dhaas
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Forum Member
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Posts: 61
Re: Is Canon exiting UW photography? Needlessly.
Flash underwater has shown people what exists underwater for decades. Without it no one would even know fish or other creatures had colors or want to save the oceans and its inhabitants.
There have been numerous scientific studies on the effect flash has on UW creatures both big and small. Almost all have concluded it has no negative effects because it's so fast and short time wise.
I will agree for surface photos I try to not use flash as it can ruin the mood, eliminate shadows that could add to a photo's impact, etc. But for underwater it is still necessary unless you only dive in less than 20' of water on bright sunny days in super clear water!
Some UW shooters are transitioning to video lights but they mainly have MORE effect making creatures want to hide or flee. Plus they're nowhere near the the light energy even a small flash puts out. Many keep hoping for fixed lighting to replace strobes but even a 20,000 lumen light can't match a small strobe's power.
Sorry for the rant but saying just turn off the flash won't cut it. Not for Nat Geo camera images of unique (and never before documented) animals and especially UW shooting.
Maybe some smart person will invent an AI App for cell phones (likely this will come first for sure) that will make any UW image look like it was lit with flash but the physics of light / color absorption even in 10' of water may make this impossible unless we'll accept CGI images as factual ones in the future
I don't think nature shooters will buy that although anyone licensing images knows buyers usually don't care if it's real or not. Likely 99% of pics of big cats, bears, etc were shot at game farms.
Just more thoughts after shooting UW for 4 decades