Glaring flash

[SteveC]

My on camera flash seems to illuminate 1000’s of tiny bubbles or specks in my pictures. Especially when the background is dark. These are cold water lake dives with about 15 foot vis., so I’m assuming the flash is glaring off suspended particles. Would a diffuser on the flash help, or an off camera flash?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Gilligan]

What you are experiencing is "backscatter". This is typical when using the cameras flash because of its closeness to the lens.

Not likely a diffuser will help that much.

An external strobe with a diffuser will probaly help, depending on how much particulate matter is in the water.

 

[Jeremy Bouwman]

For a cheap alternative try getting closer to your subjects, this will decrease the number of suspended particles resulting in a better picture, or you could buy a strobe setup

 

[SteveC]

I did an experiment last night with the camera above water. (in my living room). I placed a piece of white paper in front of the flash to act as a diffuser. The result was an exact duplicate of the “bubble” effect that I got under water. So now I’m thinking that maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with suspended particles, since there were none in my living room. Any ideals on this.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[alcina]

Please post some images so we can have a look and maybe figure it out.

 

[SteveC]

Here are a couple for an example. I haven't loaded pictures before, so lets see if this works.

 

[SteveC]

hmmmm.... I guess it didn't work.

 

[diversteve]

What camera/housing are you using? Since it did it in your living room, my guess would be that there's light leaking around the lens reflecting on the inside of the port and being picked up by your lens.

The attachment feature is currently non-functional. You can however add the photos to your gallery and then link to them here. If you join the Photographer group, you get something like 10 or 20MB of additional gallery disk space for your use.

 

[f3nikon]

For a cheap alternative try getting closer to your subjects, this will decrease the number of suspended particles resulting in a better picture, or you could buy a strobe setup

Thats correct...
Actually getting closer to your subject is the BETTER alternative than buying a strobe. By getting closer you would actually REMOVE most of the particles between the camera and the subject, with a strobe firing from a longer camera to subject distance you are only MASKING the particles which are still there.

You may not notice the white overexposed particles but they are still there blocking the true focus point between the camera and subject. This is why the image will not be as sharp as it could be, if you got closer to you subject.

The strobe's main goal is to bring the colors back to the picture, particle masking is only it's second function.

 

[ScottB]

Steve, If you email me the pictures I can throw them up on my server and link them.. i'll pm you my email addy...