Wide Angle underwater photography

Wanna piece of me?, originally uploaded by uw-eric.

Now I can see why the extreme wide angle lenses are so popular amongst underwater photographers. It allows you to get close (which is good to reduce the effects of absorption and diffraction of light, eliminates the snow effect (the flash bounces back on little particles floating in the water) and renders a good impression of the atmosphere in Dutch murky waters.

As you can see, Dutch water aren't that murky: because of the algae and other muck floating around it gets dark pretty fast: at 10 meters depth you need a pretty good torch.

I like this particular photo for the following reasons:

• Composition is ok (symmetry)
  
• Lighting is good, even without the use of the external strobe (no details lost)
  
• There is interaction, the photo tells a story: in this case, the long legged spider crab is threatening my buddy by lifting it front legs (not that my buddy is impressed....)
  

I didn't do anything about the green cast in the photo: it's the dominant colour underwater, and the light that falls on the crab is pretty accurate.

I shot this image with my new Sigma 10-20 mm wide angle lens, one of the widest available for four/thirds cameras. (Which fits my underwater housing nicely, more on this next time).