9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat mixed value for me, May 21, 2009
This review is from: The Underwater Photographer, Third Edition: Digital and Traditional Techniques (Paperback)
I'm a long time photographer, but I've only been on about 20 dives with a camera. I encountered quite a few problems on my first few dives, not with camera control, but with lighting. I learned some things the hard way, and others from various resources on the web, but I wanted a more thorough, systematic tutorial on how to improve my underwater photography. I purchased this book because I wanted something that focused on housed DSLRs, and because it was recommended on the Wetpixel forums.
The first half of the book was of no value to me. Mr. Edge uses a great deal of space to say very little. What little practical advice he gives, I'd seen elsewhere in just a few sentences:
* Get close to your subject, because water absorbs light.
* Shoot up.
* Don't disturb the reef (which every diver should know anyway).
Some of what he said was even wrong. As you can read on any underwater photography site, and as I discovered first hand, you don't want to use aperture priority or shutter priority, as he suggests. You want manual, because you want to underexpose according to available light. Even if your subject is fairly well lit, you want additional light from your strobes. Your available light is deficient in red, and your strobes can provide that.
Interestingly enough, despite what he says in the exposure chapter, he fairly consistently talks in terms of manual exposure in the rest of the book, as I would expect. One of Mr. Edge's issues seems to be that while he has extensive experience, he conveys what he knows poorly, or perhaps does not even understand his own skills that well. The text is easy enough to read, but it's often unfocused. He scatters basic flash exposure guidelines in half a dozen places, rather than in one coherent section.
Later in the book he has a decent section on exposing the background water the way you'd like, and letting the strobes take care of lighting your subject. It's unfortunate that he doesn't mention that until 160 pages after the chapter on exposure. Another fifty pages beyond that, he covers common aperture / distance / flash relationships, which also should have been covered much, much earlier.
The book starts to get valuable about halfway through, when it turns to composition. It's not what I would call very systematic, beyond well-known aphorisms such as the rule of thirds. However, simply reading Mr. Edge's descriptions of how he approached a particular shot, both in technique and preparation, often yielded valuable insights for me. It's largely a matter of mining the text for these nuggets of information.
After composition, he returns once again to technique, and this section is more valuable than the earlier technique sections in the first half of the book. He has a good deal to say about strobe positioning, for example, that I really wanted to know. Including some practical advice on not spooking fish that I hadn't considered.
I do wish he'd spent more a few pages on night photography, and said more in those pages. He doesn't even mention how vital a focusing light can be on a night dive, or even when shooting subjects in crevices or under overhangs. He shows a pair of lights mounted on his housing, but doesn't say why they are there.
Overall, I'd say that I'd learned a fair amount by the time I had finished reading, and I will no doubt re-read some sections. But I can't help but wonder how much better the book might be if Mr. Edge had a better grasp on the theory behind his skills, and was better at conveying what he knew in a coherent fashion.
- Gus
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
And so the journey continues., February 24, 2005
This review is from: The Underwater Photographer, Third Edition: Digital and Traditional Techniques (Paperback)
I recently spent a full day with Martin Edge brushing up on my own photographic skills and learning a great deal more besides. He is a man with considerable patience who pays a great deal of attention to detail. I mention this because those two attributes are reproduced in this outstanding book.
To put it another way, Martin Edge not only understands underwater photography like nobody else I have ever met, he is also able to put his knowledge and skills into writing in a manner which allows all to learn.
In this Third edition of his most successful book, Martin covers the latest techniques for digital equipment. If, like me, you were hoping to get at least another season out of your infallible 35mm film cameras and your trusty housing - forget it. Digital is here to stay and the age of film processing has all but disappeared.
In addition to acquiring all that new equipment, the entire process also requires complete retraining and the re-learning of old skills and this book is where that journey of education continues.
My honest advice to anyone who is contemplating underwater photography using digital cameras is very simple; Buy a copy of this book, read it and then wait a week before reading it again! When you consider the amount of money you are about to spend on equipment, a copy of this book is loose change by comparison - And, you will always want it with you.
For amateur and professional alike, you will learn a great deal from this book and, like me, will be a lot better off for having done so.
NM
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book for the SLR underwater photographer, November 12, 2007
This review is from: The Underwater Photographer, Third Edition: Digital and Traditional Techniques (Paperback)
The couple of poor reviews notwithstanding, this is the best focused reference on digital underwater photography I have seen so far. It is composed of bite-sized chunks of information that covers different aspects of the problem. I like the references to different techniques, lighting, burn-out, and all the other little tips that take a long time to figure out on your own. It also has great advice like how to set your camera if you are swimming around with nothing particular in mind to photograph. About the only thing I think is missing is better coverage of shooting with the ubiquitous compact cameras. That's the only reason I gave it a four. The compact photographer still has a lot to get from this book, but an awful lot is designed for the SLR shooter. Still, I recommend this book to my underwater photo students.
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