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 Subject: Photo Tip of the Week!
 
Author: Papa bear
Date:   7/21/2007 10:07 pm EDT
7-21-07 Photo tip of the week!

Motion blur is what happens when you don’t hold the camera still! You can be right on with your focus and still have a blurry picture that you blame on the camera or yourself. You can blame yourself, but not for the reason you were thinking, but because you broke the basic rule of keeping the camera still. This is even more important with cameras set to Auto that have to do all the work in a slit second. The auto cameras must open their apertures or slow the shutter to allow enough light into the camera to satisfy the internal metering system. In order to have enough light for a descent picture exposure which in turns makes the camera very sensitive to movement! I see a lot of “Snap Shooters” taking pictures of the reef as the swim by without missing a beat. Try to take a picture from a moving car and compound the problem with less light and water that is 800 times denser than air.

Stop and swim into the current to stop yourself or stop and steady yourself the best you can. I invented a tool called Reed’s Rod available at twotankedproductions.com for this very reason. It allows you if necessary to put down a point of Stainless Steel 3/8” that will help you stay off the Reef yet calming and giving you more control to take the picture. It works very well in the sand to help you get shots of Jawfish and Garden Eels. We have been teaching and supervising students using this tool for a couple years and have not seen any damage to Reefs or Habitat. It has been used under the watchful eyes of many dive masters who have told me “That is a great idea” and “Thanks for helping keep the Photographers off the Reef”!

Once you can hold yourself steady and control your buoyancy you are ready to take your picture. Make sure you press the Shutter down half way so that the auto focus can do just that, focus on your subject. Another trick is to use a small light to help your camera focus. The light can be attached in a number of ways to your camera or strobes and aim it at where you want to take the picture. Many cameras use inferred light to focus and some housings block the focus light. The small light will light the subject and help the system to auto focus. I have found it is important to put a small piece of paper the size of the lens or a piece plastic milk carton behind the lens to defuse the light and remove the hot spot that the light may make. The use of LED lights is improving this problem as the have a lot less of a hot spot and the light color is great for underwater photography!

The moral of the story is hold still and let the camera focus before you snap the shutter. You will find that your pictures will improve 100 fold.
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 Papa bear 2/13/2007 1:10 am EDT
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