Magic Filters ARE Magic!!!!

Picked up a magic filter from Alex at the DEMA show. Yesterday I did my first three dives using the filter and I love it! First dive was too deep. Second two dives were between 50 and 35ft. Not the best conditions as we had occasional overcast skies and viz wasn't great....about 50ft but really cloudy. Best results were achieved when subjects were very evenly lit by the sun. Stuff just slightly in the shadows came out a bit flat. I shot everything just to test out the range. I was shooting my Tokina 10-17 and loved the fact that everything seemd evenly lit. The extreme forground subjects weren't scorched because I was trying to light the fish behind the foreground subject.

Notice the detail in the fan in the foreground but the fish behind still have great color.

So many times when I try to shoot schools of fish like this, especially reflective ones like snappers, I always get some hot areas. Not a problem with the filter. Even divers looked pretty good!

I was amazed at how well this worked and although these are by no means great shots, I am totally stoked for my Bonaire trip in two weeks where I may never descend past 25ft!!! Strobes? We don't need no stinkin' strobes!

Mermaid, thanks for posting. nice shots.

It looks the magic filter is working well when there aren't heavily shadowed area. btw, for reflective fish, I usually put my strobes on manual and turn them way down, but it's tough!

Let me ask you, how did you attach the magic filter to your tokina 10-17? did you put in behind the lens or in front of it?

Alex, can you refresh my memory, with the magic filter you lose 1 stop of light, is that correct? I've been meaning to try my magic filters soon

thanks alot

scott

Mermaid, thanks for posting. nice shots.

 

It looks the magic filter is working well when there aren't heavily shadowed area. btw, for reflective fish, I usually put my strobes on manual and turn them way down, but it's tough!

 

Let me ask you, how did you attach the magic filter to your tokina 10-17? did you put in behind the lens or in front of it?

 

Alex, can you refresh my memory, with the magic filter you lose 1 stop of light, is that correct? I've been meaning to try my magic filters soon

 

thanks alot

scott

I attached the filter to the back of the lens. On the Tokina 10-17mm there is no slot so tiny pieces of scotch tape on the corners of the filter did the trick. One of the other things I found was that the filter made the water color gorgeous. The day I took the shots it was really milky blue-gray looking.