Shooting sun-bursts in calm water

I've searched the forums and read quite a bit of what's here on this topic. Couldn't find an answer to my issue though.

I'm a newbie to underwater digital, moving from Nik V to a D80. I was playing around at the local quarry this weekend with sun-bursts. Conditions were ~10-15' viz, nice and green, but it's practice. From reading here, everyone emphasized max shutter speed w/ strobe sync for nice sun-spot pics. However, when I did that, I invariably got a sunny blob with no nice ray pattern. I found I had to slow my shutter speed down to around 1/125 (with higher aperture) to get rays. I had to drop deeper to keep it from blowing out though, even at min aperture, which made my foreground that much darker.

I suspect that the lack of wave action the problem, where my slower shutter is giving the very slight surface ripples more chance to throw some rays. I suppose I could ask a large dive buddy to belly-flop into the water right before I take the pic, but he probably won't like that solution.

Any suggestions that don't involve my large friend's belly are welcome.

I've searched the forums and read quite a bit of what's here on this topic. Couldn't find an answer to my issue though.

 

I'm a newbie to underwater digital, moving from Nik V to a D80. I was playing around at the local quarry this weekend with sun-bursts. Conditions were ~10-15' viz, nice and green, but it's practice. From reading here, everyone emphasized max shutter speed w/ strobe sync for nice sun-spot pics. However, when I did that, I invariably got a sunny blob with no nice ray pattern. I found I had to slow my shutter speed down to around 1/125 (with higher aperture) to get rays. I had to drop deeper to keep it from blowing out though, even at min aperture, which made my foreground that much darker.

 

I suspect that the lack of wave action the problem, where my slower shutter is giving the very slight surface ripples more chance to throw some rays. I suppose I could ask a large dive buddy to belly-flop into the water right before I take the pic, but he probably won't like that solution.

 

Any suggestions that don't involve my large friend's belly are welcome.

I am trying to work out the same problem.I have just switched from a Nike V set up I am wondering if you can get the same type/quality of sunbursts and blue water as I got with my nike 5 with a 15mm and provia 100 asa. The blue water looks kinda phoney (not as much gradiant from light to dark and the sunbursts dont look as good with that magenta cast and a blob for the sun. I have seen good /great shots of this type shot with digital but IMO not as good as the best film shots. I hope I am wrong as I love that style of WA shot Sorry none of the heavy hitters(VBG) have chimed in on this

Joe