. The latter makes producing wide angle images with acceptable corner sharpness easier when behind a dome port and removes some of the need for shooting at high ISO sensitivities.

Traditionally, one of the advantages of FX cameras underwater has been their low light, high ISO performance. Light levels are significantly reduced underwater. This is further complicated by the need to maintain apertures of F11 or so (on FX cameras) in order to provide sufficient depth of field to ensure that the whole curved image produced by a dome port is in focus.

With a DX camera, the additional depth of field inherent in the smaller sensor size does reduce this problem somewhat, and as far as high ISO image quality is concerned, the D500 is competent to at least ISO 2000, with clean images possible beyond this point, especially after Raw post-processing. The D500’s low light performance, while not a par with the D810 or D5, is very impressive.

Autofocus

Nikon has introduced a new autofocus system in the D5 and D500 cameras, with a dedicated CPU that processes only AF data.

AF shooting modes are a matter of personal preference to some extent, and I tend to use Continuous AF (AF-C) in either 3D or 153 point Dynamic area focusing area mode. 3D Tracking uses color information from the camera’s Scene Recognition System to track the subject around the frame. It does take something of a leap of faith to trust it, but it is almost infallible, even in very low light.

Extreme low light focusing…. Bigfin reef squid, Lembeh Straits, Indonesia. D500, Nikon 60mm f2.8, 1/250 @ F6.3, ISO100.

My experience is that the D500’s AF performance is simply the best that I have ever used. With 3D tracking, following reef fish’s movements around the frame is almost too easy. It simply does not miss. Of the nearly 8,000 images shot for this review, there are no more than 20 that are are unusable due to missed focus. I should clarify though – that not all of those remaining 7920 images are focused exactly where I wanted them to be. However until the camera can read my mind, I’m confident that this is user error, not camera error!

I have found that newer AF systems are more accurate than my eye and in situations where they fail (the complete darkness inside a submerged wreck for example) locking off the autofocus at a known distance in the light zone prior to entering the darkness is a viable technique. With super macro wet lens attachments, the AF is racked in to its closest focus and then sharpness achieved by rocking the whole camera back and forth.

Ergonomically, the D500 is similar to previous Nikon DSLRs, but the ISO button has moved from the left hand side of the top-plate, over to the right near the shutter release. Although this makes perfect sense for shooting on land, it presents a challenge for housing manufacturers. It would be nice to see Nikon address this by allowing more customization of controls in a future firmware release.

Nauticam’s response to Nikon moving the ISO button is to add a lever that rests under the right thumb, just behind the shutter release.

For those coming from the D800 series, the D500’s battery life seems less. It is easy to get a day’s shooting out of a battery, which is all that is really needed, but not much more. For those used to the seemingly inexhaustible batteries of the FX models, this can seem limited. Practically, it is wise to have a few spare batteries around.

The D500 takes the ubiquitous EN-EL15 Li-ion batteries, but older versions can cause issues. If you have a collection of EN-EL15 cells from previous-generation Nikon DSLRs, make sure that they’re marked ‘Li-ion20’ on the underside.

Whilst the touch screen is of limited value underwater, it does allow for quick and easy image reviews (you can even two finger pinch to zoom in), as well as efficient input of text into the camera’s copyright, image comments and IPTC settings. The latter is another new feature, previously only available on the newer single digit D series cameras. IPTC information can also be loaded from a PC using either Nikon’s app (which needs Silverlight) or the free IPTC Preset Editor

Speed

The D500 is capable of shooting at up to 10 frames per second, with a buffer of 200 frames. When paired with a fast XQD card, it can shoot almost indefinitely. I cannot seem to make the buffer fill. It is so much faster than the D810 that it makes the latter feel pretty stodgy.

Speed test showing the performance of a Lexar 64GB 2933X Professional XQD card using a Lexar Professional Workflow XR2 XQD 2.0 USB 3.0 card reader.

Of course, when shooting with strobes their recycle times will effect shooting speed far more than the camera. In this instance, the lack of a a pop up flash is actually an advantage. Using electrical connections or the excellent electro-optical converters like that in Nauticam’s D500 housing will allow some of this camera’s potential speed to be used.

