Close Up Wide Angle Lighting

Hi gang, I just had my first outing with a new rig and the Nikon 10.5 FE. I'm using 2 Ike DS-125's on 2x8" arm segments. From what I had read here and a few books on the subject I thought this to be a good starter for arm length and had my arms in the M position... /\[ ]/\... if that makes sense. I had the strobes angled out and the only huge botch I made was not putting on the diffusers. My shooting situation was an anemone with 2 clowns hiding underneath the mantle in the center. Best I can remember was a shooting distance of about 1 foot from the lens...trying hard to fill the frame on the FE monster. After a few shots and reviewing I was getting nothing but black...so to compensate I did the idiot manuever and pointed the strobes inward...aiming directly at the subject. This resulted in horrid backscatter and strobe hotspots as you will see in the attached photo. When I got home and contacted a dive buddy who was in Fiji at the same time, he suggested putting the strobes close to the lens and angling outward to try and illuminate the center of the frame. This never occured to me because every photo of a diver with a WA setup has them extended outward. So what is the best way to light a subject that is "touching" the dome port without getting backscatter. I'm sure diffusers and reducing strobe output are vital to this photo but strobe position has me lost.

thanx in advance!

John

Hi John Paul

Basically, there is no correct way. You simply paint with your light, use them as an artist would use paints.

if it were me i would have normally added light from TOP DOWN to add nice shadows , basically to simultate the sun.

Thats me, each artist is unqiue in the way they use their paints.

just paint.

regards

Craig

Hi gang, I just had my first outing with a new rig and the Nikon 10.5 FE. I'm using 2 Ike DS-125's on 2x8" arm segments. From what I had read here and a few books on the subject I thought this to be a good starter for arm length and had my arms in the M position... /\[ ]/\... if that makes sense. I had the strobes angled out and the only huge botch I made was not putting on the diffusers. My shooting situation was an anemone with 2 clowns hiding underneath the mantle in the center. Best I can remember was a shooting distance of about 1 foot from the lens...trying hard to fill the frame on the FE monster. After a few shots and reviewing I was getting nothing but black...so to compensate I did the idiot manuever and pointed the strobes inward...aiming directly at the subject. This resulted in horrid backscatter and strobe hotspots as you will see in the attached photo. When I got home and contacted a dive buddy who was in Fiji at the same time, he suggested putting the strobes close to the lens and angling outward to try and illuminate the center of the frame. This never occured to me because every photo of a diver with a WA setup has them extended outward. So what is the best way to light a subject that is "touching" the dome port without getting backscatter. I'm sure diffusers and reducing strobe output are vital to this photo but strobe position has me lost.

 

thanx in advance!

 

John

Hi John,

Your buddy has a very valid point. Martin Edge makes the same point in his Underwater Photographer book. The main beam of a strobe must be very carefully aimed once you are out of the macro zone, as it will illuminate particles in the water just like in your shot. The corners of the image are most prone to it as the diagonals of the image cover a greater angle than the width or height. If you think of where the petals are on a petalled lens/dome shade then those are the safest areas.

A few techniques can be used to diminish the effects of the strobe beams.

Use diffusion - this softens the beam and gives more useful light at the edge of strobe coverage.

Move the strobes inwards, pointing outwards - like your buddy suggested.

Move the strobes backwards - this does two things...

...Firstly it helps move the highest intensity part of the beam away from the volume of water you are shooting through and secondly it reduces the rate of falloff of the strobe light on the subject. This second effect is not without sacrifice, it requres slightly higher strobe output for a given exposure and it also decreases the effective size of the lightsource, giving potentially sharper shadow edges on the subject. Most underwater subjects don't show this effect as much as their topside counterparts though.

Craig's tip about lighting from above is good one. It avoids the coral "bunny" in the headlights look, giving a subtle emulation of daylight. Above the port is a great place to light, as the camera has a big blindspot right there. You could pop you other strobe either beside the first or under the camera, on a much lower setting to give a subtle fill.

Oh, the other thing you can do is add a ringflash at low intensity, if you are sufficiently close to the main subject. Too far and you'll get dire backscatter from that too. However this is in the realm of pure overkill, I just thought I'd add it for completeness' sake.

Martyn

Workaround: Shoot vertical, this way you eliminate the hotspots of both strobes.

Always use the diffusers, make your own if the standard diffusers are not wide enough (white plastic cups made from milkbottles)

Play with the strobes: Main strobe close and pointed out, the other from far pointed in.

Accept some backscatter and deal with it in PS

This way you can get really close: (not a superb pic, but indicates how close you can get)

So where is your right hand strobe in that picture? I can see the left no problem, and the bottom right of the shot is shadowed in much the same way as the centre of the OP's shot, but here it works being in the corner, supporting the diagonal composition.

I find the issue of strobe positioning and aiming very interesting. Some dry techniques tranlate perfectly to underwater, while others are completely inappropriate. One thing I'd like to try is making up a strobe attached reflector that works like a Lumiquest does above water. I reckon there is a lot of light thrown away by "edge lighting" that could usefully be reflected back into the scene without causing excess backscatter.

Martyn

thanx for the help guys...now to get back in the water and play