Photo Clinic, Part 7

Common Photo Diseases
     Most scuba photographers take more "bad" pictures than good pictures. But some goofs are easily avoided. This section lists some common sicknesses that can afflict your photos. Immunize yourself against them, and you'll definitely increase your "keeper" to trash-can ratio.
     Bubblosis. This disease strikes diver portraits and diver-sealife interaction shots. You see the perfect shot, balance your ambient light, and confidently click the shutter. But when the slides come back, your dive buddy is suffering bubblosis.

There's nothing wrong with some bubbles in the picture. They can provide a sense of action and can "place" the photo underwater. But Bubblosis -- those annoying bubbles obscuring the face -- just ruins the mood. (Note: this picture also has "Hosititis" -- see below.)      To avoid facial bubbles, keep your other eye (the one NOT looking through the viewfinder) open so you can time your shot. You can miss important details when you're squinting through a tiny viewfinder.

     Hosititis. Nice shots of your dive buddy. But everybody keeps asking about his dive equipment, because all they can see is hoses, everywhere. Your pictures have Hosititis.

This could have been a great picture. But once you spot that errant octopus hose, your eye follows it back to the first stage and tank, and then your eye gets lost behind the diver. Dang! Hosititis strikes again.      Control those hoses on your photo model. Clip 'em, tuck 'em, hide 'em.

     Particulosis. It's a great day for macro shots, and you've found some incredible critters to photograph. But when the pictures come back -- curses -- they suffer from particulosis, those annoying white dots.

A hermit crab crawls over the sail of a shipwreck. But particulosis ruins this picture. Particles in the water are illuminated by the flash.      To cure particulosis, get close. (If the surge is heavy, dive with the lens or macro tube that lets you get closest to your subject.) Don't stir up any more silt yourself. And -- important -- aim your strobe properly. Light up only the subject, not the water in front of it. Move the strobe OFF the camera if necessary.

     Ghostitis. Why do all your fellow divers look like Casper the Friendly Ghost? Well, your pictures suffer from ghostitis, also known as facial burnout syndrome. This malady occurs when too much light hits your dive buddy's face, burning out this area of the picture.

Ghostitis results when you use too large an aperature (low f-stop value) when shooting on manual, or when your TTL doesn't shut your flash off at the right exposure. This often occurs when using a wide-angle lens on TTL.      To avoid ghostitis when shooting on manual settings, BRACKET your shots, so at least one will turn out right. When using the TTL, make sure your diver's face is BIG enough in the frame to be "read" by the camera. Set your aperature and shutter speed manually first, then bracket the shot by changing your camera's ASA setting down by half, then up to twice the actual value. Try holding your strobe back a bit behind the camera.

     Inkwellaria. You took some great shots of your dive buddy in front of the kelp. But where's the kelp? Where's the water? Your pictures look like they were taken at night. Well, sometimes making the water black by shutting down the aperature can add some drama, or get rid of distracting background elements. But if all your pictures look like the one below, your photos are suffering from Inkwellaria.

Inkwellaria is caused by failure to set your camera for the ambient light -- putting all your faith in your camera's TTL strobe.      To cure Inkwellaria, set your camera for the ambient light as soon as you reach the bottom. Set the shutter to 1/60th, then use your light meter to set the aperature. Set the focus to the distance you think a "perfect picture" will most likely appear. Then (if you have time) fine-tune the settings before clicking the shutter.      Shoot your diver interaction shots in the shallowest water possible. Twenty feet or less is best.

     The Fades. Your pictures look blah. Washed out. No color. No pizzaz. Yes, let's face it, they have a fatal case of the Fades.   The Fades can be caused by old film (particularly if it's gone through the airport x-ray machine a few times), fast film (like 400 ASA), bad processing by your photo lab (usually when converting a nice-looking slide to a print), or "loving from afar" -- shooting the scene from too far away.

To cure the Fades, always use high-quality, new, 100 ASA film. If you've got a great slide that makes a blah print, tell the photo lab what you want.      Reduce the amount of water between the camera and your subject. Make sure your strobe isn't lighting up the water. Use wide-angle lenses where possible. This picture was shot with a 35 mm lens using old 400 ASA slide film. With a 20 mm lens (and coming close), the colors would have been crisper.

     Museumosis. You've got a stack of pictures, and -- if you do say it yourself -- they look very nice. But as your mother-in-law looks at them, there's not one "Ooooh" or "Ahhh." Instead, she's saying, "And what's this animal? And this blue thing is? What do you call this?" Your pictures suffer from Museumosis -- perfectly-taken shots that "document" the animal without showing any drama or interest.

This is a nice shot of a keyhole limpet. But if all your pictures look like an illustration in a sea-life textbook, they have Museumosis.      The easiest way to end Museumosis is: use diver interaction. Adding your dive buddy's face gives the picture action, human interest, and a sense of scale. Shoot that limpet with a diver's face peeking up over the rock from behind it.

The author, Bruce Argyle MD, is uniquely qualified to write about photo diseases -- through his many years of taking bad pictures. You'll take bad pictures, too. Learn from them.

Click on the garibaldi for the next lesson.