Taking Night Dive Photos

[ABQdiver]

Just got back the other day from a great trip to Key Largo area and did a fun and interesting dive on Davis Reef at night. Having never taken pictures at night before I had no clue what was needed. I zip tied my back up light to the side of my strobe to help with aiming and focus.

What I got was pictures with a hot spot in them. Most of them I trashed since it was impossible to get the hot spot out.

Any suggestions or tips on what equipment or technique to use for night dive photography?


I'm using a Oly C7070, S&S 90 strobe.

 

[mike_s]

I just used the flash on the regular camera and they came out great.

I've used a flashlight to "point/aim" the camera before the shot, but
haven't used it to "light" the spot. I turn it off or simply point it
the other way before I take the pic. Of course if it's a fish, you
always run the risk of it moving during the shot. If you point it
"out of the way" you still get slight illumination w/o the light
"burning a hot spot" in your photo.

Maybe some other more experienced night shoots have a better
suggestion though than I what I just said.

 

[BurBunny]

I just used the flash on the regular camera and they came out great.

I've used a flashlight to "point/aim" the camera before the shot, but
haven't used it to "light" the spot. I turn it off or simply point it
the other way before I take the pic. Of course if it's a fish, you
always run the risk of it moving during the shot. If you point it
"out of the way" you still get slight illumination w/o the light
"burning a hot spot" in your photo.

Maybe some other more experienced night shoots have a better
suggestion though than I what I just said.

Since you don't have a built-in focus light on your strobe, if you want to use a small torch attached to the strobe, you might have better results if you put a homemade "diffuser" over the front of it. I know several people who have used a plastic disk from a pizza box or a pringles lid-type thing. Picture can be found here:

Flash Diffuser

 

[ABQdiver]

Since you don't have a built-in focus light on your strobe, if you want to use a small torch attached to the strobe, you might have better results if you put a homemade "diffuser" over the front of it. I know several people who have used a plastic disk from a pizza box or a pringles lid-type thing. Picture can be found here:

Flash Diffuser

That's an interesting idea! I hate to go buy a new strobe just for night photos.

However, that has got me thinking. Do the Inon strobe aiming lights go off on flash?

 

[Uncle Pug]

Most dives here end up being dark enough that focusing is a problem. The camera I have now has a focus beam and it is OK... however most of the time I use the sidescatter from my HID to light the area. I've thought about putting a red gel inside the lense of my backup light and using it for focusing but haven't bothered since the HID does the trick.

 

[fpoole]

I use a little UK2AAA LED and put a little cut circle of packing foam inside the glass - diffuser and it seems to work fine..
Just enough light to focus and the packing foam (fine bubbled) diffuses it so no hot spots..
Tie straped to tray or camera - PT015 tied to the Difusser... a little weak but then I don't use the PT-015 that much anyway.. also, attache a steel fishing leader as a saftety line.. 6" usually is long enough..

Hope that helps..

ps My Tetra housing has a focus light hold for the QL 4?? so I just got some of that stryofoam, cut out some spacers and then Duct Taped (gods gift to man) to hold it all in.. along with the saftey wire..

 

[herman]

That's an interesting idea! I hate to go buy a new strobe just for night photos.

However, that has got me thinking. Do the Inon strobe aiming lights go off on flash?

My D180 turns the aiming light off during the strobe operation. If you just pushed to light button it stays off, if you have it on solid, it comes back on.

 

[kapula]

I've used my canon a70 for a few nite dives. Normally I just light the area with my torch for camera to focus. Then I turn my torch away and take a picture. The thing is to take it blind. You can't see what is it you are shooting once you've turned your torch away. Sometimes I just point my torch to somewhere near the subject so that it illuminates but flash won't burn it. I don't have an external strobe and the canon is pretty small. Don't know how I'm going to handle it with my new 8080

 

[shadowr69]

a friend of mine has a nikon f100 that she uses. She attached 2 small double a sized lights to the top which illuminated the area she wanted to take a pic of enough to have the camera focus, or her focus on it. I don't recall if she had a diffuser, but I would use one. I'd also hesitate to use HID lights as I've noticed they tend to leave a nice hotspot. Anwya, The shots came out great, no overpowering of the lights or anything with her setup.

An idea, don't know if you guys have done this before, but try to set up your rig on dry land and test the lighting setup and strobe power. that way, you'll know if the focus light will be too powerful or not.

-Mark

 

[f3nikon]

Try this, spary paint the parabolic reflector in your UW flashlight or torch with a flat white paint.

The mirror like reflector is design to throw a narrow beam of light (hotspot) at far distances, we are looking for a wide uniform beam at shorter distances. The white paint will reflect the light at a wider beam and not focus the light in one narrow direction. Putting a diffuser in front of the flashlight cuts down the light a little too much.

If you what to test it out before you commit your UW flashlight, buy a $1 throw away flashlight (batteries included) at a hardware store and paint the reflector on it.

I have modeling lights in some of my strobes, I never use them, the lights just run down the batteries and the strobe is mounted too far away from the subject to do any good, plus I have a diffuser on the strobes. A seperate modelling light is the way to go, more batteries for more shooting.

Dive Safe