Tobias Friedrich

Role: German underwater photographer, team captain, technique innovator Website: below-surface.com First appearance: 2016 (Lembeh-Gulen Shootout, Wetpixel coverage)

Biography

Tobias Friedrich is a German underwater photographer known primarily for his wide-angle work — particularly manta rays in the Maldives and humpback whales in Oman — though he has also become associated with macro innovation through his development of the bubble bokeh technique.

His primary camera system, as described in his own writing, is a Canon 5D Mark II with a 100mm macro lens in a Seacam housing. For bubble bokeh work, he also used the Meyer Görlitz Trioplan bokeh lens. ([1])

Bubble Bokeh Technique

Friedrich is co-credited with developing the “bubble bokeh” macro photography technique, which uses a specially designed background to create a distinctive spherical bokeh effect in underwater macro images. He describes its origin:

“Bubble bokeh lenses are not new, but to create the special bubble effect, it definitely needs some help. Inspired by a cool background made by Sascha Janson from the Lembeh Resort, I developed that idea further together with Doris Vierkötter at the Alam Batu Resort in Bali until we had the perfect background to create unique bubble bokeh shots.”

He noted it took additional trips to Bali and Flores to find the right subjects in the right places for a complete portfolio. ([2])

Lembeh-Gulen Critter Shootout 2016

Friedrich served as the team captain for the Lembeh Resort (Indonesia) side of the inaugural Lembeh vs. Gulen Critter Shootout in May 2016. The event paired photographers at Lembeh Resort (Indonesia) against photographers at Gulen Dive Resort in Norway, competing across three macro categories: nudibranchs, invertebrates, and fish. Alex Mustard co-ordinated the two teams and oversaw the judging process. The Gulen team was led by Keri Wilk.

Although Friedrich was primarily known as a wide-angle photographer, he led the Lembeh team in a macro competition — a context he described himself: “Actually, I’m more a wide angle guy, known for my shots of the Manta Rays in the Maldives and the Humpback Whale in Oman. But, I was booked to lead the Team in Lembeh for the Lembeh vs Gulen Shootout and I had to come up with some good macro shots.” It was during this assignment that he developed the bubble bokeh technique. ([3])

Team Lembeh won the invertebrate and fish categories; Team Gulen (Friedrich’s opponents) won the nudibranch round. ([4])

Timeline

Note: The task brief references a Wetpixel podcast (March 2016) and a Retra Prime strobe review (April 2016) as sources, but no files matching those descriptions were found in raw/articles/2016/. These contributions may exist in the archive under different filenames and should be verified.

References

Sources

  1. Wetpixel article, May 19, 2017: Tobias Friedrich Bubble Bokeh ↩
  2. Wetpixel article, May 19, 2017: Tobias Friedrich Bubble Bokeh ↩
  3. Wetpixel article, May 19, 2017: Tobias Friedrich Bubble Bokeh ↩
  4. Wetpixel article, May 30, 2016: Lembeh Vs Gulen Critter Shootout 2016 ↩
  5. Wetpixel article, May 16, 2016: Stay Tuned For Reports From The Lembeh Gulen Shootout ↩
  6. Wetpixel article, May 24, 2016: First Lembeh Vs Gulen Critter Shootout Is Underway ↩
  7. Wetpixel article, Apr 7, 2016: The Underwater View Of Icebergs In Greenland ↩
  8. Wetpixel article, May 19, 2017: Tobias Friedrich Bubble Bokeh ↩
  9. Wetpixel article, Feb 24, 2019: Results Underwater Photographer Of The Year 2019 ↩
  10. Wetpixel article, May 8, 2020: Tobias Friedrich Releases Underwater Lightroom Presets ↩
  11. Tobias Friedrich: Bubble Bokeh (article) ↩
  12. Stay tuned for reports from the Lembeh-Gulen Shootout (article) ↩
  13. First Lembeh vs Gulen Critter Shootout is underway (article) ↩
  14. Lembeh vs Gulen Critter Shootout 2016 (article) ↩
  15. The underwater view of icebergs in Greenland (article) ↩
  16. Results: Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019 (article) ↩
  17. Tobias Friedrich releases underwater Lightroom presets (article) ↩