Flabelline (about 1cm)  Shot with RX-100

Introduction:

The Sony RX100 is an amazing little compact. It features a high quality sensor, amazingly fast focus and write speeds, sharp glass, and complete control. However, if there is a weakness of this little wonder, I would point first to it relatively meager macro capabilities. It’s not BAD, but for someone who has worked with the Canon G-series, as well as DSLR macro lenses, I can say that there is a definite difference.

The good news is that solid results CAN be had. Over the first months that I have had this camera, I have been working on and off to either get past or to work around the inherent barriers posed by the RX100′s technical limitations. This post will walk through the configurations that work best for me at the moment, and hopefully help you to avoid the frustrations that I had while breaking in mine. If any of you have other tips or better ways to do it, then PM me or leave your insights in the comments below.

One note before we continue: Some of the techniques I will discuss will be pretty universal for all cameras. In the section on camera setup, and in the photo taking section we will be getting into very camera-specific features. This is designed specifically for the Sony RX100, but there may be some universal nuggets of information non-RX100 users can take away.

Equipment:

Your equipment is important when considering doing macro or super-macro photography, especially with the RX100. In order to be at all effective, you are going to need at least one macro wet lens.

Stacked Inon M67 Lenses and Quick Release System

They are called “wet lenses” since they can be attached or removed “wet” meaning underwater. They mount to the outside of your underwater housing  and most of the best options for many RX100 housings are mounted with 67mm threaded mounts. This may vary, so do your research – several mounting systems exist. You will likely need to purchase an adapter. These are often provided by third party manufacturers, and can vary greatly as well. Check forums or consult your dive/photo shop for advice. I use a quick-mount system that easily snaps on and off for fast mounting  and removal. Most mount systems will require you to constantly screw and unscrew your mount, but quick mount systems make that process much more efficient. You can also get arm holders that you can screw or quick snap your macro lenses onto while not in use.

Macro Setup with Flash & Snoot

There are many solid options on the market, but I would go with a high quality one. Dyron, Subsee, and Inon all make great offerings. They all have different levels of magnification  and each has its own strengths and weaknesses, so read up before you buy. Some, like my Inon M67 lenses can be “stacked” meaning you can thread one on top of the other for extra magnification. You can even combine lenses of different powers. For example, if you have a +7 lens, a +3 lens will give you a little extra magnification when you need it.

While not strictly needed, I highly recommend at least one flash, especially of you want to do macro. You will really need the  flash to get the most out of your macro shots for four reasons:

1. To get proper depth of field, you will have to significantly close  down your aperture. Without a flash this can be all but impossible, since most of your photos will come out black or severely under-exposed. Depth of field is very thin at long focal lengths and high magnification, so anything you can do to increase it will make for better photos.

2. Underwater natural light drowns out much of the natural color of your subjects. Reds and oranges are the first to go. Your photos will come out blue or green tinged more often than not without a flash.

3. With more light at your disposal, you can get much faster shutter speeds. You can also keep your ISO high, which improves image quality and reduces the chance for motion blur.

4. You control the lighting. After a while, you are going to want to do more than just take documentary-style photos of your subject, and having at least one powerful strobe in your arsenal allows you to create more artistic compositions. You can also have much more control over the lightness and darkness of your background in comparison with your subject. For instance, I have two strobes, but I am currently using mostly a single strobe for my macro work. I have been using a snoot to give me more controlled light, which allows me to have my subject illuminated, whereas everything else is very dark or black. This gives me the ability to “create” my composition and eliminate details which are distracting or unnecessary. Unless you are an experienced underwater photographer  I would skip the snoot for now. Concentrate on basic one or two strobe lighting positions before trying more advanced techniques.

Two things to keep in mind when purchasing a flash:

1.  The more power the better – The more light you have, the more options you have. You can never have too much, so get the best you can afford and are willing to carry (more powerful flashes are often bigger).

