Manta Ray Photographers Advice

[cdiver2]

I will be in Yap & Palau in Oct with a big emphasis on photographing Mantas.
I was thinking about going to 1/2 power with the strobes with the underside of the Mantas being white. Anyone with experience photographing them able to give any advice on this.

 

[Mike Veitch]

I will be in Yap & Palau in Oct with a big emphasis on photographing Mantas.
I was thinking about going to 1/2 power with the strobes with the underside of the Mantas being white. Anyone with experience photographing them able to give any advice on this.

I guess that would be me.....
Well, it all depends on what distance away the manta is. Because you will be here in Oct we will be diving in Goofnuw Channel, the mantas clean on top of a cleaning station there that is in about 30 feet of water, we on the other hand are at about 45-50 as the station is a pinnacle.
When the mantas are up top, it is best to use natural light, strobes are only good for any subject at about a max of 6 feet.
But, the mantas also do big circles and then come right over your head, obviously then a strobe is fine.
Personally, i always leave my strobes on full with diffussers, the only time i might knock back to 1/2 is for tiny critters on the sand. I prefer to change my fstops rather than my strobe power, it is quicker and easier and increases depth of field. But i have a DSLR so have f11-f22. However, most manta shots with strobe are around f8-f11

What set up are you using? If you are using a P&S, you may have limited fstops and so need to drop the power on your strobe instead.

The other thing that is important is having long strobe arms, i have a pair of 14 inch arms that i pull all the way out and point slightly away from parallel. The channels where the mantas are don't necessarily always have the best viz, best manta action is always at the beginning of the outgoing tide. Therefore a longer arm(s) will help cut down on backscatter.

if you go to my website, the big blue one, you can see some recent manta shots from here.

Oh and bring a WA lens...you will need it!
Mike
ps i am always in my office here as well so you can ask me these questions from a lot closer in oct...

 

[cdiver2]

I guess that would be me.....
Well, it all depends on what distance away the manta is. Because you will be here in Oct we will be diving in Goofnuw Channel, the mantas clean on top of a cleaning station there that is in about 30 feet of water, we on the other hand are at about 45-50 as the station is a pinnacle.
When the mantas are up top, it is best to use natural light, strobes are only good for any subject at about a max of 6 feet.
But, the mantas also do big circles and then come right over your head, obviously then a strobe is fine.
Personally, i always leave my strobes on full with diffussers, the only time i might knock back to 1/2 is for tiny critters on the sand. I prefer to change my fstops rather than my strobe power, it is quicker and easier and increases depth of field. But i have a DSLR so have f11-f22. However, most manta shots with strobe are around f8-f11

What set up are you using? If you are using a P&S, you may have limited fstops and so need to drop the power on your strobe instead.

The other thing that is important is having long strobe arms, i have a pair of 14 inch arms that i pull all the way out and point slightly away from parallel. The channels where the mantas are don't necessarily always have the best viz, best manta action is always at the beginning of the outgoing tide. Therefore a longer arm(s) will help cut down on backscatter.

if you go to my website, the big blue one, you can see some recent manta shots from here.

Oh and bring a WA lens...you will need it!
Mike
ps i am always in my office here as well so you can ask me these questions from a lot closer in oct...

Equipment, Canon Rebel (film) two S&S YS 120 strobes, arms 14", I have a choice of a 20mm or a 28-80mm lens. I like to use Velvia 50 but was thinking of going to Velvia 100 for shooting the Mantas.
I will be looking you up in Oct. Is there any good E6 processing there?.

 

[Mike Veitch]

I will be looking you up in Oct. Is there any good E6 processing there?.

Actually i don't offer E6, it is just far too expensive to import with "dangerous cargo" and too much chemical goes to waste to warrant the very tiny fraction of rolls that people want processed. There is no negative developing on island either.
I would say 85% of photographers coming out these days are shooting digital.

I think the 100 is a better choice as a lot of our manta dives are at 7am or so, however definitely bring some 50 as we have some outstanding reefs and macro life.

Definitely bring both lenses as well, i like to use a zoom for max opportunities (12-24 on digital) but the 20 will also come in handy.

Mike

 

[ssra30]

I guess that would be me.....

Mike, who do you think you are? Just because you live in Yap and have manta ray picture on Asian Diver magazine cover, would that automatically make you an expert on manta ray photography?

Quick question on the wide angle lens, I assume you use the 12-24mm. I have not use this lens very often yet but kept hearing most people advising to use it around F8-F11 as it seems the sweetspot for the lens. Did you notice much differences or degradation when going to F11-F22? I tend to go up on the F stop for sunball type picture? The D2X won't go higher than 1/320s with strobe unlike d70 so I have to go up on f stop instead.

 

[Mike Veitch]

Busted.....
Yea, i am using the 12-24 quite a lot. 8-11 is the sweetspot pretty much but i find that going up to 22 is just fine. To me it is fstops a less than 8 when you get some distortion. It is really only the CFWA where there is problem, stuff from further away such as mantas sharks etc are fine, its only when things are less then 2 feet (60cm) where you start to have problems, and that is where you will be using f11 and higher anyway. I And i think you are actually better off going with the higher fstops for sunbursts than higher shutter speeds. Take a look at the Sunburst thread in the Best of Wetpixel section, you will see i have done quite a few experiments with it and arguing for and against etc....
M