For shooting big animals underwater and fast action without a strobe, this camera is blazingly fast. In conjunction with the speed and accuracy of the AF mentioned above, I expect that this camera will be responsible for some very impressive images during the course of its product lifespan. In a world where getting the shot is crucial, this camera sets new standards.

Summing up

To sum up, the D500 is, in my opinion, the best camera that Nikon currently make for underwater use. To be sure, there are some specific things that it does not do as well as some of the other models in Nikon’s product range, but if I had to select one camera to do it all, I’d pick the D500.

The level of detail that is possible to capture can be seen in this image of a mantis shrimp with its eggs. D500, Nikon 60mm f2.8, 1/250@f20, ISO100

It is perhaps unfair to compare the two in terms of pure image quality, but if I was planning to solely shoot large wide angle reef scenes, the D810 combined with big powerful strobes like the Seacam Seaflash 150s or Ikelite DS161 would still be my tool of choice. That said, the D810 needs to be paired with expensive lenses and large (and also expensive) ports to really deliver its potential. It is both simpler and significantly cheaper to shoot with the D500.

For macro use, the D800/D810 allows for more cropping while retaining acceptable resolution. For shy or skittish subjects, this can be an advantage. However, the D500 offers a 1.5 X crop factor, which gives macro lenses more reach by definition. The D500’s amazing AF performance will do a better job of keeping those subjects in focus too!

For those already shooting the D7200, the D500 offers significantly better AF, improved low light performance, a more rugged build quality and faster shooting. The downside, of course, is the cost of the camera and a new housing.

For underwater photographers still shooting with a Nikon D300 or D300s, now is the time to upgrade. The performance enhancements will allow you to capture images that your existing setup simply will not. The ability to properly use ISO as an aid to exposure, the improved image quality, the AF performance and its overall speed are all persuasive arguments for the D500 becoming your next camera.

Thanks to Phoebe Lu of Nauticam for supplying their NA-D500 housing and 45° magnified viewfinder to me for use with this review. Many thanks to the crew, staff and my fellow guests on all the trips. Visit www.wetpixel.com for the latest in underwater photography news and reviews.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 4, 2016
6 Tips for How to Build a Story and Shoot a Photo Project
I’m a strong believer that setting yourself photo projects is the best way to improve your photography skills. Projects give you focus and help you build a cohesive body of work. A photo project can last for years, and set a theme that helps you find new people and subjects to photograph.

Of course, you may be wondering what sort of project you could set yourself that would achieve these aims. A project can be simple, like photographing flowers in your back yard, or it can be more complex, such as travelling to a foreign country and photographing the people you find there.

Getting ideas for a photo project

You’ll find lots of inspiration at websites like Feature Shoot that regularly publish photo projects.

I’m going to give you some advice on tackling a project by giving you some examples from a project that I undertook to photograph artists and craftspeople. I have learned a number of things from this project.

Here are some of the most important:
- Meeting new people and learning about their crafts is interesting. I like meeting and talking to new people and learning about their lives. The brief window I have during the shoot is a chance to connect and talk about art and creativity, as well as the work of the artist or craftsperson. Some of those people have become friends. This project has rewarded me on a personal level as well as on a photographic one.
- It helps me find something interesting to photograph. For example, 18 months ago I spent three days in Raglan, a small town on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Before I went, I contacted two local craftspeople and asked if I could drop by and take some photos. Both said yes – and I made my most interesting photos on the trip during those two shoots.
- The project grows by itself. I send photos to the people I photograph, then ask them if they know of anybody else who may be interested. These personal introductions and recommendations help me find new artists and craftspeople to photograph.
- My portraiture skills have improved. Practice makes perfect, and every shoot means I get a little better at this documentary style of portraiture.
Here’s a portrait I made of artist Chris Meek, one of the artists I photographed in Raglan. We had a great conversation about art, creativity, and life. I’d never have had this experience if I hadn’t embarked on the project.

So, once you’ve decided on a project, how do you make it a success? These ideas will help.

1. Shoot a variety of images

This is important because it adds interest and variety to the photos you get from the shoot. But I’d like to add a proviso, because I think in general there are two ways to approach a project shoot.

