Scuba Diving – September 2019

/ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 / 77

Many photographers use
their phones for photos out
of the water rather than larg-
er systems. If you fall in this
camp, take the time to refa-
miliarize yourself with your
camera gear before diving in
again. Nobody gets to dive
as much as they would like,
so why waste the fi rst day or
two of a one-week liveaboard
trip remembering how it all
works, when you could have
unpacked it and become fa-
miliar again at home.
The teaching students
often fi nd most useful isn’t
something brand new but a
reminder of techniques that
they’ve tried in the past.
Help yourself prepare for
your next trip by thinking
about the types of shots you
want to produce, then read-
ing up on those techniques
before you go.

TIP 2

INSPIRATION,
NOT IMITATION

An attraction of joining work-
shop trips is to learn directly
from a photographer whose
work you admire. The good
teachers won’t hold back
and will share the locations,
techniques and thought pro-
cess behind their celebrated
shots, giving a huge boost
both to your own images
and your understanding. If
there is a downside to this
openness, however, it is that
students can risk becom-
ing photographic doppelgän-
gers. We can be so infl uenced
by their way of thinking that
we seek out the same spots,

ALEX MUSTARD, an

award-winning shoot-

er who dives all over

the world, has a Ph.D.

in marine ecology.

same subjects and use the

same techniques—producing

only photo copies.

Beginners naturally want

to replicate their favorite

photos as they develop, but

as their skills grow they must

evolve from imitation to in-

spiration. Every photographer

I know—including myself

and the biggest names in the

business—are infl uenced by

the work of others. However,

with experience we learn not

to copy but to identify what

appeals and incorporate

ideas in our own way. It’s the

difference between learning

a cover on the guitar and

writing music yourself.

Since the advent of digi-

tal cameras, we all take far

more underwater photos

than we will ever have time

to process or show to any-

one. This makes the process

of culling a catalogue one of

the most critical in modern

photography, and it is where

many go wrong. All photog-

raphers take good, bad, ugly

and—hopefully, from time to

time—amazing photos.

A major differentiator in

the reputations of photogra-

phers is not what they shoot,

but what they choose to

show. If you share 50 shots

online from your last trip—47

of which are good and three

of which are excellent—your

friends and followers will

think you are good.

If you share just those

three, the world will think

you’re an excellent photog-

rapher. Where most of us fall

down is in realizing which

ones are the excellent three!

Emotional attachment to

certain shots is usually our

undoing. Photographers tend

to love the shots that were

hard to take, came from a

»

I shot many photos of this

barracuda school; most

are very nice, but I choose

only to show this special

frame where the school

formed the number six.

particularly memorable dive

or are of a dream subject. Yet

none of that matters much

to anyone else. I always run

my workshops without any

kind of end-of-trip competi-

tion and encourage everyone

to be open—to show other

photographers their imag-

es and discover which ones

resonate with other people.

Lightroom has simple tools

for highlighting your best

pictures with colors or stars,

which helps photographers

focus on their best work. Af-

ter a dive, I immediately give

everything with potential one

star; a few days later, when I

have more images from other

dives, I revisit the one stars

and elevate the best of them

to two stars. Then after the

trip, when I’m emotionally

detached from the shooting

experience, I revisit the two

stars and promote the fi nest

to three stars.

Finally, when I have time to

process some, I bring up only

the three stars and mark just

a few as four stars to work

on. Five stars is reserved

for something ultraspecial.

When I'm really lucky, I’ll

mark a shot as fi ve stars

right after shooting it!

Computer time is far less

fun than diving, so focus your

workfl ow on identifying the

best images and don’t waste

time worrying if a shot is a

one- or two-star image be-

cause either way, you’ll never

get around to processing it!

Remember that the harder

you edit your work, the better

your photography will appear.

But don’t decide on your very

best images immediately,

when your emotions are still

infl uenced by the experience

of taking them.