I've often been asked about my filming techniques when it comes to shooting close and extreme macro. You can see that I live in Palau so I get to dive with the big stuff on a daily basis. I do actually prefer to shoot the small stuff but its the 'Mega Fauna' footage that pays the bills. Plus with offering a dive filming service here its so much easier to put someone on a reef hook, throw in a few sharks and 'Bob's yer Uncle' you've got a sale. So I make a living doing the dailies here in Palau and composing imagery with divers, sharks, wrecks and the infamous Jellyfish Lake. Like I said, I do prefer macro so it puts me in a bit of a quandary when there is so much Ocean around me but no time to go hunting through the muck for something the size of a postage stamp.
To get to the 'meat and veg' of this thread, I've just come back from Lembeh and Bali and had a complete splurge on getting my 'Macro Fix'. In a place like Lembeh I was in heaven. If you haven't been and are a 'Macro Nut' like me then you have to go when you can. Before you do though you'll need to take a closer look at the equipment you will need in order to get the very best out of your trip. So read on as I've put together this little "Macronauts Survival Guide".
Ok so to start with lets take it for granted that we have our camera and housing of choice. With so many of the newer housings on the market the manufacturers produce their wares with very little if any tolerances of great distance between the camera lens and whatever 'super dooper' lenses they are offering their clients. Whether thats whopping Super Wide Ports (SWP's), a la Fathoms SWP44 or internal Macro flip filters. The majority of the manufacturers take into consideration the full optical range of the camera and their product when creating their specific macro or wide lens options but unfortunately there are also those who don't.
OK, so I'm old school, I like to use cameras built by camera manufacturers, I like to use housings built by housing manufacturers, I like to use HDV Tapes meant for HDV cameras etc etc, you get my drift. In that same reasoning I prefer to use optics produced by those companies who specialize in the production of high grade optical lenses. For macro applications I find that the best solution in this field are the achromatic diopters.
Achromatic Diopters:
For maximum magnification and image clarity, these diopters give your lenses more close-up range, while preserving zoom capabilities. I use Century achromatic diopters and consider them essential whenever I need to focus tightly on a small object. Two or more diopters can be stacked on the front of the lens for even greater magnification. These tend to be a bit expensive as they are multi element lenses. The Century diopters for the Z1 have an 18mm / 3/4" profile so space is obviously a requirement between the camera and the inside element of your housing port.
If you can, measure the distance between the camera and the port to find out whether or not you will have the option to use these diopters. If shooting Macro will figure greatly in your filming exploits I suggest that you request that information from the housing manufacturers before parting with a bundle of cash!
Edge-to-Edge Sharpness:
If you are on a budget you can also use single element diopters which also permit focusing at close camera-to-subject distances. However there is a trade off when using these screw in lenses. Image magnification comes at the expense of image clarity. The distorted edge of the image attained when using these filters, almost like a vignetting is called chromatic aberration. Here's the Wiki on Chromatic Aberration.
A Range of Sizes and Magnifications:
Available in 86mm threaded +1.6, +2.0 or +2.6 strengths with 82mm to 86mm step-up / down rings for your HVX200. For the FX1 / Z1 there are 72mm threaded +2.0 or +3.5 strengths with step-up / down rings for lens fronts with diameters of 62mm & 67mm.
Dome Port or Flat Port?
Again this is down to the individual. You're gonna hear some people say that they shoot macro through their dome port with no problems. It's a regular understanding amongst your everyday "Macronuts" that in order to get the absolute best from your system you are best off using a flat port. Its all to do with the physics and relationships involved between flat and curved surfaces of optics. I'm sure there's someone out there with a few more brain cells than me who can explain it better!! How about it DeanB? Bwahahahaha!! Anyway, I suggest you use a flat port.
Lighting:
OK, so here's one of the bones of contention. What makes good lighting? Is it the wattage? Is it what is termed as the CRI? Is it the Lumens? or is it the Kelvin temperature?
The Wattage characteristic of a lighting system is what used to attract me to select my lighting components. Its true, I have a very serious system with my current option but get away from the 'Bigger is Best" mentality. Unless of course you're a Blond from Essex and make a habit of dating the guy with a 'limp'! Higher wattage models, like my 250w monsters, have a sometimes noticeable effect of the wildlife. I have to use the very edge of my light heads, the periphery of the light beam, in order to shoot macro at the moment. If I didn't take that measure it would be a toss up as to whether I would barbeque my subject or they would at least be agile enough to get away with only superficial burns!! The lights I have are also used for wide angle composition shooting. With this past trip experience I will now be hunting around for something in the 24 to 35w range for future macro shoots. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm also still learning. With too much wattage power you have to manually close the iris to reduce the amount of light entering the camera in order to get a clear and colorful picture. At times with the big rig I was having to close down so much that I was starting to loose the color saturation of the subjects. Bare that in mind.
