Sunballs

[Wolverine]

Here are some of the sunballs from my recent trip. Need some critical comments. Esp on how to get rays from sunballs.

The water is bluer on the non-compressed files..

Thanks in advance for the critique...

 

[alcina]

Have a look for our recent threads on sunballs as there is some good info there. To nutshell some ideas:

1) fast shutter - you want to freeze the rays. Think 1/800+
2) you need luck. The conditions must be right or no matter what you do, you won't get them.
3) if you can see rays, you can capture them
4) put something in the middle of the sun to disperse the rays more

Nice shots

I'd probably try to flip #2 to vertical...the fish look a bit odd to my eye!

 

[ssra30]

Like Alcina said, if you see sunray, you can capture it easily enough however you can't create it by capturing sunball at various f-stop, shutterspeed. It has to be there to start of with.

However, you don't neccessarily need fast shutterspeed for sunball. The basic idea is to underexpose the sunball as much as possible so the sensor is not blown out while lighting the foreground as much as possible with your strobe.
On PnS camera, you are stuck with relatively large aparture ie f8 or f11 so you can only underexpose by going to faster shutterspeed. On dSLR, you can go to F18-F22 or even smaller aparture so shutterspeed does not have to be that fast.
Here is a not so good example taken at F22, 1/80s.

Another one, F20, 1/200s

I also find that sometimes the sunball does not look all that good on monitor but if you print it out, it is significantly smoother with less blue fringe on the edge.

 

[Jorbar1551]

Anyone have any moonball pictures that are underwater?

 

[alcina]

However, you don't neccessarily need fast shutterspeed for sunball.
.

Absulutely, when you talk dslr, it's a new ball game. For instance, my Canon 20D will not synch past 1/320 so I can't increase my shutter and still light with my strobe. So I have to make my aperture smaller.

With the 7070 (like the 5050) the shutter is usually more beneficial because of the limitations of aperture settings as ssra said.

So, know thy camera and be careful when you apply advice as sometimes some of us don't remember to give all the information!

 

[alcina]

BTW here's the other thread...
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=127755&highlight=sunball

 

[Wolverine]

I think I understand. Try to underexpose the sun (through higher aperture setting or higher shutter speed) and strobe the foreground to get detail. I tried to increase the shutter speed for some of these to 1/800 (2nd shot) but think I forgot about the aperture (at f3.5). Will know better. Thanks for the advise. Will try it out in my next dive trip (dunno when that will be though.. sigh).

 

[Davichin]

I think I understand. Try to underexpose the sun (through higher aperture setting or higher shutter speed) and strobe the foreground to get detail. I tried to increase the shutter speed for some of these to 1/800 (2nd shot) but think I forgot about the aperture (at f3.5). Will know better. Thanks for the advise. Will try it out in my next dive trip (dunno when that will be though.. sigh).

Around F8 in aperture (your camera goes even to f11) and then adjust speed so the light meter gives you a -1.3 reading or so. You can also move the WB setting around 2 points to the blue side.
Remember that closing aperture means that you need a more powerful strobe...:14:

 

[ssra30]

Forgot to mention, I am not sure if you used wetmount Inon wide angle lens on your 1st and 3rd pictures or not. Wide angle lens become very handy in this situation as it will let you get a lot closer to the seafan and reef so your strobes will have easier time lighting up the foreground while underexposing the sunball. both of my shots were taken with 10.5mm fisheye lens which is still a bit wider than the Inon wetmount wide angle lens in the optional Inon Fisheye Domeport.

 

[dbg40]

Nice shots, I have to learn to do stuff like that.