A Conversation With… Spain’s Fotosub Photographers

Welcome to the third instalment in this series, to add to the previous interviews A Conversation With Todd Mintz and Rand McMeins and a A Conversation With Martin Edge.

This month you join me on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, out in the Atlantic off the north west coast of Africa. The Canaries are a popular diving destination for Europeans, noted for their abundant marine life, volcanic landscapes and clear, blue waters. Upwelling off the African coast means that water temperatures are cool, so despite the latitude there is no coral and most people wear 5mm to 7mm suits. The islands are particularly noteworthy for the large numbers of resident underwater photographers! At a popular shore dive on any weekend it is quite usual to see 30-40 photographers with SLRs and many more with compact systems.

The underwater photography world here revolves around Fotosub Competitions. These are events where teams of photographer and model compete to produce the best collection of images while diving the same sites, at the same time, with limited dive time and a limited number of exposures. Images must be shot as JPGs and no Photoshopping is allowed. The emphasis is squarely on nailing the shot in camera. This competition undoubtedly sharpens skills and fotosub photographers from countries like Spain, Italy and France have long been lauded in our community for their control of lighting and their work with their models.

In the last decade, Spain and particularly the Canaries, inspired by the successes of photographers like Carlos Minguell, has really become an epicentre for these events, with many very talented shooters battling it out for serious cash prizes at competitions through the year. In a successful season a photographer can win more than 20,000 Euros at events across the islands. The competitions are real spectacles too, with an atmosphere not unlike the CMAS freediving competitions staged in the film Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue)!

My interviewees are all talented and very successful fotosub shooters: David Barrio, Carlos Villoch, Carlos Suarez and Arturo Boyra. I spoke to them during the Fotosub Gran Canaria – Costa Mogan event, where David, Carlos V and Carlos S went on to finish first, second and third. All three have been past winners of this event and many others too. Their track records of success are far too long to list here, but their websites are listed at the end. My aim was to discuss this unique discipline in underwater photography, talk about the techniques of working with models and lighting control and to pick up some specific advice for anyone inspired to start entering fotosubs. We also had a great laugh, as you might expect with the friendly rivalry that the competitions bring.

The final bit of background you need to know is that the Spanish National Championships were the week before this interview. In them, David had a fairly average octopus photo in his collection, which everyone has been teasing him about all week. It gets mentioned once or twice. You can see it with a bit of scrolling here (in the results from that competition).

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Alex: I’d like to start by introducing fotosubs. It is a very specific branch of underwater photography, that even experienced underwater photographers from some countries will have hardly heard about, while in other countries it is seen as the absolute pinnacle, with major sponsorship, prizes and lots of TV coverage. What is fotosub?
David: A fotosub is a competition where an underwater photographer makes a team with their model and tries to produce a collection of pictures without any post-processing in controlled conditions with limited time and a limited number of shots you can take.
Carlos V: I think that these competitions are a great way to demonstrate the skills of a photographer, because everyone is shooting in the same conditions. Sometimes you’ll see photos from someone’s long and exotic overseas trip, with lots of opportunities and lots of post processing, and it is hard to judge how good the photographer is. In fotosub the photos are straight from the camera, and they really show what the photographer is doing. And you don’t have much time. Here our dives are limited to 45 minutes, which comes out at 37 minutes bottom time. You really have to nail it.
Alex: So, doing well comes down to your skills, not your bank balance letting you travel to the best destinations with your own boat. Last time I was here I spoke to Enrique [Faber] about fotosubs and he said that fotosub photography is like being a sniper, not a guy with a machine gun firing everywhere.
Carlos V: For wide angle you really have to plan in detail before the dive what you want to do. You don’t get much training time, but you must generate ideas that you can repeat in the competition. But when you shoot macro, you need to be more flexible. You may have seen some critters in training, but maybe they won’t be there.
David: Don’t say that!
Carlos V: Ha ha ha. And that is why you have to improvise. Or you may have planned all the wide angle shots with the sun in one position and then the organisers change the time you are diving that site. Basically, you have 35 minutes to improvise.
David: You have thirty minutes to take a nice picture of an octopus.
All: Ha ha ha.