Firstly, is to concentrate all your resources on getting one great photo. The second is to create a set of varied photos that collectively give a better interpretation and tell a story.

My suggestion is to combine these two approaches. Aim to create a variety of photos, but give each photo your best effort. In other words, when you see the possibility of an image, give it your full attention and make it as good as you can before you move on to the next.

How do you create variety? Here are two ways:

1. Vary your viewpoint. Get closer to your subject, or farther away. Take photos from below, or from above. Of course, the best viewpoint depends a lot on the subject of your project, the light, and the lenses you are using. But the key is to always be thinking about how you can add variety by moving around and taking photos from different angles.

2. Take scene setting shots and close-ups. You could start with a scene-setting photo that captures everything, then move on and create a variety of photos from closer viewpoints showing details.

This works well for projects like mine, where you can take a photo of the artist or craftsperson at work in their studio, along with a series of tighter images and close-ups that show them at work. In this example, you can also take photos of the product the craftsperson makes as well as photos of the craftsperson themselves.

These two photos show Todd, a flute maker, working in his garage. Both were taken with the same lens, but I got a lot closer to make the second image.

This also applies to more static subjects like landscapes. If you have a landscape related project, you can create variety with photos that show the entire scene, mixed with some that show close-ups of details that you noticed within the scene.

2. Tell a story

It’s often hard to a story with a single image, but it’s much easier with a sequence of photos because you can show different aspects of the same story in each one.

For example, with my photos of craftsmen I like to show images taken at different stages of the creation process. Put together they show how a certain item was made. That’s the story. These three photos show different stages in the creation of an artwork by Chris Meek.

You can also tell a story by paying attention to detail. While taking photos of Eoin, a glass blower, I noticed that his hands gave away a lot about his profession. So I made sure that I took photos like this, that shows the dirt on his hands and the tattoo on his thumb.

3. Find commonalities that link the photos

While photo stories need variety amongst the images to create interest, it is helpful if the photos are also linked in some way. For example, you could process all the photos from a shoot in black and white. Or they could be processed in a similar style, perhaps by using the same Lightroom Develop Preset as the basis for the processing.

Or, if you have a project that involves portraits, you could use light to link the photos. Using the same lighting setup for each portrait is one way to to do that.

These photos of Jasmin, a weaver who makes hats, are linked by the lighting and the processing. Each is lit by natural light coming through a window in her home, and given the same color treatment in Lightroom.

4. Show genuine interest in people

If your project involves people it is important to be genuinely interested in them and what they are doing. Let’s say, for example, you undertake a project taking portraits of surfers. You’ll get the best results if you are genuinely interested in surfing and enjoy talking with surfers.

It’s all about authenticity. If you’re genuinely interested in people, you will have plenty in common and find it easy to talk with them. But, if you’re not, then you won’t make the connection that is essential for good portraiture.

5. Give it time

Give your projects time to evolve and mature. For example, if you have a project photographing your local landscape, giving it time lets you create a series of photos that show the variation created by weather and seasons. Showing the changes that happen over a period of time is also another way of telling a story.

6. Compare and evolve

The reason why projects are such a good learning experience is because they give you the opportunity to compare your current work with your earlier photos. You will see how your ideas and techniques have evolved over time. You’ll also benefit by building a body of work and learning to edit a portfolio by selecting the strong images that work together.

Your turn

Have you undertaken any photography projects? Did they help you become a better photographer? Please share your thoughts and project in the comments below.

The Creative Image

If you found this article interesting then please download my free ebook, The Creative Image for 10 brilliant ideas for creative photography projects you can do.

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The post 6 Tips for How to Build a Story and Shoot a Photo Project by Andrew S. Gibson appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
November 4, 2016
Tips for Doing Macro Underwater Photography

Look at the photograph below. What an unreal, alien animal! It could be right out of one of the many upcoming Star Wars sequels. You just don’t see creatures like that in your everyday life. It’s a sea slug (to be scientifically precise: Nembrotha Kubayana) which I photographed 20 meters underwater on a reef in the Philippines. The head of the slug is only about a centimeter across, so the image is quite a close-up (macro photograph).

