Taking pictures of transparent planktonic creatures

Hi,

We've reached the time of the year that fills the water with salps and comb jellyfishes.

Due to their transparent body and preference to wonder throughout the blue, picturing them is quite challenging.

It is difficult to focus on them, reef background yields awful results and shooting angle with respect to light source is even more critical and limits composition.

Trying to capture comb jellyfish lights is challenging becuase they are weak and change fast making long exposure inefficient.

I've attached a photo I took during my last dive.

Dive conditions were far from optimal for taking pictures in general but with the aid of some basic photo editing SW I maganed to get what you see.

I'll be glad to read about your experience and get some tips.

One option is to approach it similar to black water dives, similar to Kona's. Experienced photographers there bring LOTS of light to the subject. I did one of those dives. The local's had 4 lights and looked like a freight train lighting up the world. Your photos would obviously lose the natural ocean colors and have darker backgrounds. This might not be what you are after but its one option for effect.

I was using a bright Sola spotting light and 2 Z240's for strobes.

Just some food for thought as I have very little experience in this area to share.

Here is one photo from the Kona blackwater dive to show some results from this approach.

http://www.shiningseastudio.com/Nature/Hawaii-2011/i-zGszxCs

Some of the tips in this article could be useful for you:

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/photo-tips-blackwater-diving

Many thanks for your reponses, examples and article.

Dave, your pics from Hawaii are stunning. For the last pic, how did you manage to capture creatures light with all the light you've used?

Did you use the stobes when shotting this pic?

Very interesting article, Alison. It sure provided some tips that could be used also for blue water pics.

I used strobes for all the blackwater pics, also the spotting light on the strobes, also the Sola spotting light.

f9, 1/200, ISO 200 on the camera, manual setting on the strobes most likely but too long ago to recall accurately, using a 60mm lens. I recall being surprised at how much the strobe spotting lights helped the focusing. Perhaps the different angles when using 3 spotting lights helps because they are not that bright compared to the Sola.

I took a lot more photos that night that I did not share on line, poor focus, composition, etc. Upon reviewing them again today, my best guess (and it is a guess) is that the portions of the creatures putting out light are also reflective of the same colors in those locations at the time they are displaying. I got the same colors in the pics that I was seeing in the field, if memory is accurate.

Hope that helps.