Thresher shark with ambient light

[hezishohat]

Hi

I will be in the Malapascua for diving with the Thresher sharks
It is a deep dive and ambient light is all you get (no external light is allow)
I use Nikon D500 with Tokina 10-17. Raw files only.

1. is this the right lens or should I get the Sigma 17-70 2.8 lens?

2. Magic filter on the rear side of the lens will help me to get better results?
M A G I C - F I L T E R S

Thanks, Hezi

 

[JohnnyC]

You’re already shooting raw, a filter isn’t going to do anything but degrade your image quality. Leave it on auto white balance and correct in post. Trying to white balance with a red filter is going to throw everything else off.

I’d shoot the 10-17 as fast as the lens will go simply for composition, but you’ll need to get close. Zooming underwater doesn’t work nearly as well as it does in land, since you’re still dealing with all of the water in between the port and the subject. Your zoom probably won’t work as well as you think it will.

You have ports for both lenses? Try one lens on one dive and the other lens on the next.

 

[chris kippax]

The 10-17 is very wide for a skittish subject even on a dx body. What about adding a 1.4TC

 

[hezishohat]

Thanks Johnny
I have the Zen 9'' for big animals and 4'' for WACF
The 10-17 is not very fast (F3.5-F4.5) but I already have it. I think I will stay with it and won't buy the Sigma

 

[hezishohat]

The 10-17 is very wide for a skittish subject even on a dx body. What about adding a 1.4TC

I have the TC 1.4, will take it with me

 

[2ndjetty]

You could also look towards a rectilinear wide-angle lens, but since you already have the 1.4x TC, then might as well go with that vs. spending $1500. I second shooting AWB since you'll be deep where it's tougher to bring color out using filters.

 

[sea_ledford]

Define "deep" in this case. Really, if it isn't shallow, and you are stuck with ambient light only, black and white will be your friend. All of my decent shark shots in the 100-130' range have had to be converted to B&W to look good, almost didn't matter how close they were. I shoot with the 10-17 as well.

-Chris

 

[2ndjetty]

@sea_ledford I believe the depth of Monad Shoal is 80-100 feet. Should have classified "deep" based on recreational dive limits, as this would not be considered deep by a diver trained to dive beyond recreational depth. I had been thinking about depth with regards to ambient light - sorry about that! Agree on B+W conversion - it seems many folks convert their Monad Shoal thresher shark images to B+W.

 

[Chris Ross]

It may be stating the obvious but you need an extension tube and a different zoom gear to use the 1.4x. Colour balance in Raw is going to be difficult as not much red light gets down that deep.

This link has some good info including sample still images: Philippines Threshers and Dugongs GH5 - Shooting Technique, Workflow and Editing