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Everything posted by Floris Bennema
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Advice Dome or WWL for whales
Floris Bennema replied to HCIdiver's topic in Photography Gear and Technique
I don't understand these complaints on WWL-1 bubbles. I use the lens for over 5 years and only experienced bubbles before the bayonet mount came out. Rolling from a boat I keep my camera in front of me so the water flows in rather smoothly and never take the lens off. Or jump, camera up in the air. No issue for me. Do those who have isuues use the bayonet mount? . -
Recommandation gear EPL-10
Floris Bennema replied to sacha's topic in Photography Gear and Technique
I prefer a hand strap on the side of the shutter release. Not sure if it's possible on a AIO housing. -
The minimum focus distance of the 60mm lens is 19cm. For this reason I only use it in clear water.
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Essential Spares for Underwater Photography?
Floris Bennema replied to brightnight's topic in General Chat
Brrr, remenber there's near vacuum on the other side .. -
Essential Spares for Underwater Photography?
Floris Bennema replied to brightnight's topic in General Chat
I heard at a Nauticam service that the red knob will be pressed under presure at depth. -
Essential Spares for Underwater Photography?
Floris Bennema replied to brightnight's topic in General Chat
Talking about vacuum caps, I once had a small leakage in my Nauticam housing and suspected I didn't tighten the cap firm enough. Could that be the cause of the leakage? -
Essential Spares for Underwater Photography?
Floris Bennema replied to brightnight's topic in General Chat
Brilliant! -
Essential Spares for Underwater Photography?
Floris Bennema replied to brightnight's topic in General Chat
I used an Olympus 14-42 kitlens with my Olympus behind a WWL-1. This lens is so vunerable that I always took a second one with me. It saved me two trips already. As secondhand prices of this lens are rising, I recently switched to a Panasonic kitlens for this purpose. Also I bring along an internal flash that may replace my flash trigger. Not that I had bad experiences with the flash trigger, but I had the flash already and it is very small anyhow. Unlike ChipBPhoto I don't have a spare Nauticam Vacuum pump. At least with my Olympus housing I can suck out the air with my mouth .. if needed. -
Muck diving & camera tether length issue
Floris Bennema replied to hedonist222's topic in Photography Gear and Technique
I looked at sidemount solutions. The problem is you need a camera on each side. -
Muck diving & camera tether length issue
Floris Bennema replied to hedonist222's topic in Photography Gear and Technique
I like a minimum of lines etc. Therefore I use a thin short rope as on a hand-held (!) camera to avoid losing the camera. In more challenging situations, like when I am expect to shoot up a SMB, I use a longer laynard, waiting for use on a D-ring. The lanyard I construct myself, most carabiners are to narrow to attach to a strobe arm and are quiet heavy. So I use the cheapest aluminium climbing carabiners I can get and fixate them to a rather thick rope. However, I have to make a new one, my previous lanyard lies on a liveboard in Indonesia.. -
How do you curate a portfolio?
Floris Bennema replied to jjmochi's topic in Shooting Technique, Workflow and Editing
Just a very practical answer. I love the 0 to 5 star system in Lightroom. After a trip I remove the worst shots and then give the images the amount of stars I think they reserve. Mostly I'll only process the images that got 2 stars or more. Now it's easy to pick out a selection to show others, depending of the trip I'll show the 3+ or 4+ images. Once ready it's also easy to decide which images a suitable for my website or social media. The star-value of a selected image can be changed by just typing in a number. The great advantage is that is so flexible. Often I change the amount of stars an image gets in hindsight, sometimes years laster. Selecting the best images from multiple trips at once is easy as well. For instance, now I see that overall I have 47 5-stars and from my Asian trips 22, presenting them is just two clicks away. No, believe it or not, I am not sponsored by Adbode 🙂 -
Trioplan 100 or 50 on MFT
Floris Bennema replied to Whiskeyjack's topic in Photography Gear and Technique
Just found your question 🙂. I have an original Meyer Optik Görlitz Trioplan 50mm on my Olympus 5III. I use it with a MEKE 10mm Expansion Tube Ring and an Exacta–m4/3 mount, the combintion extends nearly 7 cm from the body. At f/8 it focusses from 18 to 30 cm off the top of the lens, depending of the position of the focus ring . The DOF is shallow then, just some cm's. Although I created a zoomring for my Naticam , I did not use it under water yet. Here's an example above water. Although it will be a bit of chalenge to focus underwater, I think it can be nice addition. -
If yo pull your strobes back the light spreads out earlier relatively to the camera. Reducing the dark areas effect of slightly angling out.
