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This question came from "The cat keeper" on another topic.
since you asked... let's talk about strobe positioning first
I have been told that if I want to take a panaromic shot in the water, I should place my strobe at the furthest possible distance away from the camera to minimize backscatter... so I tried pushing my strobe to the furthest horizontal distance from the camera and there is still backscatter, so I moved the strobe to different angles (still maintaining the furthest horizontal distance from the camera) and still, backscatter everywhere!
Hence the questions are:
1. If there are particles in the water, is it possible to avoid backscatter at all? Or is the effort only, at best, minimizing those blotches on the photograph?
2. When I tried positioning the strobe at different angles, I realized that the light cannot reach the subject at certain angle... so what exactly does it mean by placing the strobe as far from the camera as possible while preventing the particles from reflecting light back to the camera?
Answers ) that depends on how much suspended particles there are in the water. Increasing the strobe distance from the lens will reduce the size of the reflections off the particles as the angle will bounce the strongest reflection away from the lens, but it will not eliminate the particles ( only photoshop can do that ). What you want to do is try to position the strode so that the beam will contact the subject while not illuminating the water between the camera and the subject. this takes practice. One tip is unless you are shooting macro and a subject is very close to the camera, keep the strobe pointed parallel with the lens, do not try to aim the strobe at the subject as doing so will result in more of the beam striking the water in front of the subject. I use real wide beam ( 110 degree ) strobes, and in dirty water I even point them slightly outward. I also use two strobes in most cases and my goal is to have each beam strike the subject with just enough overlap to expose the entire frame.
And,
3. We found a ray under some corals. There was an opening. My friend moved her tiny (compared to mine anyway) little camera into the opening and took the picture. With the bracket and the strobe, my camera has became really bulky... so now I could not access smaller crevices to get nearer to the ray without banging the strobe onto coral or something (and I do not want to do that)... so what's the best way to get to the ray?
Answer, The best answer to this is having a very flexible strobe arm, or better yet, one that can easily be detached from the tray/camera to allow more positioning options. Slave strobes designed with a sensor that needs to be pointed directly at the internal camera flash may make this more challenging as it reduces the positioning options. In such a case of your ray, I would most likely have tried to position the strobe by hand holding it, behind the camera, therefore not having to stuff it into the tight opening.
since you asked... let's talk about strobe positioning first
I have been told that if I want to take a panaromic shot in the water, I should place my strobe at the furthest possible distance away from the camera to minimize backscatter... so I tried pushing my strobe to the furthest horizontal distance from the camera and there is still backscatter, so I moved the strobe to different angles (still maintaining the furthest horizontal distance from the camera) and still, backscatter everywhere!
Hence the questions are:
1. If there are particles in the water, is it possible to avoid backscatter at all? Or is the effort only, at best, minimizing those blotches on the photograph?
2. When I tried positioning the strobe at different angles, I realized that the light cannot reach the subject at certain angle... so what exactly does it mean by placing the strobe as far from the camera as possible while preventing the particles from reflecting light back to the camera?
Answers ) that depends on how much suspended particles there are in the water. Increasing the strobe distance from the lens will reduce the size of the reflections off the particles as the angle will bounce the strongest reflection away from the lens, but it will not eliminate the particles ( only photoshop can do that ). What you want to do is try to position the strode so that the beam will contact the subject while not illuminating the water between the camera and the subject. this takes practice. One tip is unless you are shooting macro and a subject is very close to the camera, keep the strobe pointed parallel with the lens, do not try to aim the strobe at the subject as doing so will result in more of the beam striking the water in front of the subject. I use real wide beam ( 110 degree ) strobes, and in dirty water I even point them slightly outward. I also use two strobes in most cases and my goal is to have each beam strike the subject with just enough overlap to expose the entire frame.
And,
3. We found a ray under some corals. There was an opening. My friend moved her tiny (compared to mine anyway) little camera into the opening and took the picture. With the bracket and the strobe, my camera has became really bulky... so now I could not access smaller crevices to get nearer to the ray without banging the strobe onto coral or something (and I do not want to do that)... so what's the best way to get to the ray?
Answer, The best answer to this is having a very flexible strobe arm, or better yet, one that can easily be detached from the tray/camera to allow more positioning options. Slave strobes designed with a sensor that needs to be pointed directly at the internal camera flash may make this more challenging as it reduces the positioning options. In such a case of your ray, I would most likely have tried to position the strobe by hand holding it, behind the camera, therefore not having to stuff it into the tight opening.