Shadowing of macro shots

[Cathy Church]

Can it walk? Can you teach it to "heel"?

 

[Packhorse]

1st official dive today.
I quite like the results

 

[alcina]

Great to see you under the water with your new lighting set up!

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Pack--Cool, looks like you have a good working setup. Color balance looks nice, I like the sort of shadowless glow you get. Are you getting decent exposure levels? Hopefully you're happy--and getting no leaks on that replacement glass! // ww

 

[bvanant]

Nice job on building the ringlight. There are two commercially available ringlights in wide distribution, the Inon and the Athena. There is also supposedly a European company making an LED ringlight very similar to yours. To Cathy's point, I often use a ringflash for macro stuff but often add an additional sidelight from a second strobe to get some texture.
Bill

 

[Packhorse]

Pack--Cool, looks like you have a good working setup. Color balance looks nice, I like the sort of shadowless glow you get. Are you getting decent exposure levels? Hopefully you're happy--and getting no leaks on that replacement glass! // ww

The 1st pic with the triple fin.
f/4
1/60sec
ISO 125
-1 exposure
6mm focal length
2.96875 maz aperture
Centre Weighted
White balance was set to underwater mode.

I'd like to get more light out of it. But it would require a better LED and or more of them. I guess it will remain like this for a while and I may rebuild it with Cree XP-G's when they are available at a reasonable cost.

 

[Cathy Church]

Well done--I would never think to undergo inventing and building my own light! Your photos are nice. The nudibranch does need some shadow for depth, but it is interesting how much shadow you still have behind the fish. The fish is sideways, but you can still see that the left side (the bottom) is much closer, so it gets more light and allows shadows to form in the background. Very nice.

 

[Packhorse]

Just between you and me the fish is actually upside down.

I can turn off the top or bottom LED's to help produce shadows and when I learn how to use this better I am sure the pic will improve.

 

[bkkchris]

wow. thats a pretty tricked out setup! very cool!

 

[Packhorse]

Did another dive using the Ring of Light.

A short video I shot using the light. Not a great video but the light works well enough.