2. TTL/sTTL capability is very nice, but you can do very well with manual-only. I personally like having TTL capability with my camera, and wouldn’t be without it (I use both TTL and manual, depending on the situation). Many underwater photographers, shoot only on manual. If you can afford it, get TTL, it will make life easier in most situations.

Strobes can provide interesting effects

Camera Setup:

Everything up until now has been pretty universal as far as underwater photography goes. Here is where we get into the workings of the RX100. Let’s dive in.

First thing you need to know is that all my macro settings are saved to the Memory Recall section #1 entry, accessed by the “MR” selection on the top mode dial. You will have to set yours up, it won’t have a saved profile by default. You can also assign your macro settings to any one of the three slots. I just 1 for macro, 2 for medium distance and quick action, and 3 for wide angle. You should get used to fine tuning and tweaking your presets, since they can come in very handy.

Here are my camera settings:

Mode should be set to manual, Lens zoomed all the way in to 3.6x (100mm equivalent), Flash on and set to Fill Flash, Shutter Speed 400 (or 1/400th of a second), f/stop set to f 7.1, ISO 80, Shooting Mode – Continuous Shooting, Autofocus Area – Center, Focus Mode – Single Shot AF (AF-S), Metering Mode – Multi, White Balance – Auto.

Make sure your creative style is set to Standard, and that you have all Auto HDR stuff deactivated. I also turn off all Face Detect, Soft Skin Effect, Auto Portrait Framing, Face Priority Tracking, Face Registration, MF Assist, Red Eye Reduction, Clear Image Zoom, Digital Zoom, and Long Exposure NR.

I turn on the following: Grid Line – Rule of Thirds Grid, Peaking Level should be set to High, and I use White for the Peaking Color (but you can use whatever you like, this is a matter of personal preference). In the DISP Button (Monitor) I uncheck everything but Display All Info.

I also change my Power Saver Start Time to 30 minutes, so my camera does not shut down while I am in the middle of working.

You are going to want to shoot in RAW, but if you shoot in JPG, then I recommend you change your Color Space to Adobe RGB if you want more accurate print reproductions.

Shooting in RAW provides more flexible editing options

I am not going to explain each and every setting above. Suffice it to say that these settings are optimized to provide the highest quality image, while turning off anything that might artificially interfere with that or unnecessarily drain battery life. If you are following this as a guide, please read through to the end before making any adjustments to the core settings listed here. Much of the logic behind why things are they way they are will be revealed later.

Once your custom settings are saved, then it is time to set up your control interface. In the menu, you can reassign many of the main buttons and control wheels. I have mine set up as such: Control Ring – aperture, Control Ring Display – On, Func. of Center Button – AF/MF Control Toggle, Function of Left Button: Focus Magnifier, Function of Right Button – AEL toggle.

You can also define what is available in the function menu for a super fine level of control with just about everything you need at your fingertips. My setup is as follows: 1. Autofocus Area, 2. Focus Mode, 3. Metering Mode, 4. ISO, 5. Drive Mode, 6. Flash Mode, 7. Flash Compensation. Once you have these set, access it by pressing the “Fn” button and using the front scroll dial to quickly scroll through the options. For those of use who use manual white balance (I left it off my custom setting list), you can set it here, but I don’t mess with it. I prefer to deal with color balance in post, rather than mess with it in the field.

That should be it. You are set up for macro. The RX100 does not have a dedicated macro function, nor does it remember last used focal distance in the menu functions, so we will have to learn how to get around this and take awesome macro photos easily in the next section.

By default, I usually set my strobes to TTL mode, but you can use manual if you feel more comfortable, if the situation calls for manual, or if your strobes do not feature it.

Taking the Shot

Now we get to the part where all this setup pays off. There are a couple quick things to do once you locate your subject.

