C&C, Philippines 2019 (TG5)

Shot with my new Oly TG5 (coming from Canon S95) during freediving/snorkeling in the Philippines. Don't be gentle - I'd like honest C&C and want to get an idea of which ones are boring and which ones are interesting (if any). Thanks for looking.

Thanks a lot daveco2. These were shot exclusively on the house reef of Dimakya island north of Palawan in March.

Thanks Barmaglot.

ppronovo wrote:

great use of light and great dynamic range. I especially like this first black tip reef shark and the last turtle shot with its reflection on the surface. This first image of clown fish has too much dead space on the right. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks a lot for your words and advice!

Thanks a lot! Only natural light and minor PP.

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

I love the clarity as much as the colors.

In the first one, I would have shot or cropped differently. Get rid of the bulk of the anemone base on the lower right.

There are a few shots where it looked like the best moment was missed due to slow autofocus and fish are looking/swimming away.

It looks like detail is lost on the blue Christmas Tree worm shot. I know they are tough to get right.

I like the turtle face composition.

Thanks - very helpful. I agree I should crop the clowns differently and the blue christmas tree worm was unfortunately underexposed so I had to lift it in PP. The others I shot of it missed the focus. When you say missed moment are you talking about the batfish, or other as well?

Here is another crop. Is it better? BTW I have of course hundreds of missed shots of these fast moving fish, but I like this one where the male is positioned as if protecting the baby (we all know that is nonsense of course as they are only positioned like this for a fraction of a second )

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

It's a better crop - keep going. Get rid of more of the lower right.

On missed moments, look at the difference between the clownfish looking toward the camera versus all the shots with fish swimming side to side or a bit away from you. Better to get a shark coming at you. Same with fish, for the most part.

When I shoot my RX100 II underwater, it can be very frustrating trying to catch focus on what I want when I want.

Christmas Tree worms are harder subjects than they seem, partly due to depth of field issues, and also overexposure. I'm often having to pull down highlights in some white part of a 'tree' to see the fine detail there. But my cameras (D810/D850) have lots of range for adjustments in post.

Thanks - yes I see what you mean and I'm very well aware of the general rules when shooting fish: Get down at the level of the fish and capture it while it's coming towards you. I tried for a long time to capture the blacktips coming towards me, but these creatures are just so skittish, and I only had a minute or so at a time as I was freediving. I was happy to get the two crossing blacktips but subject separation should have been better - too much 'reef disturbance' going on in that shot.

Thanks again.

Venisti, vidisti, vicisti

+1 because I can't give +10 

Thanks for sharing,

eMBie

Thanks a lot for your kind words!

Irakp wrote:

Venisti, vidisti, vicisti

Thanks a lot! I had to look that up but I think I got the meaning

Neilio wrote:

As everyone else has said, amazing colours and clarity.

Did you poop yourself when the shark arrived?

Thanks! No, most shark species don’t harm humans and are more scared of us