Selective lighting

Hi folks,

I saw the last results of the contest "Our World Underwater 2010" and was very intrigued by the creative lighting used by Keri Wilk giving fantastic, original results.

See links below

http://www.underwatercompetition.com/Photo.../66201263624469

http://www.underwatercompetition.com/Photo.../66181263624269

http://www.underwatercompetition.com/Photo.../66671263626507

Do you have any idea how he managed that kind of lighting?

1) Used a full frame camera and a torch with a small beam at high ISO

2) Used a Strobe and fitted a funnel to the desired beam

3) others ...

Anyone?

Cheers

Daniel

i guess is "Snoots" lighting....

I think the 'creative' lighting was made in Photoshop by burning out the dark parts into the extreme.

Nothing wrong with that, just don't send it into any National Geographic or photojournalism contests/publications or they will crusify you (rightfully) for changing the truth and meaning of the image. Anyway for illustrative and creative purposes this does not count.

He is a good photographer and the shots are great. I believe they would still be good without all the burning.

Cheers

Frits

Hello Frits, I believe you are wrong about that. It's definitely snooting, Keri has worked a lot of time to get his snoots just right.

I think the 'creative' lighting was made in Photoshop by burning out the dark parts into the extreme.

To add to what Mike said, they were in Macro Traditional and Super Macro Traditional catagories which are more limited in what type of changes can be made to the images to

. The "Traditional" divisions allow for the adjustment of brightness, contrast, color, and sharpness only. Cropping, cloning, and other digital manipulation is not allowed in this category.

So it would seem that burning could (would?) run afoul of the rules and the judges would have caught it. Some pretty keen eyes on the panel and in fact a couple of years back no one in Super Macro won because of what the judges saw in terms of potential conflicts with the rules, so they will enforce them. Keri is extremely talented and I would bet most contests and National Geo would feel the same when seeing Keri's shots.

Now if Keri could be banned from contests from now on to give us mere mortals a chance, that would be good

Snoots lighting? I had to look that up.

Snoot full

I imagine that you don't have time to do that on the standard 50 minute regulated tourist dive.

I've been on a dive trip with Ernie Brooks. Famed B&W UW photographer. He was burning and dogging UW photos before I was born. You show him a photo and he starts immediately suggesting where you should burn it.

Keri is working on an article for the Dive Photo Guide website on shooting with snoots. Watch that space, soon! I will be.

Alex

These were done with snoots. If you use them a lot, like Keri does, you get good at it. Obviously

In Our World Underwater the judges always check the original RAW files of all finalists in the traditional categories so any images that have been modified would have been caught.

Daniel.

Keri hinted at what he does with snoots Here! and the images he is getting using the superacro techniques he's pioneered along with his prototype snoots.

"I think the 'creative' lighting was made in Photoshop by burning out the dark parts into the extreme"

Frits, you were absolutely miles off the mark.

Nige Wade

Fritz, just do a search on snoot and you'll see 2 recent threads about this:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...89&hl=snoot

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...73&hl=snoot

I believe that Keri uses the snoots in combination with the subsee 10X wet diopter

I'm guessing that a considerable amount of time and practice has gone into learning how to shoot with snoots.

When I was at Alex Mustard's workshop in Grand Cayman in January, he offered all of the participants in the workshop the chance to work with snoots. He did state, though, that everyone who tried it at his last workshop gave up on it pretty quickly as it was too difficult to get good results. I didn't even try it, based on what Alex told us. Based on that, Keri must have had difficulties when he tried it initially, but then practiced and practiced until he got the shots he wanted. That rates at least 10 in my book for working at a task in underwater photography until it's perfected. Bravo for Keri!

Ellen

We audited RAW files and confirmed that the lighting was done in-camera.

Keri has posted a great article on the Dive Photo Guide site that explains his snoot technique.

http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-p...ot-photography/

Steve

Excellent article. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Keri.

Alex

Great to see such passion about light, and such a great example of how there is a lot more to innovation than the latest software tool.

Yep that article has been up for awhile and it is always nice when someone takes time to explain how they accomplish something that has a new look. Thanks Keri!

I shot some snoot shots in December and what he did with two is very difficult and frustrating in implementation.

I am quite confident Keri is and always has been within the rules of competitions. Congrats again Keri.

Cheers

Todd

A great article. I hope they're paying you a lot to give away all your trade secrets though Keri!

Ryan.

I agree with you Ryan. I know Keri has spent an enormous amount of time perfecting his snoot and even more time U/W getting the great photos. Very generous of you to share Keri!

Rand

Keri has posted a great article on the Dive Photo Guide site that explains his snoot technique.

 

http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-p...ot-photography/

 

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the link. Y'all need to check this out.

Bob