Bracketing with macro

[bvanant]

Well it works, sort of kind of. We were out looking for Acanthadoris (a Nudibranch that will sit still, mostly) and came across this A. rhodocerus. Here he is sitting on a piece of dichroic glass at about 60 ft. Shot this with Oly EM-1 MII in a Nauticam. I set this up with a XIT tripod and tried to get 10 shots at 2 second intervals. The beastie moved at around shot 8 so the OLY software wouldn't get a good fit, but the first 7 shots worked OK so I put them into Helicon Focus and this is what popped out. Not too bad, but clearly I need strobes that can recycle faster. Next time we are out (maybe Friday) I will try to shoot with the Nauticam trigger and bigger strobes (this was with a pair of Backscatter minis)

 

[Ardy]

Excellent effort Bill and you have got what I want out of it ie the depth of field. I find it pretty exciting.

 

[bvanant]

It does work but is a giant PITA. Finding a flat spot to put the camera/tripod where it won't get blown around by surge and finding the right subject. I spent about 20 minutes with this guy, and only got one set of photos that would actually allow stacking. But it was indeed fun. Will try again this Friday
BVA

 

[Ardy]

Hi Bill, I wonder what you could achieve by using a video light, up the ISO and handhold the camera? The IBIS would do most of the work and the delay between shots would not be an issue. I am thinking I might buy one of those cheap ($50) video lights from the Ali Evil Empire and give it a go if I can ever get out of Australia and into really warm water.
regards Ardy

 

[bvanant]

We are going out again tomorrow, I will give it a try but not very sanguine that it will work. Tomorrow will be 10 degrees in the water and in the air (with maybe some rain). Sound like fun but it beats staying at home.
Bill

 

[bvanant]

Well that didn't go well. We went out Friday and had some nice dives. I tried using this light (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ILS7J5G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which is very bright (I use it for black water spotting). NO luck at all. I tried to shoot it even with a tripod at high ISO but didn't get any keepers (no set of 10 could be processed and the color was not very good compared to strobe.
Cheers
Bill

 

[Ardy]

What a huge disappointment Bill. Thanks so much for working through this. Not sure if there is an avenue to continue with this interesting line of improvement. If I can ever get to Bali I will have a go in shallow and natural light but that won't fix the drawbacks.
Will buy a cheap $AUS70 20000l ??? video light from the evil empire before I get into the water again and see what I can do with that. Model C15 41.3US $ 30% OFF|LED Diving Flashlight 20000Lumens 6 x XHP70 Underwater Lighting 100m Waterproof Tactical Torch For Photography Video Fill Light|LED Flashlights| - AliExpress

 

[bvanant]

Trying again tomorrow, hopefully with better results
BVA

 

[bvanant]

Went out again on Friday. With some better results; will post later today.
Bill

 

[Ardy]

Looking fwd to them Bill