If it doesn’t sound easy to dive 20, 30 or more meters below the ocean’s surface to take a picture of a slug the size of your pinky – it isn’t. But with the right gear, with the proper knowledge and experience using that gear, and with skills to find those small animals you can do it too. So let’s talk about each of these points one at a time.

The Gear

Naturally, you will need an underwater camera. There are a number of great choices these days. Compact cameras have greatly improved in recent years, and you can get a pretty good deal on a camera plus the fitting underwater housing. Many camera manufacturers make acrylic housings for their own compact camera models, which tend to be a lot cheaper than third party models. To have any chance of taking good macro shots, you need a strobe or a video light as well.

Me with my underwater camera setup. Note the diopter (magnifying lens) attached to the front of the lens port. The strobe is relatively close to the port and aimed slightly forward. The closer the subject, the closer the strobe can be to the port. The farther away the subject is, the further the strobe has to be to avoid backscatter.

If you have a lot of money or if you are obsessed with underwater photography (like myself) you can get yourself a DSLR, and put it in an underwater housing. I have been using a Canon 5DII in a Hugyfot (machined aluminum) housing, with two Inon z-240 strobes for several years now. Camera choice is an interesting and complex issue, but I want to concentrate on the gear you need specifically for underwater macro photography.

Macro lens

Another sea slug, from Botany Bay, Australia.

Modern macro lenses are technological miracles. If you are using a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, you can switch lenses. So you need to mount one that is capable of focusing close up, with significant magnifying power. I routinely use the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens(price it on Amazon or B&H Photo), which can focus at 35 centimeters. That distance is measured from the sensor plane, hence I can place the subject only a few centimeters in front of the housing’s lens port. The sharpness this lens achieves when capturing minute animals is simply amazing. Nikon’s 105mm macro (price it on Amazon or at B&H Photo) is a legendary lens as well, and for cameras with cropped sensors (mirrorless cameras and entry to mid-level SLRs) 60mm macro lenses do a great job.

Other options

A small, but clever piece of gear I have been using with quite some success, is an extension tube. It’s simply a spacer inserted between the macro lens and the camera body. The extension tube eliminates the ability of the lens to focus to infinity (not used in macro photography anyway) and adds another 20% of magnification. The fact that no additional lens elements are introduced is a good thing for image quality.

Diopters (also called close-up filters) are also highly recommended. A diopter is simply a magnifying glass which is placed on the front of the camera’s lens. This is not ideal in terms of the optics, and distortions towards the edges are possible. With diopters, it makes sense to invest in a quality product to minimize such distortions. However, the amount of magnification achieved with a good diopter is absolutely mind-boggling. It can turn your underwater camera setup into a field microscope.

Another goby, very well camouflaged on a soft coral.

You can get both dry diopters which are attached to the actual lens, and wet diopters which are attached to the lens port on the outside of the housing. Wet diopters exist for DSLR and compact camera underwater setups. The convenient thing about the wet ones is that you can take them off underwater, and shoot larger animals again.

Tip: Make sure you store your wet diopter in a safe place when it’s not mounted.

Request: If you see a wet diopter for a 10cm diameter macro port, with a gray plastic mount somewhere on the west coast of Cebu, please return it to me.

How to use your macro gear

I’d like to stress two things when it comes to the proper camera technique for macro underwater photography – camera settings and strobe placement.

Almost all the light for your underwater photographs will come from your artificial light source anyway, so the shutter speed is usually not important. It needs to be equal or slower than the maximum speed your camera can synchronize with the strobes. That kind of information will be in the user manual for your camera since it differs between camera models. Otherwise, a shutter speed as fast as possible is beneficial for sharp images.

A small goby on a piece of hard coral, with the entire image in sharp focus. Canon 5DII, Canon USM 100mm f2.8 lens, at f/22.

Aperture considerations

A small aperture helps to keep the whole scene in your image sharp. Macro lenses naturally have a shallower depth of field due to the distance to subject being much smaller. So to photograph a tiny goby and all of the pretty coral it perches on, with all of it in focus, I use an aperture anywhere from f/22 to f/32 (that’s the smallest my Canon 100mm f2.8 macro can do).

