Magic Filters are ready

I ordered my Filters on Tuesday Morning, got a reply from Peter about 30 minutes after I sent the fax and they have arrived by FedEx in the British Virgin Islands this morning, less than 48 hours later!!!

Can't wait to try them on the Great Whites at Isla Guadalupe next week!!!

That is great news, Uncle Fred.

Someone else asked me about using the filters with the Great Whites and these were my thoughts - that might be useful:

"I think that the biggest advantage of the filter with the white sharks will be the chance to create different looking images at Guadalupe! I guess what I am trying to say is that flash is hard to beat in those conditions, but the filter is good for some sessions in the cage.

Here are a few thoughts on using the filter with the sharks.

The filter will produce nice colours on the sharks. Setting the white balance will be tricky on the sharks. I think you might be best to use a grey card in the cage? Or even your hand if you are not wearing gloves. But definitely shoot RAW - in case you can't get an optimum WB setting UW - so you can fine tune WB afterwards if required.

I think lighting will be the biggest problem. Look at any ambient light images you have already from Guadelupe (or those of other photographers). The lighting in filter shots will be the same - just in colour. The problem of shooting ambient light in open water is that there is very little upwelled light - so you will have a lot of shadows on the underside of the sharks. Always try and use a (slightly) downward camera angle, so you are shooting with the sun. This will also give you rich blue water colours.

One of the real advantages of the filter (apart from no backscatter - although if you can see the particles then so will the camera) is that you have colour without flash fall off. So you can shoot a shark through the bars of the cage - with both in colour and the bars not burned out by the flash. This could create an interesting image."

Alex

Alex,

Here's the kicker question:

What do you recommend for a complimentary flash filter (I mean to mount on the flash) to offset the Magic Filter?

When Eric and I were in Fiji, Craig lent us his filter set. One for the lens and 2 that mounted on the Inon flashes. In a dark room, you could take a photo using those filters and everything would be "normal" looking. Pretty amazing.

Cheers

James

I know what the answer is.

But if I tell, then anyone would be able to make their own Magic Filter (as it would be the opposite!). Although I have to say it would cost you much more to make a Magic from constituent filters than we sell them for.

Anyway, it is certainly something that Peter and I have already discussed and are planning to look into. But for now I say get out there and enjoy available light photography! Be happy to be free from those pesky strobes!

I think we will wait until we have paid off the considerable investment in getting the Magic Filters made. At least the strobe filters wouldn't have to be optical quality and would be much cheaper to have made.

Alex

Hi Alex,

Whoops, I wasn't implying that you should let the cat out of the bag. If I were you, I'd give it considerable thought for a future run of filters.

Cheers

James

Got mine today!

Ordered em on the 25th of Aug, and arrived today the 5th of Sept, not bad at all

Will take it out tomorrow and give it a shot

M