Laura feeds the fish

I think it's pretty good considering the following:

Looks like this may be below 30ft which means the first color you loose is red.The strobes, took care of that problem as I can see the yellow stripes on the yellow tail snapper. If not, very good post processing skills. Maybe have another strobe to light the right side (Divers left) but looking at the vis when this shot was taken, that probably would've been a bad idea. Looking at the photo closer....I'm actually wondering if this was a night dive..... If not, this was probably around 80ft. 

Pretty impressive actually. I say this because if this is an authentic diver..... I mean, an old picture, not a current diver wearing really old gear. Considering the photo equipment back then in the late 70's and early 80's, I would say this was a difficult shot. Specially if I am correct at deducing this is an old photo. Probably shot with slide film, in my experience, when shooting using slides, you either nail the shot or not. No histograms to check on this, so you either had to know the correct exposure or not.

I say and old photo because of the following, the BCD is really old but yet it looks brand new. The mask is quite old as well... but not as old as those round ones Jaques Cousteau us to use. The old steel aqua lung reg. It also looks like you didn't have a pressure guage which means this was an old T valve tank. I'm pretty sure that was banned after the mid 80's. 

Thanks for sharing. If you've got more of these photos please post it as I find these old dive shots a lot more interesting than the newer ones. 

I like the gloves, feeding these yellow tails snapper is fun. Except these critters often mistake your finger as part of the food. They tend to leave annoyingly painful paper cuts on your finger.

What did you use to scan this photo?

Rico:  Thanks for taking the time for your in-depth review.  You really hit a lot of the circumstances right on the head.

First, I want to mention we both did come up with ten fingers each.  They didn't bite our fingers as I recall.  I guess the left over fish I stuffed in the 35 mm canisters from the dinner the night before the dive  were tastier to them than us. We were in Pennekamp Park, Key Largo.  I think this was shot during the day although we did some night dives too. It probably wasn't more than 35 feet deep.

Yes, this is an Ektachrome, I think back around 1983 or so.  I scanned it with an Epson V500 flat bed.    I was shooting with a Nikonos and a single strobe; did PP in Elements to make it a bit darker to add contrast and highlight the fish on the right that Laura was looking at.  I think it makes it a little more dramatic.

I haven't dived in about 15 years.  But I still have the camera.  And I did have a light meter.  It was one of those incident meters that you put it in a plastic case that fits around it when you dive.

Thanks again, Alan

Correction:  Scanned with an Epson V600 not V500. Alan.

Alan,

I have put off critiquing this image even though you made a request for me to take a look at it quite a while ago. It just isn't the type of picture I enjoy looking at. For me going under the water is similar to jumping out of a perfectly functioning airplane -- it just doesn't make sense. I don't mind heated swimming pools, though. They provide an acceptable reason for girls to remove most of their clothing in public. I will give the critique a go.

Her skin tone looks quite good. I'm not sure this is the most feminine looking Laura that I have ever seem, but I don't know this particular Laura, either. The composition is quite good. She is facing into the picture rather than out of it. Her eyes are very sharp and even have catchlights. Under the circumstances, that impresses me. 

The background is nicely out of focus and is darker than your subject. Even though parts of Laura do blend into the background, she is somewhat separated from the background.

The white parts of the fish seem to be overexposed (lacking detail), but the yellow parts of the fish go nicely with the breathing tank thing around her shoulders. The fish really do distract from Laura.

Too bad you had to cut the tail off the fish in the lower left corner. It would have been nice if the fish on the middle right side had been swimming towards Laura rather than away from her. It would have made for a nicer composition.

This photograph kind of reminds me of a picture I would see from Sea World of a girl feeding fish. Sorry, but it just doesn't excite me much -- not my cup of tea. The good part is that the blue and maize does remind me of The University of Michigan -- M Go Blue!

Nice shot,

Mark

Mark:  Thanks for your critique.  I knew the picture was offbeat as portraitures go and frankly I don't recall what I as thinking 35 feet underwater at the time.  But I thought the catch lights and her sharp eyes were pretty good considering the location so I decided to ask for the critique.  I was shooting with an underwater strobe that is offset from the camera quit a bit to help eliminate lighting particles that float in the water.  It does a good job at placing the catch light at 10am on the eye, something I ought to try when shooting with flash on dry land to avoid the little lights in the center of people's pupils.  That damn fish just wouldn't turn around and face Laura, the same thing I thought about as you.  It would have been a much more interesting shot if they were staring at each other.  Thanks again.  I hope to ask for critiques in the future hopefully with more traditional exposures.
 
Alan

Cool!!