Night Dive Photo Tips

[fda483]

I love night dives but up to now have not taken my D100 along after the sun goes down. Heading down to Belize for a week on the Nekton and want to try some photography on the night dives. Just added a Nocturnal Lights SLX Auto Focus Light to my equipment. My questions are:

1) Do you typically use the light on the housing (like the SLX) as the primary light for a night dive?

2) Do you usually just shoot macro (105mm) on a night dive, or can you also pull off close up wide angle shots.

Any tips would be appreciated!!

Joe

 

[ReefPhotoKelly]

Hi Joe,
1) Yes. Mounted right on the housing aimed over the port. I keep it on the lowest setting or turned off till I find something to shoot, only using enough of the light necessary for the camera to focus. But I do also keep a little dive light clipped off my BC for a backup dive light...just in case!
2) Yes. Either my 100mm (Canon) or 60mm. As for w/a, never tried it and can't say that I've heard from anyone who has. Personally I think it would be boring and frustrating cause the cool little stuff comes out at night anyways.
Kelly

 

[c-dog]

I do not have a lot of experience shooting at night but I have tried wide angle in the dark. I discovered a few things. Sharks, and probably most other wide angle subjects, swim away when you shine a light on them. I find it easiest to turn the lights off to get close. Often there is some ambient light or lights from other divers that allow you too see once your eyes adjust. Also the camera can have trouble auto focusing without any light. If you have an SLR, you can set it to manual focus at a known distance or infinity and shoot away. I also found that it is very easy to get lost at night when you are takng picutres even if you are very familiar with the site. I like shots of divers with their lights at night. Have fun

 

[Seashadow]

Having tried taking great shots at night, I believe that lighting a shot is best given a wide range of creativity. Some of my best night shots invovled my primary night light placed behind my subject to provide a back light to show depth while my strobe provided the light on my primary subject. So explore your lighting options instead of tring to keep them in a box. I have even used glow sticks and red strobes, great pics come from creative great ideas.

 

[Warren_L]

I love night dives but up to now have not taken my D100 along after the sun goes down. Heading down to Belize for a week on the Nekton and want to try some photography on the night dives. Just added a Nocturnal Lights SLX Auto Focus Light to my equipment. My questions are:

1) Do you typically use the light on the housing (like the SLX) as the primary light for a night dive?

2) Do you usually just shoot macro (105mm) on a night dive, or can you also pull off close up wide angle shots.

Any tips would be appreciated!!

Joe

For night dives, I typically use the modeling lights on my strobes. I don't tend to shoot much wide angle at night, as I prefer to have some ambient light in my shots when shooting wide angle. So I generally shoot macro. Most of the time it is with the 60mm macro lens as I can do macro and portraits, and some of the time I take the 105 (and add a diopter or two if I want to do some supermacro)

A shot like this one can only work during the day

Here are a couple of night dive shots using the 60mm macro for both shots, which can double for portraits and macro.

Turtle portrait

Christmas Tree Worm macro

And of course, using the 105mm with +2 diopter for supermacro

Hermit crab eyes super macro

Overall, though, for night diving, I tend to use the 60mm macro lens for the majority of the dives. The 105 is going to be a bit harder to work with, though it has it's advantages, requires some practise. Especially if you add a diopter or two onto the lens, framing and focusing can be challenging.

 

[fda483]

Thanks for the tips, and Warren love the photos. Two weeks to go - will play with the strobe placement, don't want to end up with flat night creature photos!

 

[Warren_L]

Good luck with the photos. I think you're going to love the Nekton. I've never been before, but a buddy of mine did the same trip a couple of years ago in Belize and said it was fantastic. Post some of your stuff for us to check out when you get back.