A Few Images From Saturday Evening 6/26

I was able to get out last Saturday evening/night for a few dives. The conditions were not the best but it was more about learning how to use my strobe that it was about the final image. Here are a few images that turned out to be okay.

Images captured on Olympus EPL10 + Pana 8mm inside an AOI Housing + Backscatter MF1 strobe

Speckled Sanddab

Red Sea Hare

Sea Pen

Kellet Whelk Eggs

Do you have a diffusion dome for the strobe?\

Were you firing in manual mode or ttl?

Not quite sure what to C&C on.

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

Do you have a diffusion dome for the strobe?\

Kind of, the strobe has a diffusion plate that snaps onto the front of the strobe (see photo below)

Were you firing in manual mode or ttl?

I was using Manual, I was chimping after each photo to adjust strobe power. I started at power 6 (max) on the strobe and dropped down to 3 when I was not blowing the highlights.

Not quite sure what to C&C on.

Do you feel the strobe power was still too high and blowing highlights? is the camera angle/position relative to the subject okay for the composition? Ideas on how to angle the strobes to reduce backscatter (i know its tough to tell without seeing the camera set up).

Should I keep practicing and going forward or should I just bin everything and dive without a camera ;-). Okay that last one might be extreme.

Hard to say on strobe power being enough. Can always use more.

I do think in the first shot that you see a huge light dropoff, so if you were trying to light the whole area, you didn't have enough power, or you didn't diffuse enough.

The second shot - not quite sure what it is - seems overly bright, with harsh-edged shadows. (You may or may not like the hard edges.)

The shot with the Sea Pen looks like a strobe miss to me, with the light behind the subject.

When I started with strobes (pair of YS-D1's mounted to RX100 II housing), I usually left the diffusion domes on whether shooting macro or wide angle. They make lighting a bit more forgiving in certain ways.  I recommend you try them for a while, and get used to their look before taking them off.  Unless you're chronically short of strobe power.

I've moved the strobes to D810, and now D850. Until the D850 I shot in TTL and didn't master the light power. I've still not mastered it, but I've had to learn something because the D850 doesn't have a pop-up to control the lighting, and I have a non-TTL trigger instead.

Here's my take on strobes. FIrst, they are very hard to use with wide angle due to the light dropoff. You end up with a mix of ambient and strobe, and some partially-lit areas can look very good, then green in the shadows, then good again as you get strobe lighting. So figure that to be a more complicated situation to master.

For macro, you often have too much power, unless you're not close enough. This is where it's so easy to blow highlights. Simple things like Sea Rods have a reflective or fluorescent component that is easy to blow with strobes. Some silvery scales are like shooting mirrors in a well - how to balance lighting? Here I say be judicious with light power, always shoot at base ISO, and learn to reduce highlights in post.

It's the white stuff that normally gives you highlight fits. Bringing out fine detail in Christmas Tree Worms is a good practice, from shooting to strobe power to post-processing.

I have a lot of my shots up on my personal web site, including a short section of before/after post-processing underwater shots here:

https://www.cjcphoto.net/

If you have any questions how I shot or processed any of the shots on my web pages, I'll try to give you the answers.  I started shooting DSLR underwater in 2016, before that one year with RX100 and strobes, and before that all point-n-shoot, mostly with built-in flash.

Ill take a gander at your website later this week.  thanks for sharing and for your info.

Here are the out of camera files.

I Think the OOC (out of camera) images are important to see where the strobe light was falling as I have added some vignettes to the images in an effort to hide the backscatter.  Also an important note is that I was only using a single strobe for these images and there were several other divers in the area using their lights and gopros, which is totally fine but it does and did effect my images slightly, especially the Red Sea Hare image.

Also the edited images (in the original post) were edited on my phone so I know they aren't the best editing that I am capable of.

kelpdiver wrote:

how many trials did you make for each of these subjects? Initially, and perhaps forever, you want to make multiple attempts when the subjects allow. As you get common approaches dialed in, then it may take fewer to get the needed shot. And if you're shooting sensitive subjects like pygmy seahorses, limit the number. But eggs on a cone snail - go to town. Spend 5 minutes trying out different approaches. Make sure the camera playback isn't equalizing exposure levels, or have it display the levels so you know if you're over or under exposing. Blowouts should be highlighted in playback.

I attempted 3-5 images, For this dive my dive buddy was a newer, non-photography dive buddy.  I didn't want her to get "board" with how slow we photographers are.  The water temp was also near 55°F so where was a little colder than she wanted to be.

First thing - move to F/8. You're shooting most of these as F/4 1/250 and they would be sharper and better exposed as F/8 1/125. Your strobe's contribution would also become more dominant over ambient light. For non moving subjects, 1/60 or even 1/30 would be fine, though I believe with the M43 we probably want to stick around the F/8 range due to diffraction concerns.

