Night Photography

I was at the Catalina Dive Park in Avalon, CA all weekend learning to use my new Inon D2000 strobe. I love it...for pictures in the day time! My very second dive with my new toy was at night. How in the H do you fumble with a flash light and work your camera at the same time? I still need to see where I am going. Do I just use the spotting light on the strobe as my main dive light?

Do I need to aim my spotting light directly at the subject at night or slightly off to either side as in the day time?

I'd say it's all personal preference.

I myself use a seperate spoting light as I don't have strobes with midelling lights. That is attached on the hot shoe mount on top of my housing. it is aimed for camera focus normally directly on subject as I don't believe it scares any fish if you aclimatise them to it in the peripheral first.

I also carry a back up flash light which i will use to look for things if i am not trying to take photos.

i am sure everyone here has their own solutions .. take the ideas and see what works for you, try it all out .. you are bound to get best results one way .. but i dont think trying to hold a flashlight and take photos at the same time is oging ot work well ever (i used to do this with my smaller housing, worked ok but took some talent of which sometimes i run out of)

Giles

Hi,

I have a DS125 and find that it is easiest to use the spotting light as my primary light source. (It's brighter than many flashlights!) For you it may depend a bit on how long your batteries last as I'm not familiar with the INON strobe. You wouldn't want to burn them out mid dive. I also have a small mask mounted light as back up.

The easiest way to do this is to use modelling lights. I purposely use Ikelite DS125 and SS200strobes , as well as a couple of Inon D2000W, all of which have modelling lights.

I use NiMH 2500mAh batteries with the Inon strobes, and can get 2 days of shooting out of them. This includes leaving the modelling lights on the whole time during night dives.

As Giles mentioned, do not aim the light directly at fish and other creatures at night, "hunt" using the edge of the light beam so as not to scare them off.

Cheers,

Mat

Ultralight has "holders" for either AAA or AA lights. I attach this with a triple connector on both tray handle balls. The holders have a velcrow strap to hold the light, and I also twist the light lanyard around in case the velcro comes loose. When I get in the water, these lights come on along with strobes, camera and stay on for the dive. The ultralight system allows me to move the lights but they basically light up my subject completely. And there are no modeling lights to possibly run down batteries. Ryan at Reef Photo & Video will give you a good deal if you do not already have Ultralight.

I use the modelling lights on my strobes for general lighting. The DS125 has plenty of power for 2 dives with modelling lights on. For focus I use a seperate focus light so that the strobes can be faced forward not directly on the subject.

Ultralight just invented a new part that mounts to any ball joint component to add a second ball connector to mount a focus light. I have one on order. This should work better than the tri clamp because it won't move as I move the strobes.

I always carry a backup light but for general diving functions (reading gauges finding your BC inflator etc), there is usually so much reflected light from other divers in the group and your modelling lights that you can see most anything anyway.

If you want to do it right, get a separate spotting light. Using your strobe's aiming light for focus lock forces you into a very limited lighting style selection because you need to keep the strobes centered close enough so you can see the animal throug the viewfinder and also allow the camera to focus. If you can use manual focus using the ambient strobe light, that can work as well. But my opinion is that a separate aiming light is best for night photography.

Joe

Unless you are strictly macro you may also need a light to adjust your camera and strobe settings. i use a Q-light on the shoulder strap of my wings, held by a metal ring and a bungee. It points across my chest and illuminates the buttons etc.

I've added another pair of mini Q-lights bolted beneath my housing to supplement the modelling lights from my Inon Z-220 strobes. The diagonal spread of the beams, especially if the strobes are angled outwards to use the overlapping edges on the subject, is not very helpful at night. I have also thought about red filters over the lights to reduce the fish-frightening factor.

This is a night-time shot.

Tim

B)

A spotting light can solve the problem partially. One of the frustrations at night for me is not being able to readily read the strobe power setting on my Z220s. On a future release, it would be swell if there was at least the option of backlighting the strobe control panel. Having to have a separate flashlight to use for setting power levels is very inconvenient. Just a very low backlt glow on the settings would be a huge ergonomic improvement for night dives.

You can use a spotting light or a focus light like the SLX that we have on our website.

http://www.nocturnallights.com/underwater_...s_assist_light/

The light can be mounted on top of your camera housing or you can get a separate tray for it. Ultralight also makes a new accessory neck ball (AC-NB) because there's a emerging need for accessories like a spotting light or focus light. Let me know if you guys have any questions regarding our products, I'll be more than happy to help you guys out.

I use a light and motion focus light. Little expensive but it is a peice of art. comes with battery pack and is neat and clean looks profesional.

Here's a review from divephotoguide.com

http://www.divephotoguide.com/noclight.php

Hopefully this helps answer some of your questions.

A light mounted on your housing is definitely the way to go, but I'd urge you to avoid the narrow "pencil" beam spotting lights some people use for this purpose. A spotting light doubling as your dive light needs to have a wide enough beam coverage to let you see what's in front of you and to the sides.

(Spotting lights "built in" to some strobes or attached to the strobe to help aim it can be useful for that, but won't be very satisfactory as a substitute dive light.

Personally, moreover, I think separate narrow pencil beam lights are very problematic anyway. Unless you are willing and able to shoot everything at exactly the same distance, you'll have to re-aim the spotting light for each subject and each time the camera (or the subject) moves closer or further away. Life is hard enough.

Of course, a wide-angle beam bright enough to be useful as a general dive light and to facilitate your camera's autofocus needs to be a fairly powerful light.

I use a Mini Hartenberger mounted on top of the housing. This light is available with an optional wide-angle reflector that can be switched with the standard beam reflector, and has multiple power settings that can be dialled from the rear. My light is mounted on a ULCS ball fitting bolted to the handle. This isn't the cheapest light you can buy, but my night dives have gone a lot better ever since I got mine.

If you plan to use a light mounted on your camera/housing as a dive light, do make sure you also carry a separate back-up safety light that's securely attached to you. This is a good application for a good LED light that has no bulb to burn out and can provide up to 200 hours or more burn time. (I don't much like the light that LED lights put out, but I think they're great as safety back-up lights.)

Frogfish