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Digital Diver Network | zeros and ones | Critique and Technique (Moderator: randapex) | Topic: How do you photograph jellys?

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Topic: How do you photograph jellys? (Read 5709 times)

Canuck
Great White

Offline

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 3544

jelly jelly

Re: How do you photograph jellys?
« Reply #15 on: October 27, 2010, 02:59:37 PM »

Awesome shots! Thanks for the tips. Now I really really really want to go back.

How many of the dives did you do? Did you find that it got easier each time you went out?

Your methods sound spot on to me. I had a lot of trouble focusing when I went. Even the Fix HG20DX I was using was not enough. I ended up buying and mounting a Princeton Tec Shockwave LED light to help with focus. You can read about my trials and tribualtions in this DDN thread.

John Davies
my website
Canon 40D, Subal housing, Inon strobes, Tokina 10-17 mm FE, Canon 60 mm macro

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randyp1234
Damsel Fish

Offline

Decatur, Illinois
Posts: 343

Re: How do you photograph jellys?
« Reply #16 on: October 27, 2010, 06:03:46 PM »

Quote from: imasleeper on October 27, 2010, 01:05:59 AM

Just got back from Kona, HI

Only did night dives,"in the soup", specifically looking for translucent creatures. What I found that worked the best was aiming the two strobes about 12-18 inches in front of the camera directly at each other. I used a pair of ds-125's and with the internal aiming lights on I could see where the beams crossed in front of me. I put my finger at the crossover and had the camera focus on my finger. This gets the focus point in the ballpark. Then it is just a matter of putting the animal in the crosshairs, fine tune the focus, and shoot. If the focus plane became lost I would just refocus on my fingertip and I was back in business. I also used a pair of fix led 1000's mounted high and pointing downward to assist in spotting and focusing on creatures. Camera settings were as follows: AI servo focus in"slow mode", F stops 8-11, SS 1/200s, ISO 200. I found with these settings on my camera the exposure was to the right without crushing any of the highlights.

Below are three examples of the many I got on this trip.

imasleeper

Holy Crap!!! Those are great!!!

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imasleeper
Cleaner Shrimp

Offline

Posts: 84

just trying to help

Re: How do you photograph jellys?
« Reply #17 on: October 28, 2010, 08:11:07 PM »

I did five dives over five nights. The first night was kind of a trial run. I had a plan. But it was pretty clear into the first dive that some adjustment was necessary. Some of these creatures can move amazingly fast especially when lit up, which is something they are not used to, so some type of prefocus strategy is necessary. Obtaining focus lock on such low contrast creatures is always a challenge but the technique I described in my first post works fairly well. Please remember these deep to very deep creatures are shallow at night for one reason---to feed. The copepods and isopods they feed on are found in the very shallow depths (less than 20 ft) and will be attracted to your lights. To minimize distracting clutter you can go deeper where fewer creatures are found or you can continuously move and sweep your lights as you search for a subject. Once I found something I wanted to shoot I would shine my lights away from the subject to draw the isopods away and then quickly sweep back to the subject and grab the shot.

I would recommend at least 3 of these dives to maximize your opportunities. I got about 8 good shots the first evening. By the end of the fifth dive I had over 400 good shots so there is clearly a learning curve. YRMV!

Below are two examples of what a difference sweeping your lights can make (no spot removal on either one!)

imasleeper

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Subal housing, twin Ds-125's, ulcs arms

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imasleeper
Cleaner Shrimp

Offline

Posts: 84

just trying to help

Re: How do you photograph jellys?
« Reply #18 on: October 28, 2010, 08:11:53 PM »

No sweep imasleeper

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Subal housing, twin Ds-125's, ulcs arms

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imasleeper
Cleaner Shrimp

Offline

Posts: 84

just trying to help

Re: How do you photograph jellys?
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2010, 08:12:27 PM »

sweep imasleeper

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Subal housing, twin Ds-125's, ulcs arms

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