There is also the option of using a wider aperture to achieve a Japanese-style effect in your images. Such a photographic style is indeed popular with Japanese underwater photographers these days. It is somewhat reminiscent of the late medieval Japanese painting style where the artists would just hint at a few twigs to depict a tree. How wide you can go depends on your lens, the distance to the subject and its orientation. The aperture of f/4.2 used in the picture below is as wide open as I can go. Whenever I can, I set my camera to approximately correct values before the dive so that I don’t have to find my way around in the menus while already underwater with a cool fish showing up in photographic range.

Only the face of this stick pipefish from Sydney in Australia is in focus. This Japanese style shot gives the image a dreamy atmosphere. Olympus TG-1, at f/4.2.

Lighting

You will need to use artificial light for most of your macro shots. Light-hungry macro lenses will not make good images with sunlight in many situations on land, and underwater, with so much sunlight absorbed by the water above you, they do even worse. The internal flash of most cameras is not strong enough and it’s in a less-than-ideal position just above the lens.

Avoid back-scatter

The external strobes you use should be mounted on some kind of adjustable or bendable arm. Keep them positioned moderately close to your lens, and a bit behind it. In underwater photography, you are always aiming to avoid back-scatter. Your strobe will light up the suspended particles in the stretch of water between your lens and the sea slug, and this will make your image look as if taken in a snow storm. There is nothing quite as annoying in underwater photography than a well composed, well lit shot, with a lot of back-scatter ruining it. You can take care of back-scatter in post-processing to some degree in some shots, but it’s a pain and better avoided, to begin with. Back-scatter is to underwater photography what blisters are to hiking.

A diver on a shipwreck in the Philippines. These are harsh conditions for underwater photography. I had my strobes turned outwards, and placed away from the camera, but not enough. The illuminated particles (the back-scatter) stand out especially in front of the darker part of the wreck.

When shooting wide-angle underwater, you need to place your strobes far away from your lens and slightly outward-oriented to avoid illuminating any particles in front of the lens’s wide field of view. This minimizes the amount of light reaching the space between your lens and the subject.

Positioning your strobes

In underwater macro photography, the situation is not quite as difficult. Still, the further away you are from the subject (the distance may vary between the subject almost touching the front of the lens port to no more than 30cm) the more you need to move your strobes away from the lens. When I am really close, I try to mimic a ring-flash with my two underwater strobes. In case you haven’t seen one, a ring-flash is a circular light source which is mounted on the front of a macro lens. Such a strobe is often used in land-based macro photography. It provides very even illumination. Putting one of my underwater strobes close to each side of my camera’s lens port gives me a similar type of direct, smooth illumination.

How to find good underwater macro subjects

Photo legend Jim Richardson is quoted as saying that, “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”. Underwater, that’s not quite true. You need to hover in the water in front of more interesting stuff, or at least lay in the sand in front of more interesting stuff, but that doesn’t look quite as stylish. And you should definitely not lay on corals in front of more interesting stuff because you may break them and it will evoke the rightful anger of a lot of other divers!

A flamboyant cuttlefish hunting in the Philippines. This animal is about 5cm long.

Good buoyancy will have other advantages besides not breaking corals (thank you again for not doing that). If you are stable in the water, you will be able to position yourself in a proper position in front of the animal you’d like to shoot. You will also not stir up silt or sand from the bottom, which would then cloud the image you are about to capture and cause the aforementioned dreaded back-scatter.

Whip coral goby, Moalboal, Philippines.

Back-scatter happens, to the best of us, including myself (above).

In the bottom image (before) we see way too much backscatter. I did two things. First I corrected the exposure of the image, cutting off the darkest part. This eliminated some of the unsightly dots. The remaining white dots I removed with the healing brush in my image processing program. The resulting image on top is vastly improved by these two post-processing manipulations.

Don’t spook your subjects

A neutrally buoyant, controlled, and calm approach towards your photo subjects will also reduce the chance of spooking them. There is a lot to be said for good buoyancy when photographing underwater. If you are not quite there yet with your positional control while diving, try photographing less easily spooked animals like slugs and sea urchins, and save the shrimp (very nervous) or the blennies (very fast) for the future once you have improved your buoyancy.

A blenny. Not easy to catch!

