What to do to stop back scatter???

[StraitsdiverGeo]

I just got a nice 35mm film camera w/strobe and some of my photos have lots of back scatter.

 

[duckster3d]

some additional info would be helpful. what type of flash, type of photos. water conditions. i know people that have great results with a tripod, very small apature, and long exposers.

 

[alcina]

To avoid backscatter you must aim your strobe so it does not light up the particles between your camera's lens and the subject. Doesn't matter where you shoot or what you like to shoot, that's the only way.

Think of the light from your strobe as a cone...then visualise where it will fall from where you have it positioned. You want to paint with the light so the edge of the light beam hits your subject. If you have the full beam hit, you can "see" that the light is also lighting the water in between. And that's where you get backscatter.

Here's an article that may help.

 

[OceanObsessed]

1) Use edge lighting with your strobe. The trick is to minimize the illumination of the water between the your lens and the subject. You typically would not aim the strobe directly at the subject using this technuique. Depending on what kind of strobe you have this may or may not be easy.

2) Use the healing tool in Photoshop. This works great. I learned this trick from scubaboard!

3) I have also read to shoot upwards to eliminate a dark contrasty (contrasty with backscatter that is) background.

I have had alot of success with 1 & 2. With 3, you are not eliminating it... just masking it.

 

[Beau Gust]

Sometimes it's hard to light the subject with the edge of the cone - you don't really know exactly where the edge of the cone will be. So, try to light with the edge of the cone, but help yourself out also be not having the strobe too close to the lens. Aim it from above, or the side. That way, if you do light the water between the subject and the lens, the light that reflects off the particulates in the water will refect back towards your strobe, but not towards your lens.

 

[RonFrank]

I just got a nice 35mm film camera w/strobe and some of my photos have lots of back scatter.

Good vis helps a lot. If you have a lot of particles in the water it's difficult to avoid backscatter even if the light is aimed right.

Having long arms helps. An aiming light built into the flash also helps get the light positioned.

 

[MarkH]

I dive in water with relatively low vis (sometimes it's better than the tropics, but on average it's not so good). I try to get as close as possible. That's the main trick that everybody knows about. I also try to get as much natural light in the background as possible. I use a fast ISO (usually 400), semi-wide aperature (f5.6-8) and a slow shutter speed (1/30-1/60 sec.). Any illuminated particles are drowned out by the bright background. Most of the pictures in my website are full of backscatter, but you just cant see most of it.

 

[AndyT]

I also try not to get open water in the frame ie. make sure you are shooting against a reef backdrop . It will help to hide/camoflage the illuminated particles . And as others have said getting close also helps a lot.

 

[StraitsdiverGeo]

Thanks, one and all. I'll do some more reading and try some of your suggestions.

Regards, George

 

[cudachaser]

I think I'm getting some back scatter from my camera strobe that triggers my Ikelite slave unit. Have to tone down my camera strobe some