Alex: One of areas that fotosub photographers have always been praised is the quality of their model shots. What are your secrets?
Carlos S: I think that the hardest part is for the model to understand intuitively the decisions that the photographer makes in the water. And there is no shortcut to develop this understanding. It just builds up over time, it is difficult to start with, but with training it becomes almost instinctive. For example, when they see the sun in the dome, they know where they have to be.
A good relation really pays off when you and your model don’t know the location, the type of scenery and therefore the type of photos that will work best.
Alex: If someone is new to working with models, what is the best advice to give their model to get them posing in the right sort of way to work visually in the photograph?
Carlos V: I think that the model must look relaxed, but actually she won’t be. She is working very hard keeping the position and the pose. When you take a photo of a truly relaxed diver it just doesn’t look good. Their legs and arms look floppy, and they have a frog kick. So the model has to look relaxed but in an elegant pose, with legs together, but not rigid, to create an attractive silhouette.
David: Perhaps the best advice is to be very patient, as a photographer. It is very easy to get nervous in the competition, especially when things aren’t working exactly as planned.
Carlos S: And the clock is ticking. “This is important. I need to take this photo now!”
Carlos V: Look at lots of photos together before diving, so she can immediately recognise the type of photo you want to take. If you see a soft coral, she has to be thinking about exactly the same photo you are thinking about. Then you just need to make small adjustments in position and you have it.
Alex: So how many of your models have been on the other side of the camera and taken pictures seriously?
Arturo: Not mine.
Carlos S: No.
Carlos V: David’s wife takes all his photos! It is just she doesn’t know how to use the camera!
David: Ha ha ha. That’s an urban legend! Ha ha ha. But she really has good ideas.
Alex: I have seen her on the dives pointing at things. I guess you have to be on her wavelength, David?
Arturo: I think the most important thing is that they are able to imagine the picture we are shooting, because from where they are they cannot always see what is the subject right in front of our lens.
Alex: It is obvious that it is totally a team sport, which requires good team work and it takes time to build that understanding.
Arturo: You have practise and sometimes you see some interesting umm..
David: … some interesting arguments!

Arturo: Because time and communication are limited it can be frustrating. For example if you are in a cave and the model is outside, she really won’t see your directions. And you can’t go out because your bubbles will create lots of backscatter. So she has to understand exactly what you are after and how the composition looks from the camera. That is why I say that sometimes they are like witches because they can imagine what we are thinking about
David: They were like witches before they started to dive.
All: Ha ha ha.
Carlos V: People don’t realise how important models are. Even in all the shots they are not in, they are looking for subjects while you are taking pictures.
Arturo: With macro, the model can hunt for rare creatures while you concentrate on getting the easier subjects.
David: Luisa always finds a lot of interesting subjects. Last week she found the only pipefish in the Spanish Championship.
Alex: Who found the octopus?
David: She did! She did! But she said if she had known I was going to enter that shot she wouldn’t have shown me. She can also talk underwater and we understand each other well. She will even say the latin names and I get them. The model also takes care of navigation, stopping you getting lost.
Arturo: They control the deco time and your air supply, because usually they will use much less.
Carlos S: It is important that your model has a sense of the photographic potential of a subject, to know whether they should show you something. Or whether it will not improve on what you have done already.
David: Ultimately there are very, very few photographers who are successful in competitions without a good relationship with a model.

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Alex: Another interesting factor is the way that you dress the models, it is more of an artistic look. Although here there is quite a mix, some people using fairly standard diving gear and others using a more artistic look, with a yellow wetsuit, oval mask and a BC that enhances the silhouette shape.
David: Models really help your wide angle shots. I always think that wide angle without the model the hardest type of image to get in a typical CMAS style competition [these events usually have 5 or 6 strictly themed categories to make up the portfolio: wide angle, wide angle with model, macro, fish, fish portrait and local theme]. The model allows you to balance the composition and fill the frame. You might have nice corals, sponges, gorgonians, but then you have open water and the model is so valuable here. Taking a nice wide angle without a model can be a real challenge.
Alex: I think a lot of the time it depends on the dive site. If it is flat, for example, it is hard to find background interest. But if you have some structure its easier.
Carlos V: Why use a model if you can use an octopus?
David: Ha ha ha. I’m contemplating suicide.

Arturo: The key to wide angle without model is patience. These competition photos are not accidental. They are planned. You find your scene and then you have to be patient, waiting for something to arrive and fill the space. Maybe a large creature, or a colourful fish or a school of fish. And that is one of the changes in attitude you must adopt. You are not going there to take the photo and go. Maybe you are ten minutes in one place waiting for the exact moment when the composition comes to you,
David: And all the time knowing you are under pressure that time is running out.
Arturo: So you have to know the behaviour of each animal. Will a stingray go up or a grouper will come and open its mouth. And you can’t touch anything and you can’t modify anything.
Alex: That is something I really respect in you all. Even with the pressure of a competition, you might be tempted to bend your morals a bit.
David: I think that this has really changed in the last few years. Before the older generation used to do this, they didn’t know better. But now people are behaving really well.
Alex: I also think that often the best macro setups are natural. You can’t force animals together, there is a natural balance. Except with the seahorse eating the goby, [David won a competition recently with a photo of a seahorse eating a goby], where you dip the goby in chocolate and then glue it in the mouth of the seahorse!
David: Ha ha ha. Yes, that is what I did!

