Selective lighting

[danielstassen 1]

Hi folks,

 

I saw the last results of the contest "Our World Underwater 2010" and was very intrigued by the creative lighting used by Keri Wilk giving fantastic, original results.

 

See links below

 

http://www.underwatercompetition.com/Photo.../66201263624469

 

http://www.underwatercompetition.com/Photo.../66181263624269

 

http://www.underwatercompetition.com/Photo.../66671263626507

 

Do you have any idea how he managed that kind of lighting?

 

1) Used a full frame camera and a torch with a small beam at high ISO

 

2) Used a Strobe and fitted a funnel to the desired beam

 

3) others ...

 

Anyone?

 

Cheers

 

Daniel

[ckchong 0]

i guess is "Snoots" lighting....

[Adventure4ever.com 0]

I think the 'creative' lighting was made in Photoshop by burning out the dark parts into the extreme.

 

Nothing wrong with that, just don't send it into any National Geographic or photojournalism contests/publications or they will crusify you (rightfully) for changing the truth and meaning of the image. Anyway for illustrative and creative purposes this does not count.

 

He is a good photographer and the shots are great. I believe they would still be good without all the burning.

 

Cheers

 

Frits

Edited March 14, 2010 by Adventure4ever.com

[MikeVeitch 0]

Hello Frits, I believe you are wrong about that. It's definitely snooting, Keri has worked a lot of time to get his snoots just right.

[TheRealDrew 0]

I think the 'creative' lighting was made in Photoshop by burning out the dark parts into the extreme.

 

 

To add to what Mike said, they were in Macro Traditional and Super Macro Traditional catagories which are more limited in what type of changes can be made to the images to

 

. The "Traditional" divisions allow for the adjustment of brightness, contrast, color, and sharpness only. Cropping, cloning, and other digital manipulation is not allowed in this category.

 

So it would seem that burning could (would?) run afoul of the rules and the judges would have caught it. Some pretty keen eyes on the panel and in fact a couple of years back no one in Super Macro won because of what the judges saw in terms of potential conflicts with the rules, so they will enforce them. Keri is extremely talented and I would bet most contests and National Geo would feel the same when seeing Keri's shots.

 

Now if Keri could be banned from contests from now on to give us mere mortals a chance, that would be good

[davephdv 0]

Snoots lighting? I had to look that up.

 

Snoot full

 

I imagine that you don't have time to do that on the standard 50 minute regulated tourist dive.

 

I've been on a dive trip with Ernie Brooks. Famed B&W UW photographer. He was burning and dogging UW photos before I was born. You show him a photo and he starts immediately suggesting where you should burn it.

[Alex_Mustard 0]

Keri is working on an article for the Dive Photo Guide website on shooting with snoots. Watch that space, soon! I will be.

 

Alex

[cor 0]

These were done with snoots. If you use them a lot, like Keri does, you get good at it. Obviously

 

In Our World Underwater the judges always check the original RAW files of all finalists in the traditional categories so any images that have been modified would have been caught.

[Nige Wade 0]

Daniel.

 

Keri hinted at what he does with snoots Here! and the images he is getting using the superacro techniques he's pioneered along with his prototype snoots.

 

 

"I think the 'creative' lighting was made in Photoshop by burning out the dark parts into the extreme"

 

 

Frits, you were absolutely miles off the mark.

 

Nige Wade

[Drew 0]

Fritz, just do a search on snoot and you'll see 2 recent threads about this:

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...89&hl=snoot

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...73&hl=snoot

[ce4jesus 1]

I believe that Keri uses the snoots in combination with the subsee 10X wet diopter

[ornate_wrasse 0]

I'm guessing that a considerable amount of time and practice has gone into learning how to shoot with snoots.

 

When I was at Alex Mustard's workshop in Grand Cayman in January, he offered all of the participants in the workshop the chance to work with snoots. He did state, though, that everyone who tried it at his last workshop gave up on it pretty quickly as it was too difficult to get good results. I didn't even try it, based on what Alex told us. Based on that, Keri must have had difficulties when he tried it initially, but then practiced and practiced until he got the shots he wanted. That rates at least 10 in my book for working at a task in underwater photography until it's perfected. Bravo for Keri!

 

Ellen

[echeng 0]

We audited RAW files and confirmed that the lighting was done in-camera.

[Steve Williams 0]

Keri has posted a great article on the Dive Photo Guide site that explains his snoot technique.

 

http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-p...ot-photography/

 

Steve

[Alex_Mustard 0]

Excellent article. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Keri.

 

Alex

[photovan 0]

Great to see such passion about light, and such a great example of how there is a lot more to innovation than the latest software tool.

[yahsemtough 0]

Yep that article has been up for awhile and it is always nice when someone takes time to explain how they accomplish something that has a new look. Thanks Keri!

 

I shot some snoot shots in December and what he did with two is very difficult and frustrating in implementation.

 

I am quite confident Keri is and always has been within the rules of competitions. Congrats again Keri.

 

Cheers

 

Todd

[aussie 0]

A great article. I hope they're paying you a lot to give away all your trade secrets though Keri!

 

Ryan.

[randapex 0]

I agree with you Ryan. I know Keri has spent an enormous amount of time perfecting his snoot and even more time U/W getting the great photos. Very generous of you to share Keri!

 

Rand

[Deep6 7]

Keri has posted a great article on the Dive Photo Guide site that explains his snoot technique.

 

http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-p...ot-photography/

 

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the link. Y'all need to check this out.

Bob

[MattDPG 0]

Steve,

Thanks for the link. Y'all need to check this out.

Bob

 

 

Keri did a great job with that article. He has been working very hard on the technique and has really done a great job of mastering it, bringing the popular studio photography technique to the oceans. I'll alert of him of this thread and I'm sure he'd appreciate if you left him a comment on the article, too. It would be cool to see images from people that want to try and use the article to do their own snoot photography.

[james 0]

Wow - I just read the article and it is fantastic!!!!! I shoot a lot of off-camera flash underwater and I was blown away to see how ingenious Kerri has been in making his remote snooted flash - that is too cool!

 

Cheers

James

[DuncanS 0]

Wow - I just read the article and it is fantastic!!!!! I shoot a lot of off-camera flash underwater and I was blown away to see how ingenious Kerri has been in making his remote snooted flash - that is too cool!

 

Cheers

James

Here, here

 

Great article and fantastic pictures!!!!

 

Got some bits to make my own today.

DIY Snoot inspired by Keri

 

Many thanks for sharing....

[SlipperyDick 2]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, everyone!

 

As several of you guessed, the images in the OWU competition were a result of snooting my strobes - not from photoshopping. The article recently published on DivePhotoGuide.com explains this technique in detail, and shows some of the equipment I use. None of the images in the article are all cropped, burned, or heavily edited.

 

James - You just like the article because I included a pretty picture that Alex took of you...

 

DuncanS - Nice looking snoot! It definitely looks like a more elegant solution than mine. I'm interested to see how well it works. I'll bet the beam angle will still be too wide for precision macro spotlight shots, but it should be great for wide angle shots.

 

 

Thanks again everyone!

 

 

 

Keri

[Bent C 18]

Thanks again everyone!

 

 

 

Keri

 

Thank you for the article. Saves a lot of trial and error for many of us. However, I am pretty sure that to get the results you do, besides the hardware, loads and loads of testing and trials will have to be done. I will most definitely try the technique on my next trip.

 

Once again, great info!

 

Regards

 

Bent C