Lembeh photos with an oly SP-350

[Mike Veitch]

dude! that stuff kicks butt..!

really love the even lighting all throughout. you did an outstanding job of getting in close to enable good flash coverage. I say well done.

That first occie? wonderpus or something? weird lookin! and the little purple crab is great as well.

To get the dark back ground (on the ornate ghost or the snake eel) you need to crank up the shutter but i would also put the strobe out in front of the camera somewhat if you have the arm to do it with, you can then up the fstop or lower the strobe power as well as that cuts down your strobe to subject distance.. however, it is also a nice technique to use a slower shutter and get a bright background..

The first pygmy needs a higher shutter speed to get the black...

 

[parabolic]

Tassie Rohan
Absolutely beautiful work!! On the "black background" issue it has been my experience that for images where the strobe provides virtually all the light (like yours) shutter speed is almost irrelevant and the appearance of the background is controlled only by aperture. Instead of f8 try cranking the aperture down to f16 or f22 (the smallest aperture at which the strobe output will be adequate) and you will get the black background. Your strobes will put out more power at the smaller aperture but the subject can be lit the same as at f8 and as a fringe benefit you will get more depth of field.

 

[Mike Veitch]

Tassie Rohan
Absolutely beautiful work!! On the "black background" issue it has been my experience that for images where the strobe provides virtually all the light (like yours) shutter speed is almost irrelevant and the appearance of the background is controlled only by aperture. Instead of f8 try cranking the aperture down to f16 or f22 (the smallest aperture at which the strobe output will be adequate) and you will get the black background. Your strobes will put out more power at the smaller aperture but the subject can be lit the same as at f8 and as a fringe benefit you will get more depth of field.

Ken.. i don't think he gets more than f8 or maybe f10..... thats one of the things with the small cameras. you don't get a lot of fstop control but you gain synch speed to ridiculously high numbers like 1/1000 which works a charm.

Also, it depends on which photos you are discussing. The first pygmy would def benefit from a higher shutter as it is an empty background shot into the blue. Shots such as the pipefish this will not work so well as the back ground is right there, so yes, a higher fstop and lower strobe setting and getting the strobe closer to the subject than the actual camera will help enormously.

 

[parabolic]

Thanks for the info Mike. I am totally in the dark (pardon the pun) with the new digital cameras. My total experience is with the earlier Nikonos cameras, housed SLR cameras (film and digital) or the Nikonos RS. With all of those I always had the small apertures available, and could make a black background when I wanted it. If all you have is f10 then the only available ambient light control would be shutter speed. I appreciate the information.

 

[alcina]

Also, it depends on which photos you are discussing. The first pygmy would def benefit from a higher shutter as it is an empty background shot into the blue. Shots such as the pipefish this will not work so well as the back ground is right there, so yes, a higher fstop and lower strobe setting and getting the strobe closer to the subject than the actual camera will help enormously.

This is really important to remember - there isn't always a single way to achieve the desired results...you have to pay attention to the situation and sometimes try a few things. Love digital

And since I'm here - great shots

 

[Jcsgt]

Wow, simply incredible! I love 'em all!

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Wow - thanks for some great tips and comments everyone. The max apature that I can get is f8 - but to get the dark background I'll try rating the speed to 64 and upping the speed above 1/500.

Getting crisp focus on macro was the hardest part - the strobe I've ordered has a focus light so this should help. May also help if I stop moving around between focussing and shooting... Any SP350 users work out how to overcome the darkerned image on the LCD while in manual?

I'm curious to see if TTL with the new strobe will make things easier - there was a lot of trial and error with maual power settings, but that also taught me a lot.

Cheers,
Rohan.


Oh, and while I'm on line here are some Fuglies:

This last one has a striking resemblance to a English teacher I once had. I can almost hear it saying 'rohan, sit down, face the front and open your book to page 140'. Probably why I'm now a geologist.

 

[Jcsgt]

LOL, I think I had that same teacher! Are you sure you didn't go to school in the states?

 

[pakman]

Amazing pics Tassie! I wouldn't believe you if you told me that was your 2nd time with that camera and 1st time with a strobe... !!!!

 

[ssra30]

Mike, the purple crab thing is a hairy squat lobster. Usually it is found on big sponge though. I never saw one on the sandy bottom before. On your D70, you should be able to shoot upto 1/8000s as well as long as you don't have all 5 pins connected to your strobe as D70 uses electronic shutter. One thing I really missed when I switched to D2X

Tassie Rohan, kudos on the pontohi pgymy seahorse. The focus was still not quite spot on but that thing was one of the most difficult macro thing I ever tried to take picture of as it kept moving constantly. It was bad enough on dSLR, let alone PnS.