A couple long exposure dark cavern shots

[SeaYoda]

A couple of friends and I have been planning dives to capture the size of a large cavern here in Florida in picture form. After a couple test runs and some learning, we got back to the cavern and took these shots - the best we've gotten so far ...

We will be doing some more work and will probably add a diver in the shots to give perspective. The picture below shows my 19 cu ft pony to the left of the entrance for some perspective.

And this is me outside the basin (self timer).

 

[victor]

Great pictures.
Did you take a tripod down with you?
How long were the exposures, lens, etc?

Well done

 

[SeaYoda]

Here are a couple pictures of the rig. Shutter was set at 60 seconds at f4. Had to set manual focus with the virtual image on the dome port and darkness. The zoom lens was wide open at the 14mm end.

 

[Deep VI]

Morrison Springs?

 

[ianr33]

Morrison Springs?

Yes.

Did you have problems keeping the camera steady in the flow?

Very cool photos.

 

[SeaYoda]

... Did you have problems keeping the camera steady in the flow?...

Where I was the flow was not bad. It is usually strong near the big bolder where the vent is and at the entrance. I don't notice much motion blur but that might be an optical illusion due to the fact that the parts of the cavern being hit by the strobe were in the light for just a fraction of a second.

Transport and set-up were another story. I felt like a human lift bag .

 

[newmanl]

Great technique, and great images. Very nice work!

Lee

 

[Matt S.]

Very nice. I've often thought about taking a tripod down.

Since you have powerful dive lights with you, try some "light painting" exposures sometime. It's a fun technique.

Painting with light :: Photocritic photography blog

 

[SeaYoda]

Below is a practice run picture taken in a much smaller space. No strobe was used and we painted only with our dive lights. We tried using even a can light in the big cavern but the darkness was too much. We resorted to strobes and that worked well.

 

[ToPpS]

Great photos!
I especially like the light painting in the 3rd photo's right hand side..... you can get very creative with that and long exposures :cool2:

In the case of Strobes/flash units...... I don't know how practical it is underwater but it maybe worth considering using a few "satellite" strobes around the cave to light up specific parts of the pic. Works extremely well in portrait photography, but i just wonder how the water will affect the slave units and their timing?

For example the 1st photo is very "flat"/one dimensional in the way that it hard to see any "depth" in the photo. This is in contrast to the 2nd and 3rd photos where there is additional light entering the photo from the mouth of the cave, which adds a bit of "depth"/dimention to the photos.

If strobes and flashes don't work... or are expensive.... you can use your torch to illuminate dark areas or areas that you want to highlight. ie: Light painting

Food for thought!
How I Shot It – Kazumura Cave
Tips on How to Light Paint [VIDEO TUTORIAL]