Tips on practicing Split-Shots

Hey all I will be placing an order or a fisheye and domeport in the near future.   I am wondering if anyone has tips for practicing spilt shots locally (local as in not at the beach/ocean).

In a big washing up bowl? The bath? Local swimming pool? Local pond? Stream? Your sink? Buy a big plastic storage box and fill it with water? Fisheyes and domes are very close focussing so you don't need tons of space.

Whichever you chose - and there must be dozens of other options - place some non-floating items as far from the dome as you can get underwater and snap away - ideally with a more distant "horizon"/backdrop.

If you have the space, it might worth trying it by sitting the housing on a partially inflated BCD which helps get the balance between over and under. 

On 11/12/2020 at 5:46 PM, Dann-Oh said:

Hey all I will be placing an order or a fisheye and domeport in the near future.   I am wondering if anyone has tips for practicing spilt shots locally (local as in not at the beach/ocean).

Best option the swimming pool if you have one. Start at the shallow end to master exposure then move to the deep end to work on buoyancy. You don't need the ocean to practice but the ocean will add issues to this for example waves, clearly if the sea is not flat your split shots will suffer

I've tried this (only) a couple of times with my 230mm dome port.   If you can stand on the bottom in the shallows, it will be a lot easier.  Otherwise you need some way of floating the rig as it could be massively heavy to try to hold out of the water.

I never was able to do it enough to get decent at it, but aside from the obvious lift-it-out-of-the-water problem, getting the lighting balanced between over and under was going to be an issue.

This kid's lifejacket can work to support a housing for over/under shots. 

There are a few things which will make different concerns and results. It is not the same to do splits with strobes or without, it is not the same to do ir with a 6" dome, with an 8" or with a 17" dome.

In my case, with my rig with the 8" dome with no strobes is very easy to stabilize myself even floating. When adding arms and strobes it is much more difficult. Or when shooting with the 17" dome ( I made a custom one for myself) the problem is when I don't use strobes, I find more difficult to stibilize myself with the nude housing. The shame is that is impossible to travel with such a giant dome. It makes split really easy to do.