Hunting subjects

What you have to figure out next is where to find those psychedelic slugs and the fish straight out of Salvador Dali’s sketchbook. If you are on a diving vacation in some foreign tropical land, just follow your guide, and pay good attention to what he points at. The guys and gals guiding every day, year in and out, in the same location, usually know their reefs really well and are proud to show off the unusual animals on it. It also helps to have a quick chat with your dive guide beforehand and to tell him that you are out to find interesting macro subjects.

If you are diving on your own, things will move a bit slower. You will have to become that expert guide yourself. Study the reef when you are diving and study marine life books and web resources on land to figure out what to look for, where, and when. Certain animals will only be active at night, or at sunset (like the famous mandarin fish shown below). Some crabs will only live on one species of soft coral, and some shrimps will only live on the skin of certain sea cucumbers. If you don’t know where to look for them, it’ll be near impossible to find them. It’s a curious psychological effect that you will find such animals over and over again after you have spotted them once for the first time.

A mandarin fish! So pretty!

Sea slug laying its eggs (these slugs called nudibranchs are hermaphrodites, functioning as males and females at the same time). It was magic moments of animal behavior like these that got me addicted to macro photography underwater.

Conclusion

To become a skilled macro underwater photographer you need patience. Go for a dive, take some shots, come back, look at them, and think about them. Rinse (your camera gear, and yourself) and repeat. Take your time to inspect your work, and to reflect on what you could do differently next time. I recommend that you consider the points above during each and every iteration and the following questions:

Did I bring the right gear? Did I use it properly? Did I do a good job in finding that fascinating new sea slug?

Please put your comments and questions below, and do please share your underwater photos there too. We’d love to see them.

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The post Tips for Doing Macro Underwater Photography by Dr. Klaus M. Stiefel appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

November 4, 2016
Throwback Thursday: Nikon D40
Nikon’s first truly beginner-friendly DSLR turns 10 years old this month. The Nikon D40 was introduced in November of 2006, bringing with it for the first time on-screen tips for novice digital photographers. It was the company’s smallest and lightest DSLR at the time, paring down some of the more advanced features found on the likes of the D80 and the D50, and was the first Nikon DSLR to do away with a built-in AF motor. For $ 600 you got:
- A 6MP CCD sensor
- 3-point AF Multi-CAM530 sensor
- 2.5 fps burst shooting
- A ‘large’ 2.5″ 230k-dot LCD
- ISO 200-1600 with 3200 expansion
- A version II AF-S DX 18-55mm kit lens
Reviewer and site founder Phil Askey was careful to point out that the D40 wasn’t just a dumbed down D50 – it brought numerous improvements that happened to be targeted toward a first-time DSLR owner. D40 shoppers weren’t likely to care about the lack of support for older lenses, and the resolution was more than enough (who needs 8 megapixels?) for its target audience. Askey did lament the loss of a top-panel LCD (they still haven’t found their way back into Nikon’s entry level) and the fact that shooting Raw + JPEG recorded only basic-quality JPEGs.

Overall though, the Nikon D40 went down as Highly Recommended, and an excellent value. Did you own the D40? Do you feel old now? Let us know your D40 memories in the comments below.

Read our full Nikon D40 Review

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
November 4, 2016
500 Leagues: using the Nikon D500 underwater

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By Adam Hanlon – Editor, www.wetpixel.com

The arrival of Nikon’s new DX camera, the D500, created a stir among wildlife and underwater photographers.

At Wetpixel.com we set out to thoroughly review the camera and we’ve been shooting it for over a month continuously during the Wetpixel Raja Ampat Expedition on Damai 1, the Wetpixel/Alex Mustard Lembeh Macro workshop at Lembeh Resort and in the UK’s Farne Islands with Farne Islands Divers. In the course of the past few weeks we have produced just under 9,000 images in a wide variety of conditions and photographic genres.

Nauticam NA-D500 housing, Zen 170mm dome port and Inon Z240 strobes

Underwater, the D500 produces very pleasing images straight out of the camera, with sharp details and vibrant colors.

The DX sensor delivers a 1.5 X crop factor which makes wide-angle lenses less wide and macro lenses more magnified. It also increases depth of field. The latter makes producing wide angle images with acceptable corner sharpness easier when behind a dome port and removes some of the need for shooting at high ISO sensitivities.

