Photo of the Week: January 16, 2012

Hi Gang!

This week’s POTW is yet another image from my recent trip with Captain Steve and friends to Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands aboard the liveabord dive boat, the Rocio del Mar. The shot is a silhouette of a pair of manta rays captured at a well-publicized dive site named The Boiler at San Benedicto Island. San Benedicto is the northernmost of the four islands in the group.

While it cannot be guaranteed, The Boiler has a reputation for providing some wonderful manta ray encounters over the years, and it certainly did not disappoint during our trip. During one dive I had seven mantas in my field of view at one time, and I suspect there were others swimming close by. We dived The Boiler on both the first and last days of our trip, and while diving there divers in our group also saw bottlenose dolphins, whitetip reef sharks, a small group of scalloped hammerheads, and a tiger shark. Not too shabby!

However, as is most often the case, the feature attraction on our trip was the manta rays.

When creating silhouettes I shout in the manual mode so that I can set my f/stop, shutter speed and ISO exactly the way I want to.

One of the keys to creating a silhouette is that you absolutely need to see distinct contrast between your subject and the background that borders the subject. In this case, I needed to see the contrast between the manta that is blocking the sun ball and the surrounding water. A strong upward shooting angle will often helps you find that contrast. 

Once you see the contrast the next key is to properly expose the background. Do that and your silhouetted subject will appear dark against the properly exposed background, and you will have a silhouette. When taking your light meter reading you want to be sure to take it on the water around the ray, not on the body of the ray or on the sun. In this case I took my light meter reading on a band of blue water right next to the ray that I wanted to be the same hue and brightness in my image that it looked to my eyes when I was in the water. I always use the spot-metering mode when taking a light meter reading for a silhouette so that I can be sure my light meter is aimed exactly where I want it to be.

But contrast and a properly exposed background are not all that is required to do the trick. Your subject needs to have an interesting shape. Hard to beat a manta ray for a marine animal with an interesting shape.

Use a fast shutter speed to help “freeze” the action, and you are more likely to get a razor sharp image with crisp lines that separate your subject from its background. In this case I used a shutter speed of 1/350^th of a second.

No doubt about it, with a lot of mantas in relatively shallow water, great visibility, and a sunny day, I had a lot going for me. So, after I had created several nice silhouettes with a single manta ray in the frame, I decided to get creative and see if I could manage to compose a silhouette with a second animal in the frame. Given the conditions of the day I was able to get several opportunities where I thought I could compose a frame I would like, but I only had one pass that was as nice as the one that appears as this weeks POTW.

I hope you enjoy the shot!

See you next week,

Marty