Hints & Tricks for wide angle photography with a Sealife

[meex56]

Hello everyone,

I am writing this for desperate help on taking wide angle shots underwater here in the dark murky waters of our PNW.

My camera (Sealife series 1400) is fine for taking macro, but now I am trying to extend my hand to wide angle. However it seems like every time I try the the "wide angle" shot, the photo either comes out incredibly dark or all you get is a high quality photo of millions of dots (from the strobe) between you and the subject.

Any help, tips or tricks would be greately appreciated

Hope to hear from you all soon

P.S I do have a strobe attached along with a diffuser but I don't have a "fish eye wide angle lens." I have been told by several people its not worth the $ for Puget sound diving. Is this true?

Long live the PNW!!!!

-Nathan

[YellowEye]

Hi Nathan!

I'm just getting started with wide angle myself. What I've learned so far (at least for day diving) is that you need to expose for both ambient (distant) and close up, and it is better if you can do so independently. One way is to turn the strobes off and expose for the ambient/background until that looks good, and then turn the strobes on to light the foreground to make the colors pop. (your strobes will only reach so far) Many control the ambient exposure via adjusting shutter speed, since shutter speed doesn't affect strobe exposure.

As for the backscatter, likely it has to do with your arm positioning. Try turning one strobe on at a time, trying it from different angles (likely, more outward), at different strengths, that may help isolate the problem.

Many others on here will probably have further advice in that area. Good luck, have fun. You're welcome to join up with us for a ThThTh dive where we have a lot of photographers.

[meex56]

Ththth dive? I have no idea what that means. Let me know and I will be sure to see you in person always looking for more buddies to dive with

[Nwcid]

In my novice experience using a WA is harder, but it will work. I have had the best luck when there is ample ambient light and the strobes are for fill light.

Here is a shot from Redondo with a Nikon D70 with a Nikon 10.5mm fisheye,



Here another right under the pier the MAST Center is on,



On the fill side with my new set up with larger strobes, at night, with lots of "silt" (in lake CDA) I ended up with tons of backscatter and had to switch to macro. I need to invest in a zoom set up next.

One big key for reducing backscatter is the direction you point your strobes, they should be back and angled a bit out. Here is a great website I have been reading that is very helpful, http://www.uwphotographyguide.com

[dphershman]

nwcid's response about Wide Angle is correct.

You're not going to get a true 'wide-angle' from the Sealife 1400 unless there's some kind of wide-angle attachment that goes along with it. With the flat port, not even the 'widest' focal length will give you a wide angle shot. The best setups are those that allow you to place a dome port of some kind on the front of the body, eliminating the refraction-magnificiation inherent in a flat port. (everything looks larger and closer than they 'really' are.)

The idea behind wide angle shooting is that it allows you to keep the camera-to-subject distance quite close.... often less than two feet in order to be able to adequately light up your subject. The most powerful strobe in the world doesn't really light up a subject underwater more than two or three feet.

For macro subjects its easy to stay within a foot-- no problem. But, if you're taking a picture of a diver, shark, or other large subject you need a wide angle setup to get close enough to your subject to have a strobe actually light up. Plus, the closer you are to your subject, the less water will between you and your subject, making for a clearer picture. The widest angle lenses allow you to capture a whole diver head to foot while being just a foot or less away-- while staying close enough to light him up.

So in the setup you've described, the 'black except for particles' is occurring because you're just not close enough to your subject to light it up. And the shot can only be real close if the lens has a sufficiently wide enough view to take in the entire subject up close.

The other thing to remember is when using a wide angle setup, be sure to point your camera upwards, so that you can take advantage of as much ambient light as possible. Your flash may be used just as a 'fill light' in those cases.

Wide angle shots in Puget Sound can be exciting.... if you've got the viz for it. Here's the pilings at Keystone last month, shot with mostly ambient light and just my focus light on the anemones in the foreground.



If you're interested I've got a short article on my blog about wide angle shooting here-- http://hershmanphoto.blogspot.com

Dan

[YellowEye]

Ththth dive? I have no idea what that means. Let me know and I will be sure to see you in person always looking for more buddies to dive with

ThThTh is our weekly Thursday night dive. See the dive planning section. It is usually at Three Tree or Redondo.

[inflex]

Absolutely nothing wrong with wide angle in the PNW. A little more difficult, but all the more rewarding.

Tips--

Exposure - shoot in manual.
1 - Adjust camera exposure for background. First get the color of white, green, black, or whatever in between that you want. Note that this exposure will change dramatically as you change depths or even if weather conditions change (cloudy/clear). Be sure to stay on top of this.
2 - Adjust strobe power for foreground/subject.

Backscatter:
Backscatter is the out of focus, lighted particles in the water. You can't avoid the water (as that defeats the purpose...), so focus on the the "out of focus, lighted particles...." When are these two conditions met? When the particles between your lens and your subject are lighted by your strobe! So, two ways to mitigate backscatter:

1 - Adjust your strobe(s) so that the minimum amount of water between your lens and your subject is illuminated. Imagine the light coming out of your strobes as cones (think Pixar/Disney spot light). Position/aim/control the cone such that as little water as possible is lighted.

2 - Increase your depth of field! Remember the "out of focus" part of backscatter? Well, you can bring particles into focus by increasing the depth of field. The most obvious way is to increase your f-number (smaller aperture). The less obvious way is to get a wide-angle lens and, in particular, a fisheye lens. Fisheyes have a characteristic that brings more light in front of the focal point into focus. In other words, fisheyes shift the depth of field forward, which in the underwater application, means less out of focus particles between your lens and subject... and less backscatter.

Composition-
Shoot up. Shoot up. Shoot up.

[meex56]

I think my next specialty is going to be "PNW photography."