The Morrison Spring Cavern Project

[paulwall]

I think Wes took that pictures of Diepolder(2 or 3?) and did the lighting himself. It was just a long exposure and he swam around with that portable sun to expose different areas of the cave. All the divers you see in that picture are Wes I believe.


All that being said, I think we can get by with just a few divers in the water. Even doable on the weekend if we get an early morning start. With external strobes, you could get 2 or 3 flashes, should be focused on some of the more intersting features(like vents and the big boulder and the ledges) within a 30 second shutter speed. Then have a diver or two painting the walls with an HID for fill.

Oh, and I'm in and first in line for a print!

I've got a mini tripod I can donate and rig up with weights for this shindig!

Wouldn't that be easier doing multiple exposures on the same original, moving the light around? one long exposure would show him moving from place to place, wouldn't it?

 

[mike_s]

Wouldn't that be easier doing multiple exposures on the same original, moving the light around? one long exposure would show him moving from place to place, wouldn't it?

why not try it both ways and see what pic comes out the best?

 

[Parysa]

Oh, and lets pull all the crap out of the cavern too. Don't need no stinkin gnome ruining a great picture!

Amen. Maybe do a clean-up Morrisons thing, too.

 

[paulwall]

why not try it both ways and see what pic comes out the best?

Not that I'm a photographer, or anything, but if you left the camera on a tripod in one place, lit an area, snap pic, lit another area, snap pic, etc, then layered the pics, shouldn't that do what you want?

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Wouldn't that be easier doing multiple exposures on the same original, moving the light around? one long exposure would show him moving from place to place, wouldn't it?

Layering multiple exposures isn't super difficult, but its not exactly easy either. Keeping the camera in the same position and firing it off several different frames, while weighted underwater could be incredibly difficult. The frame needs to be pretty much exactly the same for each shot, usually this is done with a tripod and remotely activating the shutter. Remotes are out of the question in this instance.



Using one long exposure...

You shouldn't get motion blur since the camera isn't going to expose anything in darkness, it needs light to do anything. It will only expose the instant the flash goes off, too fast to show the divers movement. The trick will be keeping the people painting with HIDs from moving too terribly much(or even keep them out the frame all together - just lighting the walls from behind the camera). Anyone painting the walls with constant lights will need to keep the light off the divers swimming around with the strobes as much as possible. Any ambient light will likely not be enough to expose a diver too terribly much unless they are incredibly slow moving. The strobe firers won't be a problem at all, since there lightings are only for instants(and intense).

 

[aucade]

I am Definitely in....Springfest sounds great....Just let us know when .

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

What cameras do we have availabe to use underwater for this?

Long exposures will bring out noise, some cameras are effected more by this than others. Cameras with black frame subtraction can fix the problem 90% in camera, without lots of heavy editting. A shutter delay would be nice(and mirror lockup if we end up with a dSLR/SLR).

Need a wide angle of view, especially considering this is underwater.

If we use a compact camera, a 10mp camera should get us a decent 16x20. A 5mp dSLR sensor will get us the same quality.







I can provide an E420 with an 8mm lense if someone donates me a housing and dome port to fit it!

 

[Hetland]

Divers w/strobes will have to be stationary unless they navigate in darkness, or the hids have enough ambient light for them to move around with. Otherwise their dive lights will leave trails on the exposure. That would be a cool photo too though.

I'm no cave diver, but I'll offer up my Rebel Xti if someone will buy the housing port and w/a lens. It doesn't even have to be an "L" series lens

 

[PerroneFord]

Slave strobes are really going to be the only effective way to do this right. Constant lighting is going to be far too dim unless the divers are right on top of the walls. Light falloff in the water is VERY fast.

As Mat said, multi exposure isn't easy either. As you'll get masking and multiplying effects going on as the layering is done.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I've seen cave shots with trailing lights from glow sticks and such, looks neat.

There is a bit of ambient light from the entrance as well as whatever is provided by the painting lights, it won't be much, but it should be enough to get from one place to another. Morrison is wide open, which makes things much easier.