Tompotika Dive Lodge, Central Sulawesi

[stphnmartin]

Back in March it took a dive trip to Central Sulawesi and stayed at Tompotika Dive lodge. One of the great things about this destination is it's the only dive operator in the area so it's just you and your friends on each dive site! The lodge is right on the beach and there's a house reef.

I shot the GH5 using the 8mm fisheye, 12-50mm and 60mm macro.

Comments and critiques are welcomed.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I love it but not a photog myself.

Have you also done a trip report? I'd love to read it.

 

[EvilOtter]

Wow! Fantastic production. I really enjoyed this. The camera work was superb and very steady. I loved the black backgrounds on the macro shots. They isolated your subjects which were very sharp and nicely lit. It looks like you shot the macro stuff with snoots. Care to share your secrets?

My only criticism is that I found the rotating ken burns effect to be a bit overused. It left me feeling slightly nauseous, especially with the faster rotations on the wide shots. Consider reducing the strength of the effect or mixing it up with more subtle pans and zooms.

Overall, though, an amazing film that inspires me to improve my craft.

 

[stphnmartin]

I love it but not a photog myself.

Have you also done a trip report? I'd love to read it.

The video is the trip report so far. I'll write something up when I have time. Thanks for watching!

 

[stphnmartin]

Wow! Fantastic production. I really enjoyed this. The camera work was superb and very steady. I loved the black backgrounds on the macro shots. They isolated your subjects which were very sharp and nicely lit. It looks like you shot the macro stuff with snoots. Care to share your secrets?

My only criticism is that I found the rotating ken burns effect to be a bit overused. It left me feeling slightly nauseous, especially with the faster rotations on the wide shots. Consider reducing the strength of the effect or mixing it up with more subtle pans and zooms.

Overall, though, an amazing film that inspires me to improve my craft.

Thanks for the critique. I may have gone overboard as I really like video to have movement.

For the macro shots I use a tripod and snoot light--ScubaLamp MS30.V3. It is really a giant pain trying to get the tripod set, the subject framed, in focus and the snoot positioned properly. Most footage ends up being deleted. But the times is all comes together it looks pretty good! So, there's a lot of suffering involved. For larger macro animals I use a sola 500 with a flip snoot to narrow the beam. It's a 3D printed piece of plastic. So, I guess the secret is not to get discouraged when most of the footage fails!

 

[EvilOtter]

Thanks for sharing your lighting tips. I was curious about the MS30 and am very impressed by your results. I may add one to my toolkit. I share your pain on the tripod but I have come to the conclusion that it is the only way to get really steady and sharply focused macro.

For macro lighting, I have been using a pair of BigBlue Black Molly 3’s. They are very wide and since I am usually shooting in very shallow water, I haven’t had any success getting black backgrounds. I recently picked up a set of 3D printed snoots and plan to try them out on my next trip in July.