Telephoto

Alex Mustard · Issue 20, Aug/Sep 2004 · pp. 44–48

Products mentioned: Nikon D100, Subal housing, Subtronic Alpha strobes

My set-up for the telephoto photography underwater. Note how the strobes are as far out from the lens as possible and pushed forwards towards the subject. Telephoto By Alexander Mustard Water ruins more underwater pictures than anything else. It saps colour, mucks up clarity and drops contrast. The key to successful underwater photography is to get rid of the water! The best quality underwater images are produced when we keep the distance between the subject and us to a minimum. As a result, we only use certain lenses: the widest lenses to photograph scenery and close focussing macro lenses to snap the little stuff. In my opinion this leads to a rather restricted view of the underwater world. Other lenses would allow us to view the underwater world with a different perspective. This article is about my attempts at using a telephoto lens underwater. Telephoto theory A telephoto lens is de…