Over/under shots

Just got my 8" dome from Ikelite. Took it to Cayman where the water was incredibly flat. I played with the setup while waiting for people to jump in or people trying to get back onboard.

I had difficulty with exposures (such a wide range from topside to below water). What are people doing to get better exposures? Are you using a neutral density filter? I ended up getting lucky on a couple of pictures but it was just from multiple trials and lots of errors.

Also, how do you get rid of the water spots? The Ike dome is acrylic not glass so that might have something to do with it. I thought about using a coating (eg rain-x) but i figured the salt water would wash it away, and plus i'm not sure what it would do to the environment. Wax or paraffin would cause possible reflection and refraction. Any suggestions?

thx.

Point #1 Do NOT use rain-x on acrylic ports as it will damage them. Use baby shampoo.

A graduated or hard ND filter for the upper portion will help, but they are hard to mount on a lot of lenses.

Check out Steve Frink's article about shooting under/overs on his website - it has good tips.

Cheers

James

For Glass Ports Rain-X can be effective; however, I have had TSA confiscate Rain-X bottles and Rain-X wipes...apparently, even in small quantities, they don't allow it on airplanes...!!!