14 replies to this topic

[PhotographingBlind]

What are the best strobe positions (dual strobes) to use if you dive in dark murky waters with a lot of dust ?

Which technique....

[JimSwims]

Edge lighting is the goal and there are different ways to achieve it. For wide angle shots Murky/Turbid waters are always going to be problematic and

you have to have to accept some degree of backscatter I think. My struggle has been to get enough light on the subject without the backscatter. The

key is getting close as possible then it is a matter of having the right strobe position and angle relevant to the distance to subject.

 

Some like to use long arms to get the strobes way out wide. I prefer to stick with single 8" arm sections on each side, less joints to fiddle with. I keep

the strobes wide, behind the plane of the rear of the dome and turned outwards. I often also take of the diffusers to have the cones of light a bit tighter

and more defined. I'm far from an expert at WA as I really enjoy and prefer macro.

 

Cheers,

Jim.

[Panda]

In really dirty water you just can't avoid lighting up the stuff in the water. What you can do is make it blend in to the lighter background. Shoot up towards the surface and play with shutter speed for more or less ambient exposure.

[tdpriest]

Try short arms and angle the strobes outwards at about 40-degrees; Martin Edge describes it very well.

 

http://www.oceanopti...erwaterpha.html

[Aussiebyron]

Really depends on what lens your shooting? Macro or wide angle......different positions for different setups.

 

Regards Mark

[twinner]

Remember that every time your subject to camera distance changes so does the optimal strobe position. If you want good lighting you need to position your strobes based on the subject and distance. That's why you paid all that money for those fancy arms :-) Learn to use edge lighting and technics that can hide backscater. Like shooting down is your subject is on sand. If its really nasty you can always shot macro :-)

[PhotographingBlind]

I have a hugyfot with two ys-d1's and the 60mm micro.

I saw a technique bu Kevin Lee

http://www.uwphotogr...obe-positioning

 

At the bottom of the page.

Is this a good technique ?

 

I thought to try out side lightning and back lighting.

[twinner]

Yes inward lighting is a good macro technique and Kevin is very accomplished at it. Your 60mm focuses very close. If your getting a lot of backscater you may just need to get closer. What size subjects are you shooting with it? Do you have an uncroped image you can post?

[PhotographingBlind]

Mostly i shoot little fish and crabs and seaslugs.

This is an uncropped image

https://www.facebook...&type=3

 

 

Nothing special i know :-p

[tdpriest]

Yes inward lighting is a good macro technique and Kevin is very accomplished at it. 

 

 

That's true, but macrophotography is much more forgiving as the distance between the lens and the subject is so small. In silty conditions, inward lighting will still generate backscatter.

[Karl]

Another thing to try is to use snoots when shooting macro subjects - this way you can aim the light directly on the subject and get decent results.   I dive in poor conditions all the time often the vis is < 3m and very silty and lots of crud in the water and by using snoots I get some decent results.

 

I have two sets of home made snoots:

 

50mm

 

 

40mm

 

 

I use these in different conditions for different results.

 

An example with the 40mm snoot is vis that was about 2m

 

 

Example with the 50mm snoot again is vis about 3m

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Karl

[PhotographingBlind]

Snoots are an option, but cost a lot of money.

are that YS-D1's ?

 

How did you made your homemade snoots ?

[onewolf]

Snoots are an option, but cost a lot of money.

are that YS-D1's ?

 

How did you made your homemade snoots ?

 

The 40mm snoot looks like joined PVC pipe couplers? Like 3" to 2" and then a 2" to 1" maybe?

[Karl]

Snoots are an option, but cost a lot of money.

are that YS-D1's ?

 

How did you made your homemade snoots ?

 

No these are YS110A strobes and the snoots didn't cost that much to make - about $15 AUD each.

 

Basically they are PVC plumbers fitting / pipe from my local hardware store and some 3mm rubber  strip.

 

The wide end has a diameter of 95mm and on the inside I have glued in some 3mm rubber strip which leaves the diameter about 89 / 90mm which fits nice and tightly over the end of the strobe - you need to leave a gap (I left about 10mm) between the ends of the rubber strip so that you can fit the fibre optic cable through.

 

The 50mm is a 95mm / 50mm so reduces down to 50mm and this is my 'general use' snoot.

 

The 40mm reduces down from 95mm to 65mm and I then added a second piece of PVC pipe that goes from about 60mm down to 40mm.

 

Rather easy to make and didn't take a lot of time.

 

I spray painted them black to stop any unwanted reflections.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Karl

[Nicool]

In really dirty water you just can't avoid lighting up the stuff in the water. What you can do is make it blend in to the lighter background. Shoot up towards the surface and play with shutter speed for more or less ambient exposure.

Indeed, I discovered this option recently by experimenting. However I found out that my flashes didn't bring sufficient colour on the subjects then...

I must say I shoot TTL, so probably the camera considered ambient light was quite sufficient (I slowed down shutter speed), and did not put much power in the flashes.

Does it sound like a realistic explanation? Then I'll probably have to go manual on the flashes, in such circumstances.