Deep Wreck Photography

[TimIngmire]

Having finally received my Trimix ticket and knowing that there are a few deep wreck divers here I'm wondering how to prepare for a photo trip to the deeper wrecks around our shores.

Key considerations as I see it are - in no certain order:

1. Limited time at depth
2. Equipment loading
3. Reduced ambient light
4. Knowledge of the site
5. Camera Equipment

It also seems that there is likely to be a compound effect here with a number of these factors ie. given the nature of the wrecks you are less likely to have detailed knowledge of the site and therefore the best features and angles and, given the lack of time (maybe as low as 10 minutes for the deepest wrecks but more realistically up to 20 /30 minutes), this puts the diver under some pressure to find the best picture opportunity - especially if you want a model in the shot. This is of course on top of the normal pressures of doing that kind of diving even without the camera.

What has been the experience of those doing deeper dives (and here I mean anything over 40-50m)?

Tim

[johnny boy]

Go on leigh bishops web site. email him and read up as much about him and his techniques as possible.

[Mark]

1. Limited time at depth - Time is only limited by the deco you are willing/able to do. I have done some 'big' dives (over 1hr deco) quite often.

2. Equipment loading - Not a major problem, you will get used to it, Watch your bottom time.

3. Reduced ambient light - very rarely do you get below 50m and have enough light to see, let alone use it for photographing in ambient light, unless you can hold the shutter open and still for seconds.

4. Knowledge of the site - whilst swimming around, unless you know the site or it is small, you can get carried away and it can be hard to find the shot. If you are on a boat with lots of divers doing long deco you don't want to bag off. Taking a reel is just another thing getting in the way of the camera.

5. Camera Equipment - As I found, I needed 2 strobes to be able to get enough even light spread to keep backscatter down. I think I will also need a Dome Port to help getting some bigger shots in.

You'll probably find that the best shots have been taken after several dives on the site. I have dived the Rinovia (58m) 3 times this year and still can't decide what I want to take pictures of. So I can't be bothered to go back.

I have decided what I want to take photo's of on UB-65, so I will be going back prepared for a long dive (45 minutes at 58m plan runtime 130 minutes). I will inform the other divers on the boat, and I will have to bag off, the current after 2 hours will make it very hard to hold onto the shotline. I doubt if I will have a buddy able to spend so much time down there, so it'll also be solo for half the dive! If I can't get the shots I want I will cut the runtime down until the next time.

I once took a video camera and a stills camera to 64m on a dive, never again, that was a little overdoing it.

As a footnote, I don't like doing deep dives during the winter, mainly due to cold, dark, rough weather and did I say cold It cuts run times down a bit much.

Tim, you'll have to come down next summer and do some deeper dives with us. There is a local quarry if you fancy a deep one in still conditions (still cold), 92m

[Ding]

I dive with a YBOD and two 7L side slings and I found that shore diving with the full kit solved a lot of problems that I didn't want to happen later on a dive boat. I did get funny looks from other divers going into sites that bottom out at 32m and using side slings. But there is no substitute for experience. Sort out all the problems in shallow water and it will make for better photos later at depth...

My camera, an Oly 8080 has a usable ISO range of 50-200 so I take long exposures. At scapa last week the times were usually 13 seconds and some changes in adobe later...the depths were 35-45m, it was overcast, viz was 6-8m, and the sea was rough.

[triplefin]

Originally Posted by Ding

My camera, an Oly 8080 has a usable ISO range of 50-200 so I take long exposures. At scapa last week the times were usually 13 seconds and some changes in adobe later...the depths were 35-45m, it was overcast, viz was 6-8m, and the sea was rough.

I may be reading this wrong but it reads like you were doing exposures of 13secs ?

[Ding]

Originally Posted by triplefin

I may be reading this wrong but it reads like you were doing exposures of 13secs ?

No 13 seconds to do a wreck, It brings out a lot of detail and then clean it up in adobe...well that was the plan, but I got some smaller long exposures.
There were 11 other divers on the wreck so full wreck pictures were not possible..

[Barrie Law]

Originally Posted by johnny boy

Go on leigh bishops web site. email him and read up as much about him and his techniques as possible.

Below is Leigh Bishop sorting his camera kit for a dive and then returning after the dive with a piece of brass he went to look for at 93 mtrs to complete the Bell he had found the year before............impressive!!

[snappy1]

I live in New Jersey and ambient light even at 70-80' is a joke. The meter doesn't even move. I have worked on using long shutter speeds to enhance the photo. By long, I am taking 1/4 to 1/2 second. I have found that I can shoot at 1/4 second without too much trouble. Going to 1/2 second becomes difficult. To overcome this, you can place your housing on the wreck to keep it stable or even bring a monopod with you. An expensive monopod works because it's life span in salt water won't be very long. One of the drawbacks of longer shutter speeds is fish or diver movement. If you don't use rear shutter synch on your camera, the flash will fire and then the fish or diver will move before the lens closes. You will get a glow in front of the subject as they blurr the image. If you use rear shutter synch, the flash will fire at the end of the period that the lens is open and the blurring will occur behind the subject - giving a feeeling of movement. You can see photos taken at longer shutter speeds on my website in the New Jersey Shipwreck section or in the Artificial Reef section. In the pictures of the shipwreck, Lana Carol, here: Herb Segars Photography : Lana Carol, all the photos were taken at either 1/8th or 1/10th of a second with apertures around f8 using (2) Ikelite DS-125 strobes with an ISO of 200. Most were taken with a Nikon D100 in a Nexus housing.