aquatica charter's shark dive

hello all, I spent the weekend with the aforementioned boat and great crew and was able to get a couple of nice blue shark photo's on my maiden voyage with the d-rebel and the aquatica housing. I tried posting the links as attachments but see nothing when i preview, so I'll just post the links here...

http://img42.exs.cx/img42/5589/IMG_0513f.jpg

http://img42.exs.cx/img42/2069/IMG_0454f.jpg

http://img128.exs.cx/img128/6861/IMG_0539f.jpg

Those are pretty cool shots. Next time I'd concentrate on splashing more light on the shark. It looks a little dark.

Joe

Was this a blue shark diving trip in So Cal?

There is a lot of red noise on the shark that really looks odd to me and an overall lack of contrast but like Joe said, that can be corrected by getting closer and using a bit more strobe.

Cheers

James

Joe, i would have loved to add considerably more light; unfortunately, I still haven't been able to solve my TTL issues with my housing and dual strobe so that will have to wait for another dive.

James, yes this was the aquatica charter's blue/mako shark dive that departs from long beach. I had an incredible time and can't wait for more next year (I'm sreiously still riding a little wave of adrenaline that has me smiling from ear to ear.) Unfortunately for the boat and the crew, we got caught in that freak so cal weather over the weekend which had terrible swells and had to cut our trip short on sunday for the return. The seas ripped the shark cage from the boat on the return and there was no way to get it back on. The crew tried everything they could to salvage it, but were forced in the end to pop the flotation devices and sink the cage so that no other traffic would hit it. They were visably upset about it as they had been using it for, I believe, 15 years and I'm sure that is quite the sentimental loss, not to mention the economic cost of replacing it. I hope they find a replacement soon and are back on track as quick as possible. I am already scoping out weekends for next fall to go back out with them for another saturday shark dive and spend saturday evening and sunday diving various sites around Catalina. I'll include the link below should anyone have any interest in booking their own trip.

http://www.diveaquatica.com/sharks.html

I am still learning, myself, but there is enough blue water / negative space in these shots that I'd not expect TTL to work very well. Perhaps a manual exposure (slightly under) and a manual power setting on the strobe is the route to go ... comments from those in the know?

In this case, TTL would yield an OVEREXPOSURE, not an underexposure.

Cheers

James

In this case, TTL would yield an OVEREXPOSURE, not an underexposure.

Yup, if there were no flash compensation dialed in and the subject were darker than the foreground. Again, I be a newbie, so I ask (even knowing that flash is so fast that ambient light usually doesn't affect TTL):

Does the relatively light background play a role here, in quenching TTL early?

Thanks,

Hi Dave,

On most cameras, no. There are separate flash sensors that control the TTL and they don't meter the background exposure, only the flash.

Cheers

James