Long exposure time/night dive/painting with light

Did search both the forums here, and google, but can't seem to find anything good about this...

I have a few projects in mind regarding long exposure time during night dive, and thought i would read up abit first, but...
All i could find was some old post using film camera, and some old post about light painting/long exposures in caves, but wasn't to much good info about the subject..

Have been doing a lot of topside long exposures, northern light, milkyway, startrails and similar..... And time to take it below the surface now!

Mainly thinking no strobes, just dive lights, (maybe one or two buddy's for light assist).. and maybe the use of strobes aswell for for some of my plans..

Anyone doing long exposure times with tripod ? Wrecks, deep dives, caves, or similar ...
And/or playing with light painting underwater ?

Hi Ronni,

I havent tried Light painting underwater yet but we've been thinking about it a fair amount. I got hooked on light painting up in the air and love the creative possibilities. I'd recommend thinking about using multiple exposures of 30 sec since thats the max on most cameras without resorting to a bulb shutter setting which will be tough in a housing. The other benefit is our cameras have much less noise than if used for a long enough exposure to paint light on a shipwreck. My 7D gets very noisy at long exposures. I've made it work as long as 20 minutes but the work in post is not worth it.

It's much easier to layer multiple 30 sec exposure images using PS "Lighten" blend mode. I use Lightroom to capture the files then select all the images I want to take to PS, right click inside one of them and you'll get the option to make all of the selected images layers in one Photoshop file. Blend in Lighten mode and the lightest, (most lit) portions of each file show up. Crazy easy way to make light painting images

I've played with the technique on land quite a bit but havent had the opportunity top to try it underwater. A stable fixed location tripod will be a must, and will be much easier with two folks, one on the camera and one with a light. We use our Solas on land, nice even wide light. Possibilities with shipwrecks and large areas of reef are fascinating to think about. Its alot of fun to be in front of the camera with a light but remain unseen.

When you combine the lightpainting with other composite techniques you can have all kinds of fun. Heres an example of the land using the technique described. It's 12 images combined in Photoshop, made over a period off about 4 hours. No flash was used, all the light from our Solas for the jeeps and a 3 million candle power 12 v light on a motorcycle battery for the cactus and background. Would love to hear more about what you're planning to shoot.

Cheers,

Steve

Ok thanks..

I have done lot's of layering/blend mode and stuff like that so i know my way around that,and agree, multible exposures are better than very long ones.

I see endless possibles playing around with this, but can't revile to much before i tryed some of it out

I got only one archon video light at the moment, so I'll try to make the most of it for now. . Not doing any big reef or wreck stuff just yet anyways.

Guess i might have to play around with some light painting in air before i take it underwater.

Have a regular alu tripod modified for hanging some weights i made up for it, will be pretty sturdy it looks like. Weights hanging low on it, and housing a few xxx grams positive to reduce a "bouncing effect".

Looking into making a tiny housing for my cordless remote aswell, not ahure how well it will work underwater tho (?)

it's not the best noise regarding camera i got, but oh well. I'll make it work.

D3200 with sigma 10mm.

I have done tripod-mount long exposure painting with light in a cave but there's not really much information to share. 30 sec exposure and paint away. :-)

You want to be methodical about your painting - wide beam light. Consider having a preset focus because it's a pain to focus the camera in the dark.

Here are some examples on other subjects:

And me at work:

And using a narrow beam!

I have done tripod-mount long exposure painting with light in a cave but there's not really much information to share. 30 sec exposure and paint away. :-)

 

You want to be methodical about your painting - wide beam light. Consider having a preset focus because it's a pain to focus the camera in the dark.

Here are some examples on other subjects:

 

Thanks.. what kinda exposure time on these ones Akex ?

Alex,

Very impressive pictures...thanks for sharing...

I'm jealous as i'm just a newbie and hope to someday replicate shots like these!!!! Great set!

These aren't anything special... I took them by way of "research" for a more grand plan, which has yet to come into place...

I bumped my ISO up to 6400 or something, then shot at 1/30, f 3.5 or close to it. Almost no post processing... and no strobes at all of course.

These aren't anything special... I took them by way of "research" for a more grand plan, which has yet to come into place...

 

I bumped my ISO up to 6400 or something, then shot at 1/30, f 3.5 or close to it. Almost no post processing... and no strobes at all of course.

Not really long exposure tho, as you can do this without a tripod (or simular)

Nope... That's where the high ISO comes in. These new-fangled cameras are awfully good with "noise"

I am going to try to light up the entire bow of an old schooner in Tobermory one of these days. The challenge is coordinating a half-dozen competent divers in 110' of water at night. With my friends, any dive scheduled after happy-hour is likely to be cancelled. I might need to bribe them! ;-)

On the 30s exposures issue. While uw it would be great to have an interval mode so to continuously take exposures so that you don't need to swim back to the camera each time, wouldn't it?

Little bump on this thread:

On the 30s exposures issue. While uw it would be great to have an interval mode so to continuously take exposures so that you don't need to swim back to the camera each time, wouldn't it?

That is not nessecary. Most SLR's you can set on interval timer shooting and let it fire away as long as you want.

Here are some examples on other subjects:

 

 

And me at work:

 

 

And using a narrow beam!

 

How to see pictures attached by Alex in 2014?

Has anybody else tried long exposure since then?