Shooting with an 8MM F3.5 Fisheye lens

I received a new addtion to my underwater gear for Xmas; a new Sigma 8mm F3.5 lens for my Canon XTi. I have been shooting with Canon 10-22 for about a year now, with two Ikelite DS125 strobes, with pretty good results, with both WA and CFWA shooting, shooting manual settings with TTL on the strobes (I occasionally bracket the strobes with EV). My question is this; Are there unique techniques to using a fisheye? IE; are the settings similar to WA shooting; what about strobe positioning?

I will be going on a photo expedition in March on the Solmar V to Soccorro, and want to be able to use this lens for the big animals I hope to see. Any tips, techniques, reccomendations, however minor would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Thanks so much!

Donna

Hi Donna

I use an Olympus Zuiko 8mm Fish Eye for all of my wide angle work. The Sigma lens on the Canon will probably be slightly wider than the Olympus lens, but similar technique;

First you will need a port suited to the lens, the port you use for the 10-22mm may not be suitable for the 8mm, this will depend on a couple of factors, but check it first underwater to see if it focuses corner to corner sharply at various distances from a subject that fills the frame (at say 1', 2', 3', 4' & 6'). Check also for cropping in the corners from your port/shade.

If these tests prove OK, then you don't need another port.

As for its actual use underwater:

1) Get close..... then get closer. Only large subjects, up very close will look dramatic in your images.

2) For strobe photography, use diffusers on your strobes - to spread the light as wide as you can, to light the full area in the image.

3) Get your strobes out wide and pull them back from the front of the camera housing - its very easy to get the front of your strobes in the image if you aren't careful, also you don't want the strobes 'just' out of the image corners, you want them well-out of the image. If they are too close to the corners, the left and right hand edges of your image will probably have lots of backscatter, no matter how clear the water is.

4) Aim your strobes slightly outwards to 'paint' an even area of light on the subject, you really want to have one strobe lighting one side of the image, the other strobe lighting the other side of the image - their light output shouldn't overlap in the middle of the image.

I hope this helps?

This is GREAT, Jeff and exactly what I was hoping to get; thanks SO much!!!

Sigma 8mm F3.5 lens for my Canon XTi

Use a BIG dome, possibly without a dome shade: ideally with the front element only just in front of the rear plate in the dome.

This works with the amazing Sigma 4.5mm f2.8 and a cropped sensor, so it should be OK for any fisheye lens! It is also great for over/under shots:

Pretty much the same setup works with a 180-degree fisheye on Nikon gear, which is similar to your new rig.

I pull my strobes back, about 4-6" behind the rear of the dome, and angle them outwards by about 20 degrees, and they sit at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock, except when I'm on a wall, when one sits at 12 o'clock and the other on the blue-water side: it looks silly, but avoids over-illuminating the wall and lets you get in close to corals etc on the wall.

Because of the area that needs to be lit you may have to settle for a lower f-stop; the alternative is to light only the immediate subject and use a lower power to balance the background. The biggest problem is lighting the whole area when the sun is in the frame: you need super-strobes to allow you to stop down enough to create a nice sunburst, and the sun really likes to creep into fisheye images!

Please let us know how you get on: I hope to go to Socorro next year...

Tim