Ozone Paddle Steamer split level

Just 50m offshore from the Indented Head caravan park and in 3m, lies the paddle steamer Ozone.

It's a great spot for a snorkel or shallow dive and a great spot for split level photos. Some days the vis is even better than this.

The Ozone was sunk in 1925 as a breakwater for the little beach nearby.

D7000 split levels

One thing I was busting to try was split levels or under/over shots with the D7000. I had big hopes for the low noise and fast AF.

With my D80 noise is quite obvious in the underwater half at 400iso after some exposure increase adjustment.

The AF on the D7000 is brilliant. In these river splits I was blindly locking focus on something underwater and shooting a few shots while lifting the camera up with great results.

During overcast periods I bumped up to 800iso and although noise is visible in the smooth underwater subjects it can only be seen at 100%.

Here's a shot of Pt Lonsdale on a magic calm sunny day, converted to B&W from a Raw file.

Above and Below with Tokina 10-17 FE

Aha! This is the lens to use for split level shots.

I'm now getting consistently better shots using this technique with the wider fisheye lens and 8" dome.

Results are better on a sunny day but this shot was taken under cloud.

Above and below shots

Also called half and half, under over, and split shots.

These are among the most challenging underwater images to capture.

On this snorkel I set out just to shoot under overs and this is the only decent one from 80 or so.

This is what I learned....

Need glassy calm, shallow, clear water

Must have a big dome port (8" Ike)

Use the widest lens you have (Sigma 15mm, but wider would have been better. I actually came home and ordered a Tokina 10-17mm soon after)

f/9 is not enough for sharp above and below, need more like f/16

Shoot manual exposure just making sure not to blow out above water highlights. RAW helps a great deal and the graduated filter in CS5 Camera Raw works wonders.

Focus on the underwater detail and lock focus it for the shot.

To reduce water drops in the image, spit on the dome and rub the saliva around the top half.
Start with the dome fully submerged then take the shot within seconds of lifting it up and framing.

Dome port scratch repair - Micro Mesh

My Ikelite 8" acrylic dome port was quite scratched up, bad enough to show in the photos.

I bought it second hand and it was in worse condition than I expected.

Micro Mesh NC-78-1 is a surface restoring kit used for aircraft windows, among other things.
I ordered mine from www.thesandpaperman.com.au $59 including freight.

It's quite daunting to attack your dome port with sandpaper but the end result is well worth it.

Here's a video of the process.

18-55mm with +4 dioptre

I bought a Hoya +4 dioptre 52mm to try with the kit lens and the results are excellent. I can now focus 10cm from the dome. Perfect for our murky sub-temperate water.

Behind the 6" dome this lens gives reasonable macro magnification with useful wide as well.

Of course it's not as pin sharp or as fast focusing as the 60mm macro or Sigma 15mm Fisheye but it's definitely a useful middle range zoom lens.

It means I wont need to buy a Sigma 17-70 and 8" dome to fill the gap.

On this dive I photographed nudibranchs and sharks, however the nudis were big and the sharks small!