Practicing in a pool?

[JDelage]

All,

Do you practice in a pool (or did you early on)? If so, what do you work on? How do you structure your practice?

Thanks,

JD

 

[Larry C]

I never practiced in a pool, but it's a great idea. You'd need some models to take pictures of (little toys work for macro, your significant other or children work well for wide angle and over/under.
First, I'd work on holding a buoyant position and holding still while framing and shooting. Second, I'd shoot the same picture while adjusting shutter speed from about 1/15 up to 1/250, adjusting aperture as shown necessary (if you can show blown highlights on your replay, set it for that). Then I would do the same for aperture, going from f2.8 or whatever your widest aperture is and going to f32 or whatever your tightest aperture is. If you're using a ttl strobe, you can just let it do it's stuff. If you're using manual, try 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full at each level of aperture and shutter and do it in a particular order, so you can sort out the results. Try different strobe positions. Straight ahead, 45 degree angle, slightly upward or outward. Keep notes on your practice order. When you're done, look at the results and see what pleases you. Look at your EXIF and notes for those shots and duplicate those settings when you're diving.

 

[Diver0001]

All,

Do you practice in a pool (or did you early on)? If so, what do you work on? How do you structure your practice?

Thanks,

JD

Disclaimer: I'm not a photographer (at least not under water) but I've dived with a few

If you're going to work in the pool then what I would suggest is to work on the following two skills:

- buoyancy control.
- finning, both forward and backward

once these two skills are honed to perfection then you'll be able to precisely control your position relative to the subject you're shooting.

From what I've seen, the ability to swim backwards with a camera in your hand is rather handy for a photographer. I've seen more than one photographer crash awkwardly into a reef after swimming close to get that awesome shot and then being unable back away gracefully again.

R..

 

[fisheater]

I did just that when I got my new Oly setup.

I bought a set of small plastic sea critters and placed them on the bottom. That way I could experiment with auto-focus, macro settings, wide angle, etc. I used a slate to take a picture of the settings.


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[Interceptor121]

I regularly practice in a pool but also practice in a deep sink.
Will explain myself, the sink is for equipment testing (check depth of field image sharpness etc etc) just with camera, video light and lenses
Then I set up the full rig and I go into a pool to work out how easy the equipment is to use and fine tune buoyancy (the rig buoyancy not mine) I take some props with me for macro and I use the dive class and the pool walls as subjects. You can take more props with you and build a mini reef as well but that is a bit more time consuming, very useful though if you are new to UW photo
I am surprised many people test their expensive rig on the actual dive trip (sigh!)

 

[victor]

Can anyone help on how to overcome these problems.
My worry about practising in a pool is ambient light.
Given that the pool is very shallow and normally very well lit it will mask many issues.
Example is auto focus in low light.
Bright light gives good depth of field thus masking focus issues.
Difficult to show the difference in strobe positioning.

Waiting for the "switch the lights off"
From a diving skills issue a pool is great.

 

[fisheater]

Do it at night?


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[Interceptor121]

Can anyone help on how to overcome these problems.
My worry about practising in a pool is ambient light.
Given that the pool is very shallow and normally very well lit it will mask many issues.
Example is auto focus in low light.
Bright light gives good depth of field thus masking focus issues.
Difficult to show the difference in strobe positioning.

Waiting for the "switch the lights off"
From a diving skills issue a pool is great.

Focus issues for macro you go into the deep end in a corner where usually is dark
Rest you shoot at low ISO and small aperture fast shutter speeds
I don't find the pool being that bright after all if you have a deed end

 

[johnohuk]

Was in last night, have access to a 4m dive pool for an hour with our local club..

Placed some aquarium toys around the pool, fairly odd brightly coloured things.. & some coral (dead) i picked up somewhere..

Its surprisingly dark at 4m with artificial lighting.. so good for strobe practice and focusing..

Last night for me was learning a new camera/rig, specifically manual mode for the flash, manual focus, macro and mid water shots... watching white balance...making sure I know where everything is as just watertime is a must for me at the moment..

Discovered a few things to tweak for next week... rig is very negatively buoyant, anti-moisture strip slipped into the lense compartment and gave the camera an error... screw working loose on flex-arm.All good stuff..

 

[victor]

Thanks Interceptor
I think I will give this a go. The pool our local shop uses is only about 9ft deep and white tiles but probably not as light as I think it is.
Stopping the camera focusing on the tiles may also be good practise.
I want to try and practise very shallow depth of field shots to work on my focusing techniques so low ISO low f stop and wet lens.

Now off to the lego shop for some subjects. Good excuse to go and see the movie.

Focus issues for macro you go into the deep end in a corner where usually is dark
Rest you shoot at low ISO and small aperture fast shutter speeds
I don't find the pool being that bright after all if you have a deed end