Traditionally, one of the advantages of FX cameras underwater has been their low light, high ISO performance. Light levels are significantly reduced underwater. This is further complicated by the need to maintain apertures of F11 or so (on FX cameras) in order to provide sufficient depth of field to ensure that the whole curved image produced by a dome port is in focus.

With a DX camera, the additional depth of field inherent in the smaller sensor size does reduce this problem somewhat, and as far as high ISO image quality is concerned, the D500 is competent to at least ISO 2000, with clean images possible beyond this point, especially after Raw post-processing. The D500’s low light performance, while not a par with the D810 or D5, is very impressive.

Autofocus

Nikon has introduced a new autofocus system in the D5 and D500 cameras, with a dedicated CPU that processes only AF data.

AF shooting modes are a matter of personal preference to some extent, and I tend to use Continuous AF (AF-C) in either 3D or 153 point Dynamic area focusing area mode. 3D Tracking uses color information from the camera’s Scene Recognition System to track the subject around the frame. It does take something of a leap of faith to trust it, but it is almost infallible, even in very low light.

Extreme low light focusing…. Bigfin reef squid, Lembeh Straits, Indonesia. D500, Nikon 60mm f2.8, 1/250 @ F6.3, ISO100.

My experience is that the D500’s AF performance is simply the best that I have ever used. With 3D tracking, following reef fish’s movements around the frame is almost too easy. It simply does not miss. Of the nearly 8,000 images shot for this review, there are no more than 20 that are are unusable due to missed focus. I should clarify though – that not all of those remaining 7920 images are focused exactly where I wanted them to be. However until the camera can read my mind, I’m confident that this is user error, not camera error!

I have found that newer AF systems are more accurate than my eye and in situations where they fail (the complete darkness inside a submerged wreck for example) locking off the autofocus at a known distance in the light zone prior to entering the darkness is a viable technique. With super macro wet lens attachments, the AF is racked in to its closest focus and then sharpness achieved by rocking the whole camera back and forth.

Ergonomically, the D500 is similar to previous Nikon DSLRs, but the ISO button has moved from the left hand side of the top-plate, over to the right near the shutter release. Although this makes perfect sense for shooting on land, it presents a challenge for housing manufacturers. It would be nice to see Nikon address this by allowing more customization of controls in a future firmware release.

Nauticam’s response to Nikon moving the ISO button is to add a lever that rests under the right thumb, just behind the shutter release.

For those coming from the D800 series, the D500’s battery life seems less. It is easy to get a day’s shooting out of a battery, which is all that is really needed, but not much more. For those used to the seemingly inexhaustible batteries of the FX models, this can seem limited. Practically, it is wise to have a few spare batteries around.

The D500 takes the ubiquitous EN-EL15 Li-ion batteries, but older versions can cause issues. If you have a collection of EN-EL15 cells from previous-generation Nikon DSLRs, make sure that they’re marked ‘Li-ion20’ on the underside.

Whilst the touch screen is of limited value underwater, it does allow for quick and easy image reviews (you can even two finger pinch to zoom in), as well as efficient input of text into the camera’s copyright, image comments and IPTC settings. The latter is another new feature, previously only available on the newer single digit D series cameras. IPTC information can also be loaded from a PC using either Nikon’s app (which needs Silverlight) or the free IPTC Preset Editor

Speed

The D500 is capable of shooting at up to 10 frames per second, with a buffer of 200 frames. When paired with a fast XQD card, it can shoot almost indefinitely. I cannot seem to make the buffer fill. It is so much faster than the D810 that it makes the latter feel pretty stodgy.

Speed test showing the performance of a Lexar 64GB 2933X Professional XQD card using a Lexar Professional Workflow XR2 XQD 2.0 USB 3.0 card reader.

Of course, when shooting with strobes their recycle times will effect shooting speed far more than the camera. In this instance, the lack of a a pop up flash is actually an advantage. Using electrical connections or the excellent electro-optical converters like that in Nauticam’s D500 housing will allow some of this camera’s potential speed to be used.

For shooting big animals underwater and fast action without a strobe, this camera is blazingly fast. In conjunction with the speed and accuracy of the AF mentioned above, I expect that this camera will be responsible for some very impressive images during the course of its product lifespan. In a world where getting the shot is crucial, this camera sets new standards.