1. Make sure your camera and strobe are on and strobes are positioned.

2. Switch your mode o the top dial to “MR”, and select your macro preset.

3. Prepare your manual focus distance.

How I prepare my manual focus distance is as such: I put my finger  in front of my camera lens at the closes point it will focus. With your camera in Single Shot AF-S focus mode, it will automatically focus on your finger by itself. Once you get it focused at the closest distance, press the center button on your rear dial with your other hand. This will automatically activate your manual focus mode (which we configured in the previous section), and have it set and locked to your closest focal distance. With a little practice, you can do this in as little as 2 seconds. I have my approximate focal distance memorized by feel, and I can lock in my focus very quickly.

Manual focus helps produce consistent output

Now, if everything is set up correctly, you should see your finger surrounded by little white dots which moved as you over your finger in and out of focus. This is the Focus Peaking effect that we configured earlier, and is very useful for macro photography. Now all is left to do is to take the photo.

Line up your shot with the camera very close to your subject. Move back and forth until you see your subject start to peak in and out of focus. This technique is called “rocking”, and is very useful in macro photography. You will know when to shoot when the white dots appear over the area that you want to be in focus. I like to pull my peaked area just a hair in to the front of the subject, rather than hitting it spot-on. Once your subject has the white dots where you want them, press the shutter release, and you should have an in-focus macro shot. This technique takes some time to master, but is really the best way of taking consistent macro shots.

If the photo is not to your liking, you can easily make adjustments with the other settings that we configured. Turn the front dial to get more or less depth of field with a smaller or higher aperture value (be careful going to 8.0 and above, since you will start losing sharpness, due to diffraction). You can also quickly adjust the shutter speed up or down to give you more or less ambient light by turning the rear dial.

You can also use the AEL which we set to the right button on the rear dial to lock exposure values. Once locked, you will see an icon on your screen. To unlock, simply hit the button again.

Use the Fn button to access and quickly change metering mode, drive mode, ISO, flash mode, and the other settings that we assigned earlier.

Lastly, when in manual focus mode, you can press the left button on the rear dial to quickly enter MF assist mode, which will give you a multiplied view of the subject. It is multiplied in three modes 1. x 1.0 2. x 8.6 3.x 17.1. You can toggle the three multiplication modes by tapping the center button while in MF Assist mode. Exit the mode by hitting the left button on the rear dial a second time. I personally don’t use this mode much, since even 8.6 magnification is difficult to manage in water that is often moving, but it is there if I ever need it.

Post Processing:

Post processing is the last step, and you should do this in program like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom (which I use), or a free alternative like RAW Therapee. Since we are using Auto White Balance, you  will have to make your color adjustments here. I have found that mine generally come out pretty close. I get green casts once in awhile, but these are easily corrected in Lightroom.

Also, since we can’t get super close with the RX100, you will have to crop your composition for very tiny subjects. With a 20MP resolution, there is a bit of wiggle room for cropping. You can cut out 30-40% and still have a very good negative.

The final piece of advice I have is regarding semi transparent subjects (mostly of blue, purple, or pink colors). I have noticed that while using stacked macro lenses and long focal lengths, I tend to get some nasty chromatic aberration  This will be characterized by the subject having fuzzy edges with strong colored lines around your subject. I won’t go into details as to why it happens here, there are tons of great articles all around the web if you want to read more. The good news is that the new versions of Lightroom have the capability to improve if not  completely fix most color aberrations. You can find the settings in the Lens Correction palette, under Color. Check the “Remove Chromatic Aberration” check box, and make your adjustments from there.

Conclusion and More Samples:

That should be it to start. Obviously there is a lot more to know, and you also will have to get used to the layout and techniques discussed here. Feel free to also make changes and experiment on your own. Like I said, this is what works best for me, and I have begun to have pretty solid results with it. I am sure there are subtle things I can improve yet. I am looking forward to more feedback and ideas from others as they come up with even better ideas.

Below are a few more photos that I took just in the last few days using the settings and methods described in this article.

Flabelline

Sea Squirts

Thread Worm

Enjoy!

Anemones – 1

Anemones – 2

Anemones – 3

Anemones – 4

Jellyfish 1

I have been working to master snoot techniques. I have a LONG way to go, but I feel I have been getting better.

