Here's How: Inward Lighting & Black Backgrounds

August 04, 2019 in Blog

Perhaps the most frequently asked question I get at the photo workshops I run is how to get a black background on a macro image. For most beginner macro photographers, the natural assumption is the images they see with the jet black backgrounds must have been made on a night dive. The truth is, they are usually done in full daylight…and creating a black background is one of the easiest techniques in underwater macro photography.

Lembeh, Indonesia - Underwater Photo Workshop

December 14, 2018 in Blog

It had been a few years since Bluewater Photo ran a workshop in Lembeh, the ever popular macro destination located in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Trip co-leaders, Matt Sullivan and Erik Lukas had been brainstorming workshop ideas with a focus on macro photography, and after some internal discussion with the Bluewater Travel team, it was decided that a return to Lembeh would happen. So the plans were put in place and the trip was scheduled for October, 2018.

Here's How: Octopus in a Bottle

November 29, 2018 in Blog

Here is the first of a new series of blog posts to show an example of a photograph and explain the techniques used in making it. I hope to provide some insights into the choices I made for how the photograph was exposed, the lighting used and anything else that went into making a specific image.

Photographer Profile: POCO.CN

June 10, 2017 in Blog

China Calling...

So I received an email one morning via the contact me page on my website and at first glance it looks like spam. Before I hit the delete key I read it and see that an editor from a Chinese website called POCO.CN is contacting me to ask about doing and interview and a profile. Hmmm...still seems like spam, but I figure cannot hurt to reply and see who might be on the other end of the email.

Well it turns out the email was not spam. It was the real deal, and I was asked if I would be interested in doing an interview and supplying a collection of my underwater images for publication on a Chinese photography website. Sure. Why not?

So it took a bit of back-and-forth for the questions and my replies and the revisions and the edits...not to mention I had two photo workshops that I was running in Socorro, Mexico, then another in Anilao, Philippines...but once it was all said and done, the profile went live. Have a look for yourself...I hope you like it.

POCO.CN Profile of Underwater Photographer, Erik Lukas

I had a great time working with the team at POCO.CN, and cannot thank them enough for posting the profile and my images.

Lightroom Tips & Tricks: The Spray Can Tool

June 08, 2017 in Blog

One of the challenges of keeping your images organized and easy to locate stems from having a well-defined strategy for adding ‘keywords’ and ‘metadata’ to your images. I wanted to share with you one of Lightroom’s most useful tools for quickly adding this information to your images. Getting into the habit of labeling your shots is a worthwhile investment of time and this useful tool should make the work fast and simple.