Summing up

To sum up, the D500 is, in my opinion, the best camera that Nikon currently make for underwater use. To be sure, there are some specific things that it does not do as well as some of the other models in Nikon’s product range, but if I had to select one camera to do it all, I’d pick the D500.

The level of detail that is possible to capture can be seen in this image of a mantis shrimp with its eggs. D500, Nikon 60mm f2.8, 1/250@f20, ISO100

It is perhaps unfair to compare the two in terms of pure image quality, but if I was planning to solely shoot large wide angle reef scenes, the D810 combined with big powerful strobes like the Seacam Seaflash 150s or Ikelite DS161 would still be my tool of choice. That said, the D810 needs to be paired with expensive lenses and large (and also expensive) ports to really deliver its potential. It is both simpler and significantly cheaper to shoot with the D500.

For macro use, the D800/D810 allows for more cropping while retaining acceptable resolution. For shy or skittish subjects, this can be an advantage. However, the D500 offers a 1.5 X crop factor, which gives macro lenses more reach by definition. The D500’s amazing AF performance will do a better job of keeping those subjects in focus too!

For those already shooting the D7200, the D500 offers significantly better AF, improved low light performance, a more rugged build quality and faster shooting. The downside, of course, is the cost of the camera and a new housing.

For underwater photographers still shooting with a Nikon D300 or D300s, now is the time to upgrade. The performance enhancements will allow you to capture images that your existing setup simply will not. The ability to properly use ISO as an aid to exposure, the improved image quality, the AF performance and its overall speed are all persuasive arguments for the D500 becoming your next camera.

Thanks to Phoebe Lu of Nauticam for supplying their NA-D500 housing and 45° magnified viewfinder to me for use with this review. Many thanks to the crew, staff and my fellow guests on all the trips. Visit www.wetpixel.com for the latest in underwater photography news and reviews.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 4, 2016
Huawei Mate 9 comes with next generation Leica dual-cam

Huawei has today launched its latest top-end phablet, the Mate 9. The new device features a large 5.9″ LCD IPS display with 1080p resolution and 1500:1 contrast ratio. In the camera department the Mate 9 comes with a new dual-camera that, like its counterpart in the P9, was co-developed with camera manufacturer Leica.

The new version of the Huawei dual-cam boosts resolution of its monochrome sensor to 20MP (up from 12MP in the P9) with a 12MP color chip. Both lenses feature an F2.2 aperture. There is a new 6-axis optical image stabilization system and a 4-in-1 hybrid AF system that combines, contrast detection, phase detection, laser time-of-flight measurements and depth information.

As before, image data from both sensors is combined to achieve better image results than conventional cameras. Like on the P9, the dual-camera can also simulate the bokeh of a fast lens on a DSLR, but Huawei says the effect has been improved and is now visible in the live-view image.

In addition the camera features a new hybrid zoom system, which uses image information from the 20MP monochrome sensor for ‘lossless’ digital zooming of the 12MP standard image output. Huawei says that, thanks to improved compression methods, the camera’s 4K video mode creates smaller file sizes without a loss in image quality. The front camera features an 8MP sensor and F1.9 aperture.

Android 7.0 and Huawei’s EMUI 5.0 launcher are powered by the in-house Kirin 960 CPU, which, according to Huawei, delivers 180% more performance than the predecessor Kirin 950. Huawei also claims the 4000mAh battery is good for 2.5 days of normal use per charge, or 1.7 days of intensive use. An improved version of Huawei’c quick charging system is on board as well. The Huawei Mate 9 with 4GB RAM, 64GB storage and microSD support will be available in mocha, black, white, gold, space grey and silver and cost €699 in Europe (approximately $ 775).

Huawei also introduced a limited Porsche Design edition of the Mate 9. This luxury device comes with 6GB of RAM, 256GB of internal memory and features a 5.5″ curved 2K AMOLED display. Other specifications are identical to the standard Mate 9. The Porsche Edition will be sold exclusively through Porsche Design Stores and set you back a hefty €1395 ($ 1545).

Related: Huawei P9 Review

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 4, 2016