David: For me the strategy is very important. I find the wide angle without model the hardest to get, so I try and do that first. Then get at least one shot for each category, to make sure I have some points, then try and improve each shot. You will always have time for this at the end.
Alex: So you are not just thinking about the photography, but also the strategy for the competition is always in your mind.
David: Always the strategy. Sometimes people finish with 5 great shots, but they miss one for the sixth category and they have a zero and their average will be low. They can’t win.
Alex: I am interested to ask you Carlos [V], as someone shoots lots and lots of editorial work for magazines around the world, do you really have to change your approach for the fotosubs?
Carlos V: I don’t really like the CMAS competitions, which are very restricted and they tell you what you have to do, and the images are very old fashioned in style. I like this competition much more [Fotosub Gran Canaria] because of the freedom. You just have to produce a collection of images and the variety is up to you, as long as the collection is balanced.
Carlos S: I agree with Carlos. When the competition has very defined categories I don’t enjoy it as much. And then when you dive and you see something great, which would be a fantastic photograph, but you don’t take it because it is not what the competition wants. This is artificial.
Carlos V: In that way the CMAS style competitions have to evolve. They are starting to, but they still will force you to take a crab shot and you may not like crabs. You want to take a nice dolphin photo, and this is frustrating.
Carlos S: Yes.
Carlos V: As a result the collections all look alike. And they have been looking alike for the last twenty years. The people who follow those competitions think that those of the photos they have to take, so they keep taking the photos people were taking twenty years ago and there is no progress.

Alex: The other thing we’ve talked about this week, is that the amount of diving is so restricted that despite having some of the best photographers, you have so little time to shoot for all the categories that the resulting images are not always really special. And then people look at the results, not knowing the rules, and they ask why is he is champion because they have better photos at home.
David: That is changing too. At the Sardina Fotosub [in north Gran Canaria] we had a week to dive in the area as often as we wanted. Dive at different times and use different conditions of the sun, even night dive. The only restriction was you could only take 60 shots per day, adding up to 360 shots during the week to present in 12 categories.
Alex: That seems much more sensible, because it is an important skill in photography to know when to shoot for light, for behaviours.
David: It was very comfortable. You didn’t have the stress, you just plan the picture and go and get it. Or you have time to hunt for really rare critters, even if it wastes a whole dive. But overall it leads to a much better collection of pictures, which in the end is what the sponsors want. Not just CMAS style pictures.
Alex: And this doesn’t make it easier for the photographers because it increases the challenge. I think it is really interesting that you guys, who are really involved and winning lots of prize money in the competitions as they are, still are pushing for changes in the very traditional CMAS approach. Usually the winners want the rules to stay as they are!
But for me it has to come slowly, it would be wrong to change it too fast. The core values of fotosub install a very good technical sense into underwater photographers. I always say you guys are match fit photographers, very sharp on everything.
David: That’s true. After a season of competition, I went to Lembeh and was with another photographer who does not compete and I saw it with pygmy seahorses. He would need 20 or 30 shots to get one good picture. When you are used to competition you have to be fast and accurate. Just 3 or 4 pictures and I knew I had the seahorse. You get to know your screen and you are 100% certain. That is very valuable on trips.
In competitions I have a cruising setting, I go to on my camera so I am ready for anything. If something comes up I should get a good result. And when I am on trips this can get me a shot when something amazing happens. Something you may only see once in your life.
Carlos V: They certainly make you quicker and more productive. Here we only have 37 minutes, but when you are on a 90 minute dive in a nice warm place you really can get a lot done.
Alex: For me, one of things that people have always said about fotosub photographers, Spanish, Italian etc, is that they have great lighting control, especially with wide angle. What do you look for in your wide angle lighting?
Carlos V: Personally I look for colour, texture and volume. That is what will make you images stand out.
David: It sounds like you are talking about shampoo!
All: Ha ha ha.
Carlos V: And a smooth feel.
Alex: Because your worth it.
Carlos V: You need the right amount of light to get the colours. Colourful pictures are eye-catching. This is the first consideration. Then the position and power of each strobe you can alter the texture and the volume.
Alex: OK, so when you see newer photographers shooting wide angle, what are the mistakes you see that they can improve.
Carlos V: Not getting close enough, and then when they learn to get very close they don’t adjust for this in their strobe positioning and the light goes over the subject,
Alex: I couldn’t agree more. It one of the most common mistakes I see.
David: People go from horizontal to vertical positions without changing the strobes because they get lazy.
Carlos S: You need to change the strobes and put them in different positions for different set ups.
Alex: I guess that is one of the disciplines that comes from having limited frames, it makes you get it right each time, not settling for a “that will be ok” attitude.
David: Trying to get softer lighting, so you don’t see the heavy hand of the strobe lighting, by pulling the strobes back and avoiding hotspots.
Alex: Which always look unnatural and pull the eye of the viewer.
David: It is because people get lazy.
Carlos V: Moving the arms is very important.
Arturo: And when people are new they want to take lots of photos as quickly as possible. But if you plan to shoot something, you should shoot it as well as you can. Take your time and try and get the lighting exactly as you want.
David: You need to understand the strobe cone, and for that you need to practice at home in front of a white wall. You need to see where the light goes and when it will give you backscatter. And now in competition more and more people are using snoots and strobe covers, even on only one side of the strobe, to control precisely the cone. People here are really starting to play around with light.
Alex: I really believe that creative lighting remains an area of great potential for expansion in underwater photography. If you want to differentiate you work and really make it stand out, there is a lot to do in this area. And I feel that the next five years we’ll see more and more of this.
David: I think digital is giving that opportunity. You have the instant feedback and learn faster and go further.
Alex: As long as you have the inclination. Many people do not.

