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Shooting into Strong Backlight…In Water – Part 2 – Solved!

08.30.2012 | Photography

Having been extremely frustrated last week in not being able to figure this out, we decided to go for it again. I really, really wanted to know how to shoot into the Sun, while in the water. Second only to shooting fast moving fish in surging water while scuba diving, this was probably one of the trickiest types of shots I have ever attempted. We tried a few different things and eventually found something that worked:

A Kayak!!

My assistant Adam sat in the front of the kayak with one Canon 600 Ex and I had the other on my Canon 5Diii set to ‘Master Mode’ while having both dialed in on high-speed sync. (I cover a similar, land based technique, coincidentally with the same exact model on the Canon Speedlite 600 Ex-RT Crash Course Video.

We also played with some different grad filters because we had a nice tree line that could hide it, while also lowering the exposure of the sky. We quickly learned that the balancing act included:

1. Keeping Adam close to Annie, without being in the shot. Adam’s flash was on Manual, so we had about 1-2 feet of play before it was over or under exposed.
2. Keeping Kayak rotated at the correct angle so I could shoot.
3. Annie had to stay in position (these first three things were difficult with even small waves coming in), so I had my paddle in my lap, camera in my hands, and could almost paddle with just my elbows.
4. Keeping the camera and Speedlites dry, I almost dropped my camera in the drink twice.
5. With the Filter, I also had to worry about where the gradient was placed and missed many shots.
6. I also had to adjust my camera and flash settings throughout the shoot.

Tricky stuff, but worth it!

Camera settings for most of the images were ISO 100, with Apertures in the 7.1 – 9.0 range, and shutter speeds of 1/640 with filters, 1/1250 without.

While I liked some of the shots without the grad filters, the sky wasn’t all that blue so I had to pop them with Michael Andrew Lollipops ® Action Set! Having been extremely frustrated last week in not being able to figure this out, we decided to go for it again. I really, really wanted to know how to shoot into the Sun, while in the water. Second only to shooting fast moving fish in surging water while scuba diving, this was probably one of the trickiest types of shots I have ever attempted. We tried a few different things and eventually found something that worked:

A Kayak!!

My assistant Adam sat in the front of the kayak with one Canon 600 Ex and I had the other on my Canon 5Diii set to ‘Master Mode’ while having both dialed in on high-speed sync. (I cover a similar, land based technique, coincidentally with the same exact model on the Canon Speedlite 600 Ex-RT Crash Course Video.

We also played with some different grad filters because we had a nice tree line that could hide it, while also lowering the exposure of the sky. We quickly learned that the balancing act included:

1. Keeping Adam close to Annie, without being in the shot. Adam’s flash was on Manual, so we had about 1-2 feet of play before it was over or under exposed.
2. Keeping Kayak rotated at the correct angle so I could shoot.
3. Annie had to stay in position (these first three things were difficult with even small waves coming in), so I had my paddle in my lap, camera in my hands, and could almost paddle with just my elbows.
4. Keeping the camera and Speedlites dry, I almost dropped my camera in the drink twice.
5. With the Filter, I also had to worry about where the gradient was placed and missed many shots.
6. I also had to adjust my camera and flash settings throughout the shoot.

Tricky stuff, but worth it!

Camera settings for most of the images were ISO 100, with Apertures in the 7.1 – 9.0 range, and shutter speeds of 1/640 with filters, 1/1250 without.

While I liked some of the shots without the grad filters, the sky wasn’t all that blue so I had to pop them with Michael Andrew Lollipops ® Action Set! I thought the shots with the Red Grad Filters were much more interesting. I really like how the water looks almost black…Im excited to know how to do this know. I think the same thing can be done with waterproof covers for the speedlites shooting from the water up, but it would be more of a hassle. The kayak was the real solution here. (Alien bee worked ok, but due to shutter speed limitations, as well as bulk of the strobe and battery pack (which we wrapped in a garbage bag) it wasn’t really worth it.

Dancing on Glass – Underwater Portrait Tests

08.29.2012 | Photography

Had a really fun shoot today with Adam and Annie. Finally figured out the technical part of “Shooting into Strong Backlight on Water” which I should be showing you the results of tomorrow. During the last part of the shoot, Annie and I worked on underwater figure & portrait type shooting. Not as easy as it seems. The main issue is with white balance as most of your reds disappear after 8-10 feet and you get this really strong blueish hue to everything. Learned a very important little trick that can help save some of it, the main thing is to shoot in RAW so it can be recovered.

Back in the days of shooting weddings, one trick we use is that if your White Balance is way off and you don’t want to mess with it, is to just go black and white and you can get some solid results.

I will say that I am amazed at how many different directions the post processing can go and another thing I really liked about todays shoot was the fact that not only did we work out some really unusual technical aspects, it got me thinking about what else I can do to continue challenging myself. I think the next step is underwater portraits, with me wearing my scuba gear using my rig with strobes. Maybe in a swimming pool too, because water clarity is really everything when shooting in water. There were 3 different parts of todays shoot, this was the 3rd. Pretty happy with the results.

Gear used is a Canon 7D in an SPL Surface Water Splash Housing, using a Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye

Nudibranch Dive

08.26.2012 | Photography

Had a nice little dive this morning in a new location that is rumored to be teeming with nudibranchs (which are essentially small exotic ocean worms). Saw three which I had never seen before, here they are:

(Gear is as follows; Canon 5DII in Ikelite Water Housing for 5Dii, with 2 Ikelite 161 Underwater Strobe / Movie Lights . Shot on Av mode, most of the shots were at 7.1, Im coming to the conclusion it isn’t nearly enough.

This first one was about 4-5 inches long, my Dive Instructor Zac said it is a “Kangaroo Nudibranch” it was beautiful!This next guy was about a half inch long, really a baby. Hiding under sea moss that would shift with the waves. Super cute. Not sure on the name. The place was literally crawling with these next white ones, also not sure on the name. I will figure it out. We also saw a few clusters of them fighting/mating. While I am not sure it is the same for all nudibranchs, but most are hermaphrodites and their mating fight ends when one inseminates the other (they cannot inseminate themselves). The reason they do not want to be inseminated is because it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to have offspring, and nudibranchs which are “pregnant” are at a temporary physiological disadvantage. So they usually fight, with the loser getting pregnant. Interesting stuff.