The following is an excerpt from 52 Assignments: Underwater Photography by Alex Mustard. It was provided to the Phoblographer with permission from the publisher and we’re sharing it with you folks because we think the section that we’re sharing is truly fascinating. It’s about using vintage lenses when shooting photos underwater. If you want to pick the book up, you can get it for around $20 on Amazon.
TIPS
• Mechanical lenses don’t focus automatically. The best approach is to focus them until approximately correct and then make the final adjustments by slowly moving the camera in and out until the subject is in focus.
• Shooting with an open aperture often means you have too much light. If your system can do HSS (see Assignment 43), use this. Alternatively, use a 2- or 3-stop neutral density (ND) filter on the lens.
• Backgrounds should be your focus for the vintage lens assignment. Some photographers take shiny artificial backgrounds, like steel wool, which create highlights that expand into blobs. Personally, I prefer the challenge of finding suitable backgrounds in nature.
The sparkling background behind this orange anthias is actually a school of silvery glassfish. That said, artificial backgrounds are an ideal way to practice this technique but view them as a teaching aid.
Vintage Lenses
Modern lenses are high quality and work automatically with your camera to help you get great shots. Your challenge for this assignment is to try an old, manual-focus vintage lens underwater. The most popular vintage lenses are macro and portrait lenses between 50mm and 100mm, which can be used in conjunction with extension tubes or close-up lenses to enable them to focus close enough for underwater shooting. The attraction of these lenses is in using them with an open aperture, because their simple construction creates a distinctive and attractive bokeh from out-of-focus backgrounds. Although the perspective is similar to your existing macro lenses, the look of the images is totally different.
There are many lenses to choose from, and there is no need to follow the herd. Most photographers plump for lenses they have seen others using, so fashionable optics quickly become overpriced, while others that create just as interesting images sell for pocket money. There are even some modern recreations of vintage lenses on the market, such as the reasonably priced TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 prime. All can easily be fitted to almost any camera with an inexpensive mechanical adaptor. Vintage lenses tend to be fully manual, so you have to set the aperture (fully open) before diving and focus manually using a gear.
Key to this assignment is finding subject matter that looks great out of focus.
I usually search for such backgrounds first and then photograph whatever is around as the focal point. Backgrounds with pinpricks of brightness usually work best because these expand into bokeh blobs when out of focus. Aim for compositions with a sharp subject set against attractive, abstract surroundings.
PRO TIPS
• Focus peaking on mirrorless cameras is helpful when using a vintage macro or portrait lens, greatly helping you determine when the eyes of the subject are precisely in focus.
• The Nikonos 15mm is a different style of vintage lens. Fully manual, but with fantastic optics that beat most modern lenses, they can be found cheaply and with adaptors can be used on modern mirrorless cameras. As it was designed for underwater use, its optics remain impressive, although with a field of view of only 90°, it is not especially wide.
• Using a manual lens slows down your entire photographic process, but many photographers find this a refreshing change from their usual way of shooting—while they shoot fewer frames than with modern lenses, they are happy with a higher percentage. Focus peaking doesn’t work well with wideangle lenses, so with Nikonos lenses I magnify my viewfinder and zoom in when reviewing to be sure of critical focus before shooting a sequence.
Vintage lenses are harder to use and not always as sharp as modern lenses but produce interestingly different results. This image was a category winner in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
An alternative is using the fully mechanical Nikonos lenses, such as the 15mm wide-angle. Care is needed when setting the focus, but they are excellent underwater optics.