Carlos V: I think that we will see more and more strobes in the pictures and also lots of constant light with the advancement of the LED lights becoming more powerful with smaller batteries.
Alex: And the cameras getting better at high ISO.
Carlos V: High ISO and constant light will be a common technique soon.
Alex: I think fotosubs, once the competition is over, is one of the best places to learn the really cutting edge ideas and techniques.
David: In competitions like this you always want to be the first one that enters a picture using a new technique. Now we are all talking about the INON endoscope lens. You want to try new kit and make new pictures. Even your Magic Filters. Two years ago was the first time a Magic Filter shot was entered in this competition and the jury gave it strong points.
Carlos V: Low shutter speeds were never used until recently, because we were worried that the judges would take points away for the lack of sharpness
David: Three years ago I entered the first black and white picture in a fotosub. And people were really surprised because everyone was used to slide film, where you could not change this. It worked. The competitions make you very vigilant about what is new. Keeping an eye on Wetpixel forums and the Spanish photography forums, to see what is new. New ideas and techniques to try.

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Alex: Hopefully this interview has helped people understand more about fotosubs and get enthusiastic about taking part. So my final question is what is your general advice for budding competitors? The whole JPG issue, for instance.
Carlos V: It is a difficult adjustment from shooting RAW to shooting JPG. You really have to understand white balance, strobe colour temperature. Every picture needs a different white balance, we set the Kelvin value manually. You have to learn this for the best results.
Alex: But you end up a more knowledgeable photographer as a result.
Carlos V: It is amazing in the last few years how quickly we’ve all got used to just touching up our photos in the RAW converter. When you start shooting JPGs again, it is like, whoops I have backscatter in one corner, or the colours look dull, or it is just a little bit under exposed.
David: Knowing the camera is very important. All the picture settings - so the photos look very good right out the camera. Training allows you to dial in all those settings, so you get exactly what you want for each type of photograph.
Alex: OK, and other tips?
David: Basics: the typical lenses are a fisheye and a long macro [e.g. 105mm] with a wet dioptre. Do a practice competition with yourself once in a while. Try to build a collection over a weekend. Like any other sport you need to train. For other sports you do drills, you run to keep your fitness. And for fotosub, we practice and train too.
For many photographers training seems a very alien idea. I don’t imagine many land photographers go out and say “Today I will take photos of complete birds!”.
Alex: “And I have 37 minutes.”
David: “Today macro, I am going to take pictures of spiders. Click, click, click, click.” But practice like this is essential for fotosub competitions.

Carlos V: The judging panel can make a huge difference to what you shoot. You should understand what they like and plan your collection accordingly.
David: Sometimes you have a jury dominated by people who are not active underwater photographers and the results can be unexpected. You can even have judges who have not even dived before.
Alex: I always feel you get the best results, that the competitors and audience like the most, when the panel is dominated by active underwater photographers.
Arturo: You should also think about what you expect your competitors to shoot, to avoid entering similar shots.
David: Or you can try and take a better photo of the same creature. That can be part of your strategy.
Carlos S: That can be easy with an octopus.
David: Ha ha ha. I realise that it is very hard for you to understand my art.
All: Ha ha ha.
David: The most important thing is to get images that the jury can understand straight away. Pictures it is easy for them to like. In the end competing is so much fun. And addictive. Give it a try.
Alex: And the prizes can be reasonable, sometimes!
David: More than reasonable…

Websites of the Photographers
David Barrio
Carlos Villoch
Carlos Suarez
Arturo Boyra

Next time Alex enjoys a conversation with Espen Rekdal.