I also worked this weekend to finish crafting a fiber optic extension to my Seahorn snoot that allows me to take super macro photos. I threaded a home-made tube of fiber optic cables through the 1/2″ micro snoot attachment. I have tested it in my living room, and it seems to work fine, but we will have to test it underwater. I am pretty excited to try it out in real conditions.

Anyway, here is part one. There was a group of jellyfish swimming by, and I shot them with my wide snoot attachment. It was actually surprising how simple it was to get some pretty good results. A few of the photos that didn’t make the cut were what I would call “happy accidents”. They weren’t great, but they gave me some ideas for some other compositions that I am sure I will get to work on later this spring. More to come on that.

Enjoy the shots!

Jellyfish 2

Jellyfish 3

Jellyfish 4

Snooted image of a blenny

The Seahorn Snoot is an alright product. It appears to be a couple of pvc plumbing fittings attached to an aluminum metal housing. Everything is painted black, but the paint seems pretty ready to chip off from even general use. Mine is already looking very battle scarred from just one weekend of diving.

The snoot comes with both velcro and elastic strap attachments. The provided velcro didn’t stick very well, and came off both of the flashes I tried. The elastic, however, works brilliantly. It seems sufficient for holding the snoot on the flash, and I am fine with that.

I’m not too worried about cosmetics, nor am I terribly worried about the velcro straps. The item fits well on both flashes I tried, it holds position, and most importantly, it works. It features three attachments, a super concentrated beam (for super macro), a slightly wider beam (for macro), and an even wider beam. You can swap out the attachments underwater, and it is simple to do.

In my initial testing, the snoot gives me the flexibility and options I need. I can’t help but feel that the build quality is a tad lacking, but it has got it where it counts in terms of performance. I am looking forward to using it more, and seeing what sorts of creative avenues it opens up.

I got the S-1 model, which fits both my Sea & Sea YS-D1 and my Ikelite DS-51 strobes. Photos and sample images below:

Seahorn Snoot on Sea & Sea YS-D1

Seahorn Snoot on an Ikelite DS-51

Starfish

Doris Dalmatien

Baby Octopus

Crenilabre

Flabelline

Rascasse – taken with the wide beam

Spirograph

I really wanted to go out and spend a day this weekend and really work on some macro shots. I have been perusing my page, and have noticed that I have had an extreme lack of colour in my work as of late, and macro is were the prettiest colours tend to be.

Well the weather on Saturday was less than pleasant. While Sunday morning was looking good, I only had a short window to get out, having gotten a late start due to something that I ate that ruined my Saturday night. The only thing I could manage was a quick sortie down to the beach near the apartment. It’s good practice if nothing else, since the only thing to see is generally a couple of spirographs.

Spirograph

In other news, I ordered a Seahorn brand snoot. It should be arriving in the next few days. For those of you who are not familiar with the snoot, it is basically an expensive plastic tube that lets you create dramatic lighting effects. You can check out what it looks like and a few examples here: http://underwatervisions.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/seahorn-snoots-added-to-our-product-offering/. I am pretty excited to try something new, as I feel that my work has been a little stale of late.

A bonus note for those of you who have noticed that I am using the English spelling of “colour”. I have a project at my professional job for a customer in Canada, and we got feedback (after the web site was completed) that the Canadians use that spelling. The usage of the word “colour” in this post is both in honor of the hours I invested in changing many instances of the spelling of the word “color” on a rather large website, and a way of apologizing to our Canadian friends for my inexcusable lack of knowledge in this area.

Enjoy the colours!

Spirograph

In other news – I’ve decided to work on my abdominal muscles in order to strengthen my core for deeper dives. Just putting it out there in print, for all the word to see, so it will be harder to be lazy when it comes time to actually do it!

Enjoy the shots.