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If you angle the strobes out so that only two particles are lit in the second case, the 'dark areas' will have the same size as in the first case. The benefit of the pull back is nicely explained in Seewolf's "Getankenexperiment"
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Seemingly it's hard to say "Yes, you are right".
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I fully agree on trying to get the best colors out of the camera. I learned from AM in a REBOOT course that 5500 K result in the nicest greens in less transparant waters, while 4400K result in the best blues. So now I use my Z-330 strobes with or without 'SOFT' diffusers in green waters and use the 4600 K diffusers in blue waters. With pleasing results.
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Resources for identifying corals and sponges
Floris Bennema replied to Kamaros's topic in Critter Identification
Not that there are many, but from which region? A photo uplad could help too. -
For the rest of us there are web versions. East Pacific https://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/sftep/en/pages Caribbean https://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/caribbean/en/pages
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At the beginning of this year I dived in the spectacular waters around Misool. It was a great opportunity to forget about my usual macro photography and go for wide angle. Although sea life was at its best, the relatively strong currents made it difficult to take shots with much control. In addition, it usually was quite dark under water, as our divemaster mostly took us to 15 to 20 meter depth and the water at times was full of plankton. Here my idea of ‘colour blindness' came in, the surprise you get when the strobes light up the scene. The dark blue reefs, of which our travel friendly torches just lighted some pieces, were full of colour. I did not fully realise it looking at my shots in the viewfinder, but got a pleasant surprise afterwards. Videographers with their permanent lights won’t have this WYSINWYG handicap. Photographers that know the species at their dive site, or only shoot macro, also not. However, especially when it comes to gorgonians and sponges at depth, we often cannot predict the outcome. In wide angle photography this phenomenon prevents the use of colours in our compositions (unless you spend much time on one site) . For me it isn’t a great handicap, I like the surprise. Now I wonder, are there many underwater-photographers that pay attention to colour combinations? The first shot revealed an unexpected variety of colours. Taking this shot I knew what I would get, the species are well known.
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Options for CFWA on m4/3?
Floris Bennema replied to Troporobo's topic in Photography Gear and Technique
This video just came out -
Your Favourite Photo Of 2023
Floris Bennema replied to Alex_Mustard's topic in Photo / Video Showcase and Critique
Rather intimidating to post after these great images, but as this is about personal favourites, I'll add mine. This year was not very successful for me, after we arrived at the Red Sea, I dived into an Egyptian hospital bed with appendicitis. Back at home the viz was bad. Fortunately at the last dive the water was clear enough for a smooth green background. Nice to combine with the soft pastel colours we often see in northern waters. Olympus E-M5 iii with a Panasonic 45mm. Two INON 330-2 flashes. 1/160 @ f/13.- 76 replies
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Flash recommendation YS-D3 or Retra
Floris Bennema replied to Landvogt1893's topic in Lights, Strobes, and Lighting Technique
Bit confused by the sentence. I referred to Inon Z-330. With Dome Soft filter 5400 K; 4800K and 4600 K filters available too. -
Shooting with one strobe?
Floris Bennema replied to fruehaufsteher2's topic in Lights, Strobes, and Lighting Technique
I used one strobe for some time and had difficulty to avoid strong shadows. The subtility of Rembrandt lighting is that in addition to the direct light on one side, he used reflection of light at the other side. Possibly you could Imitate that with strobe light on one side and natural light on the other. But that would complicate your freediving photography even more.