In my recent photo class I decided to try and experiment shooting sharks with a fisheye lens, strobes, and a CC50M magenta gel. The goal was to see how color balance would turn out and how tolerant of direct sunlight the D100 would be. Here are a few shots.
The gel was probably stronger than optimal, but these sharks were 2 - 4 feet from the lens and the undersides remained quite white. Only at the closest distances did the animal turn pink. The color correction applied to these shots was quite mild and quality of the blue water and sunbursts is remarkable.
These were shot with two Z220's at full power, f/19 and f/22 and 1/180. See the rest at Breathless Images
Wow! Beautiful colors. Looks like the sun is still a little too bright. How deep were you?
Maybe adding a neutral density filter would help???
I was quite shallow (5-20 feet) and I believe ND filters would help. At ISO 200 the D100 doesn't like noon sun too much. A 2 stop ND filter would be very helpful but I would have needed more strobe power.
Great gallery, and thanks for including the EXIF data...does the software fetch it from the image file or from Nikon info.txt files?
A naive digital newbie question...
Why use a neutral density filter rather than simply decreasing the ISO? I assume the D100 offers ISO's < 200?
Great gallery, and thanks for including the EXIF data...does the software fetch it from the image file or from Nikon info.txt files?
A naive digital newbie question...
Why use a neutral density filter rather than simply decreasing the ISO? I assume the D100 offers ISO's < 200?
The software reads the EXIF data one of one of the JPG's directly. It is a software modification I added to the gallery software which I'm not allowed to redistribute under the license agreement of the gallery package. I'm writing my own gallery now which does this and can be made available. Eric expressed some interest in it for wetpixel so we may end up finishing it together.
The D100 cannot be set to ISO speeds slower than 200 strangely enough. Otherwise you'd be right.
Craig:
Great shots! I think these may be the best sunburst photos that I have seen from a digital camera (and the sharks are nice too ;-)
Do you think I could get the same shots w/ the S2 at ISO100 f22 @ 1/125th? Would I still get the rays at 1/125th vs 1/180th? That exposure combination would offer me one 1/2 stop darker of an exposure.
Cheers
James
Craig:
Great shots! I think these may be the best sunburst photos that I have seen from a digital camera (and the sharks are nice too ;-)
Do you think I could get the same shots w/ the S2 at ISO100 f22 @ 1/125th? Would I still get the rays at 1/125th vs 1/180th? That exposure combination would offer me one 1/2 stop darker of an exposure.
Cheers
James
I believe the gel greatly enhanced the rays by reducing glare, so the fast shutter was not the only thing contributing. If you look at all the pictures I believe you will see some that used shutters slower than 1/180.
I wonder if a weaker gel would have worked better or worse on that particular dive. I did find that I could shoot traditional shots through the gel and still get the color right. A weaker gel would be better for that, though.
Sharks are nice but too magenta for me. Strobe lighting balance with ambient is very good. But the sunbursts are most impressive for me. Although you have done the usual digital trick/skill of never using a full sunburst either by whacking the subject in the way or cutting the sun on the edge of the frame.
Do you have an example shot with the full sun? I realise that may not be your chosen composition because I think the pictures works so well because the shark is in front of the sun.
Alex
p.s. I think that the digital F mount gang will find the sun much easier to control when it is smaller in the frame. There I am posting in "Photo Critique" again.
I have just had a look through the gallery and I think that the shot of the blurred shark at 1/15s is a stunner. Alex
When I color balanced the sharks to be less magenta I didn't like the effect it had on the water and sun. I should selectively fix that as I agree that the sharks tend a little too much toward pink. In the future I think I'll use a slightly weaker gel although color balance will always be an issue. I would like to try a yellow filter over my strobes as well. I believe that may help the pink cast on the sharks.
This is the closest I have to the full sunball. The shark was too far away for my aperture setting, but I included it because of the sunball.
This is the slow shutter shot Alex refers to. The pink is apparent and I should fix it.
Any better?
Glorious. Did you do something other than saturate the water? I'm curious how that will look in bigger sizes.
Just took out the contrary bits according to my English eyes... Water Colour is not really saturated just cleaned.
You are one smooth dabber, then, even if you have a glass left eye. :freak:
BTW, did you use a slow sync on the last shark?
BTW, did you use slow sync on the last shark?
Rear curtain sync.
In my recent photo class I decided to try and experiment shooting sharks with a fisheye lens, strobes, and a CC50M magenta gel. The goal was to see how color balance would turn out and how tolerant of direct sunlight the D100 would be.
Great shots Craig! One Question: Did you turn the Auto-White Balance feature of the D100 on?
I'm completely blown away by these shots - I didn't think sunbursts shots were possible in digital.
I just got back from Singapore, where I picked up some magenta, red, and orange filters at Cathay Photo. Can't wait to try them out, particularly after seeing these shots.
R.
Great Pictures! What lens were you using?
Craig is in indonesia for a month. He was using the 15mm fisheye for those shots (check his site for lens details)