Alex

Prepping for the dive

Making the turn

Light

The boat

Diving

Aurore

Low-visibility can create great effects

Went for a quick dive on Wednesday. The sea was frothy, waves were high, and the visibility was near zero. Was pretty disappointing, since I woke up early and lugged my gear across Nice. But you have to take what the sea is willing to give you, and if it is high waves, and zero visibility, then that is what you take. It turns out that incredibly cloudy water can give some pretty cool effects. I am pretty happy with a couple of photos in this series.

Enjoy the shots!

Diving

Ghost

Portrait

Scene

Preparation

Repose

Conditions were pretty difficult. I only took one strobe and I regretted it, since the skies were quite overcast, and the water was pretty dark and murky. It was hard to get a decent exposure. I got a few decent shots, but most of all, I had a good time. That’s what is most important, anyways.

Enjoy the shots.

Found an octopus

Descent

Poking around

Rays of light

Posing for the camera

Exploring the rocks

Checking out the landscape

Swimming

The shallows

Hello!

Into the blue

Checking out the rocks

Cheese!

Freediver making his turn.

Brrrr. The water is COLD this time of year. When you slide off the boat into the water the shock of hitting the cool water never gets better. This is my third year diving with the CIPA in winter, and while that initial shock never seems to change, I have noticed that it takes less time to wear off, and for me to adjust to the temperature. I will never forget my first real winter dive, and how generally uncomfortable I was the whole time I was in the water. Now, after several years, I get comfortable within a few minutes.

Visibility was very limited, but the light was interesting

Visibility was pretty bad, and so I decided to go with no strobes this time. The water was too murky and laden with particles for additional light, and all I would have gotten was back-scatter anyways. All in all, I am pretty happy with the shots, although none of them are great. I did learn that the continuous shooting mode on the RX-100 is extremely fast. I was able to pop off 6-8 shots in quick succession very easily, with no lag. Very impressive performance.

Swimming shore-wards

Although I felt pretty good in the water, I paid for it afterwards. Unless you dive frequently in cold water, you lose your resistance to the cold, and I certainly lost mine. Upon returning home I shared a great lunch with my girlfriend, and we had a little wine. Not long afterwards I began to feel drowsy. Not long after that, I felt the irresistible urge to sleep. After succumbing to sleep, I awoke to find every muscle and joint in my body screaming at me. And there I lay for over an hour, having an internal argument with my bones and muscles, and trying to convince them that getting dressed and moving to the couch was a good idea. I had a hard time convincing them, and they only very reluctantly agreed in the end.

After this weekend’s experience, I have decided that I will start swimming regularly once the water starts to warm, in order to increase my endurance and stamina. Cold water takes it out of you – especially when you are not in particularly good shape.

I am getting soft! Enjoy the shots.

Free diver

Free diver

Near the drop-offs

Checking for critters in the rocks

Descending freedliver

Free diver

Oursin granuleux, or Violet sea urchin

So I had the urge to do a little macro work this weekend, since most of my recent work has focused on wide angle shots. I hit the water with the desire to find something great and unusual to photograph. Going over to my spot over by the airport, (sometimes it is hopping with lots of cool critters) I discovered that the site was absolutely dead. I spent a good 60 minutes in the water, and NOTHING really of unusual interest was to be found.

After about 40 minutes of finding nothing, I recalled that there were a couple of violet sea urchins near the beginning of my route. I had always wanted to get a good shot or two of this species, but just never took the time, since there was always something less common to be found.

I ended up going back to the site and playing with a few different techniques. I ended up doing a pretty broad-based study on the subject, running through wide angle, “normal”, macro, and super macro compositions. The results were pretty surprising. I’m not going to win a photography contest with them or anything, but it was a valuable exercise. Something that is good to remember as a photographer (and as a human being in general), is that just because something is relatively common, it doesn’t mean it can’t be fun or rewarding. Unusual doesn’t always equal beautiful, and sometimes the things we take for granted as “every day” things are the most worthy of our attention.

That’s enough philosophy for the day. Enjoy the shots.

Normal focal length shot

Macro Shot

Super Macro