Ill defiantly bump up to F8, however the 1/250 is the fastest my camera can sync.  Dough never mind 1/60 is slower (I need more coffee). I will defiantly try slower shutter speeds to see what happens to the images.

Shot 1 - I think your strobes may be too pointed directly at the sanddabs, whereas you want to use more of the edge of the strobe. I was a bit surprised that Backscatter doesn't list the angles of coverage for their mini strobe, with and without the diffusion covers. But I'd be trying it with the strobes pointed more outward, and also seeing if I could sneak a bit closer. Sand is our biggest enemy, exposes to the smallest amounts of strobe. So this could be one where snooting to just the sanddab while lowering the overall exposure could also diminish the brightness of the sand.

I have the snoot for these strobes but I haven't gotten around to trying it out.  I think it could be lots of fun though.

Shot 2 - overexposed- I think this would benefit from moving to F/8, and also increase depth of field. Maybe go even tighter for that. (though must say, it's difficult to review focus/dof concerns on the little screen) And I suspect the right strobe needed to be pulled further away or reduced in power compared to the left one so the viewer is drawn to the in focus head on the left. Sea hares represent a focus challenge unless you shoot at 90 degrees. Same problem as nudis but the size of a football rather than a thumb.

This was captured with a single strobe unfortunately there were many other people that gathered around the Sea Hare after I started to image it and they brought their flashlights to "help add light", again all good from me but something to be noted.

Shot 3 - I think you were closer to the subject, while your strobes were still positioned the same as before. Hence the background was highlighted over the subject. This is a situation where it's often best to push the strobes in front of the lens plane, but then aim backwards to you. The level of light that hit the subject itself looked good to me. You just want the background to be dimmer than the subject.

Awesome tip, I haven't thought of backlighting these before.  Actually this was my first try at imaging the pens (I haven't seen them in person before either).  I also have the snoot and color filters so that might be some fun to play with.

Shot 4 - I thought your intent was to capture the two cones, so the miss was the underside of the left is too dark. This would be a case of trying a few different ways to get it all covered. The backscatter may be unavoidable, though in your image it's safely contained above the subject.

But your title points to the eggs instead. Unfortunately a case of not having the right lens for the job. Too small for the 8mm unless you get right on top of it. Now I think you can do this, with the reversed strobe placement, but I would have continued trying to get the two larger objects with the eggs as a point of interest.

I think the snoot would have been a very useful tool for highlighting the eggs.

I also think you should swap out those 3" arms for 6s. I use a combo of an 8s and 12s myself. If the first one is too short, it limits your ability to shoot inward and backwards.

I'm using 5" and 8" arms  I thought about using all 8" but I was advised against it by the few people I chatted with since I'm using m4/3 they thought everything should be closer to the camera.

https://www.uwphotographyguide.com/underwater-photography-strobe-positioning

Honestly overall I'm pretty happy with my images but I'm always looking to get better.

I suggest you get lower in your shots, and closer.   Looking down on an underwater critter tends to be a bit boring.

kelpdiver wrote:

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

I suggest you get lower in your shots, and closer. Looking down on an underwater critter tends to be a bit boring.

the silting concerns can be a factor here, but yes, seeing the full frame shots, lowering the camera and shooting 'blind' with the 8mm can reduce the angle when its not practical to get yourself down. Shooting upside down is another way to get on level, though getting the strobes to do what you want is more challenging.

The funny thing is that the camera housing was literally resting on the sane for the pen and egg images. It seems hard to tell with the use if the 8mm.

I really do appreciate the wisdom you both have shared with me.  I am really looking forward to getting back out to this location (Redondo Beach, Ca) in the near future.  Id love to try to image more Sea Hares as it appears to be the beginning of their mating season and eggs should be getting laid within the next 6-8 weeks, if I remember correctly.

kelpdiver wrote:
Large dome ports don't fit into crevices very well, either.

That's when you spend the equivalent of a small car on a Nauticam EMWL

kelpdiver wrote:

Now the cheaper answer is use a fisheye, and then the 100-140mm ports are still fine.

AIUI, the selling point of EMWL is that you can stick it into holes and crevices and get images that are otherwise impossible. The only thing that is comparable is that Laowa probe lens, and the old Inon that I'm not sure is even sold anymore.

kelpdiver wrote:

Barmaglot_07 wrote:

kelpdiver wrote:
Large dome ports don't fit into crevices very well, either.

That's when you spend the equivalent of a small car on a Nauticam EMWL

yes, I look at that 7k port and think, that's nice for someone.

Yep those are my sentiments towards the Nauticam gear, and its the same reason I wont sit in nor test drive a Ferrari.  I'm sure they are high quality and worth their money but as soon as you know the "good life" the frugal life just doesn't seem good enough.

But, I have to ask myself is it e or my gear that is limiting my photos? I think we all know its not my gear limiting me :-).