The Morrison Spring Cavern Project

[huntster70]

I thought the cave room was larger than 11" ...... What sort of camera would be used? Film (they still have those out there?) or Digital.... If it's Digital focus should be much of an issue... Timed exposure and check the condition of the shot after it's taken.... Using the LCD you can zoom into the shot and see finer details if the shot was good or not. certainly not as well as you might from a computer... Might want to have a Laptop there to review the shots for everyone there.... but the camera should take care of all the controls and you would play with exposure time....

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Digital focus?

I don't mess with film, but I'm not opposed to using it if someone has a good film camera to toss in the drink.

 

[GLENFWB]

So, what are the particulars of setting the camera in one location and shining different parts of the cave? Are you saying there is a manual setting on the camera where the shutter stays open as you move around to different locations shinning the light? Or, is it just a very slow shutter speed? A short description would be appreciated to I can research how to do it on my G10.

Digital focus?

I don't mess with film, but I'm not opposed to using it if someone has a good film camera to toss in the drink.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Two options on the shutter, likely set the camera at its maximum shutter speed, usually 30seconds on a compact, but maybe more on your new G10? Rig up some kinda of clamp, set the shutter on "bulb" and clamp the shutterbutton closed until we are finished exposing cave. Not sure if your G10 has a "bulb" mode, but it wouldn't suprise me at all if it did! That camera of yours is pretty loaded for a compact.

 

[GLENFWB]

I am going to get the manual and check it out right now...I will let you know. Once I find a possible way to do this...I want to put it in a dark area and test the concept on a small scale.

Two options on the shutter, likely set the camera at its maximum shutter speed, usually 30seconds on a compact, but maybe more on your new G10? Rig up some kinda of clamp, set the shutter on "bulb" and clamp the shutterbutton closed until we are finished exposing cave. Not sure if your G10 has a "bulb" mode, but it wouldn't suprise me at all if it did! That camera of yours is pretty loaded for a compact.

 

[huntster70]

I use a Sony W7.... It's a small "fit in your pocket" types of cameras that also has an underwater housing for it.
Steves Digicams - Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W7 - User Review

There is a manual setting which allows you to manipulate the standard settings you can set up a prolonged exposure shot. I think the longest exposure would be 30 seconds. But the point being that you can set multiple divers in the areas that you would want to high light with lights and or strobes and when the camera guy signals the others..... he his the shutter button and the camera does what it's "told" to do...Say you try a 10 second exposure... give the signal and hit the button then 2 seconds later the others flash their strobes maybe twice or three times what ever the equipment can do or time would allow.

If more time or multiple strobe shots are needed simply extend the exposure setting to a longer time.. maybe 20 seconds of time is needed in stead. You can do it over and over until you find the right mix. I wish I was Cave Cert'ed, I'd like to be in there...

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Yeah, thats what we've been talking about doing from the beginning.

 

[SeaYoda]

My E-330 will do 60 seconds or bulb for the shutter.

How do we keep the walls painted without getting divers in the shot multiple times?
Do we work from close to the camera (start at the edge of the frame) and paint toward the center of the shot (farthest point from the camera) leaving the divers always in the dark?

I'll be doing some dry testing to see how this works too.

 

[GLENFWB]

As best I can tell my G10 only has the standard shutter speeds with 15 seconds being the longest one. We may have to rely on Bill's camera. But, I have a tripod that I am going to see if I can rig it up to be stable in the cavern...we could use Yodas camera as primary and I can use mine at the same time and see if I can luck out and get some shots.

I can bring my laptop and we can download shots after dives to see them a little better. I have Adobe Permier Elements 3.0 on my laptop as well as my Canon program that will adjust any RAW photos...I assume we will shoot in RAW???

My E-330 will do 60 seconds or bulb for the shutter.

How do we keep the walls painted without getting divers in the shot multiple times?
Do we work from close to the camera (start at the edge of the frame) and paint toward the center of the shot (farthest point from the camera) leaving the divers always in the dark?

I'll be doing some dry testing to see how this works too.

 

[SeaYoda]

I just did a little testing (dim light) and I see some noise at 60 second shutter. I believe the noise can be well corrected in photoshop so I think we can use the full 60 seconds if we need to.

I'll be testing more tonight after church when it gets dark. I'll probably use my dive light for some of the tests.