Color Rendering Index, sometimes called Color Rendition Index, is a measure of the ability of a light source to reproduce the colors of various objects being lit by, in this case, your video lights. Measured on a sliding scale of 0 to 100% with 0 being bad and 100 being perfect. Take a look at the lighting models you are thinking about purchasing. Whether they are HID (High Intensity Discharge), Halogen, Xenon or HMI. Each one of these lighting models have their CRI characteristic. I'm pretty sure, don't quote me, that HMI for example is 85% whereas Xenophot is closer to 95%. Obviously the closer you come to perfection with regards to CRI the more you'll be spending. Halcyon and Nuytco have now produced 200w diver portable HMI units with a price tag of around $6000 each!! Ouch.
The lumens, apart from being an undiscovered headhunting tribe from the deepest confines of Alabama, are a characteristic measure of the power of a light source. It's often implied that the light power emitted from a single burning candle is equal to 1 lumen, some people also call this candle power, I may be mistaken on that so, again, don't quote me. If you really wanna get brainwashed take a look at the Wiki definition!!
The kelvin temperature factor of a light source however is one characteristic that you should really consider carefully. The way I normally break this down is that any given kelvin character of a light gives a direct idea of the color spectrum that particular light system is optimum for. Halogen, for example, tends to be the minimum standard of lighting for underwater video and is classified with a kelvin temperature of around 3500 degrees. At this temperature the light from a halogen source tends to allow better collection of the Red and Yellow range of the color spectrum. In the middle of the scale we have Xenon and HMI lighting which normally bridge the 4500 to 5400 degrees kelvin spectrum and give a very nice rendition of most colors. Reds can be a bit muted but not hugely noticeably so. At the top end of the scale some HID units throw out a whackingly high 6000 degrees which translates to a rather bluish tone to their light field. Whilst these seem to be the favorable light choice of the moment it is sometimes required to white balance the camera on an off white slate to get back the Reds and Yellows. Make of that what you will.
Other factors of lighting are the beam spread. In video you want the beam to be as wide as possible, nicely diffused and with no annoying 'hot spots'. Hot Spots are areas of the light which have a much noticeably higher intensity than other areas. These only go to washing out your images. A reasonable angle for lighting is anywhere between 80 and 110 degrees, there are some units out there with up to 180 degrees.
To summarize for lighting: I would suggest for good macro filming you should be looking at something between 24 to 35w, having a CRI of somewhere greater than around 80%, a kelvin characteristic of around 4500 and a beam spread of somewhere close to 90 degrees, Oh and a price tag south of $6k!!
OK, so now we're set, Camera?, check, Housing?, check, Diopters either achromatic or single element? check. Woo Hooo, lets go.....Hold on! What about Stability?
Let's face it, We're going to be at very close distance to our subjects, were going to be magnifying our telephoto ability by X number of times (based on the factor of the diopter you've got fitted) so we've got to have good stability. Buoyancy with wide angle is one thing, stability with macro is a much less forgiving beast. There are not that many companies out there producing underwater tripods so you may have to get a bit experimental and work on building something that works. For an old Hi8 system I used to film with I got some massive hose clamps from a hardware store, I had attached four of those universal base mounts for articulated flash arms to a short length of steel and then, two at the lower front end and two at the lower back end of an old Ikelite housing just hose clamped the things in place and then used multi elements of articulated arms to set a stable filming position. Get a tripod, or bastardize one, its a lot easier!! If you do have a housing from a manufacturer who also produces underwater tripods I would suggest strongly that you get one if you can, you're images will benefit greatly. At the end of the day that's what its all about anyway. Mind you, having a tripod also means that you don't have to worry about bumping into old friends and new acquaintances whilst on dive vacations and drinking until the early hours. The tripod is a godsend whilst a bout of the 'shakes' or 'DT's' are a pain in the butt.
So you're all set. The only thing that remains is to go out there and get the images.......Aw, c'mon.......you don't expect me to tell you how to do that as well do you?
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Mark.
P.S Check out my flickr page (link below) as I'll be constantly adding new video stills from this recent trip.
