Back In Action

[Annie Crawley]

Hi Everyone,

I am back in action. When the board went down, so did everything I was working on developing! And with that said, I am back at it.

I just spent ten days in La Paz on the first annual Ocean Visions Festival photo and video festival. I have also just completed two training manuals on The Production Course and The Underwater Video Course so my head is full of fresh materials.

For the past two months I have been asked a number of questions that board members have asked me through my personal email. The posting was not working so we had to create new user information for me...

I will be online for the next week until I head out on a photo/video expedition September 4-8 here in California around The Channel Islands.

So if you have any questions, please fire away, I will do my best to answer or direct you to the correct information!

Cheers,

Annie
www.anniecrawley.com

 

[ronscuba]

Welcome back Annie.

Can you talk about lighting techniques ? Things like lighting angles, top, side, overlapping, etc.. Do I really need light arms if my lamps have wide beams ?

 

[Annie Crawley]

Hi Ron,

Lighting is perhaps one of the most important aspects to any photograph or video...it is essential for all image creation. In the DVD I created, The Camera Coach, Your Guide to Underwater Video, I dedicate an entire chapter to lighting techniques because it is so important.

Let's start with during the day, the sun is the most important light you will have, unless you are shooting close-up or macro. You always want the sun at your back. Depending on the type of lights you have, you will use these as full light, again with the sun at your back. I use long arms on my cameras with joints that I can use like a fore arm and back arm. This way I can put the lights farther away from my camera or right up next to it depending on where 'I want to paint my scene with light!' We are artists with our lighting systems!

THere is one, two and three point lighting...depending upon if you have a third light and a dive buddy or can use the sun creatively.

This is seriously a topic that can be discussed for hours. Great question, hope this helps. Let me know if you have anything specific you want answered.

Cheers,

Annie

 

[ronscuba]

I think I was suppossed to get a free copy of your DVD when I bought my housing from H2oPhotopros. I'll have to check with them about that.

I generally only use lights on day dives for closeup and macro. I have twin lamps and the reflectors give me around 100 degrees of coverage each.

With my camcorder/lens/port combination, closeup and macro means the subject is 18 inches or closer to the port.

My main question has to do with positioning the lamps. Given the above situation, does it make much of a difference if the light is coming from above, side, mixed, ? I read an online article on the Backscatter site where they suggest positioning 1 lamp at the top pointing down and the other from the side. I'm not sure I see the advantage of this if I the subject is 18" away or less and each of my lamps can fully cover the frame.

I have ULCS arms, but seem to get satisfactory results not using the arms and just the ball joints and connectors. Maybe that's because I am only using them for macro ?

 

[Annie Crawley]

Ron,

Light comes from above, that is how we see light and so many times image makers want to make sure the light that is in their scenes come from above. I reposition my lights all the time from each side to top and side to reverse.

I always think, how am I painting my scene with light, even in macro. For a dramatic effect you may want to use onle one light sometimes. With extra arms you could stretch and put one of your lights behind the subject. There are so many things you can do with the lights when you have a bit of mobility to them. The biggest thing is you have to experiment. Go and jump in a pool with your system and some still objects and try some of the things I just mentioned so you can see how it affects your scene!

Hope this helps. Call Mike or email him, if he didn't send you your video you will want to watch it! I cover this plus so much more.

Cheers,

Annie