Greetings BT'ers!!

8 of us hearty Canadian Divers will be headed down in March. Some of our group have heard that due to severe rains on one of the neighbouring islands, plus the dry conditions on Bonaire, there is more than the usual amount of particulate suspended in the water column, causing a lot of backscatter from camera strobes.

Could any of the resident photographers pleas advise about this, and also what they are doing to help work around this problem?? We have 3 people with 3 NEW digital cameras, and # NEW underwater housings that would like to make sure they are prepared!!

Thanks

Bill

And, thanks Jake for this suggestion!!

I think you should actually ask New England divers how they avoid backscatter, since they have particulate matter in the water all the time :-)

(The best known trick is to point your strobes away from your subject so that only the edge of your lighting cone lights the subject. With light coming in from an angle, backscatter reflection only occurs in an angle opposite to the incoming light, and therefore away from your camera lens.)

Jake

Somewhere Dan has a picture of a sponge that he took up here off Gloucester on a day where we had maybe 10 foot vis, and lots of schmutz in the water. Not a single bit of backscatter to be found anywhere in the shot. Truly amazing...

The trick, as Jake mentioned, is to aim your strobe so that it's not pointing directly at your subject, as all the stuff in the water between your strobe and your subject will also be illuminated. It's a nifty trick, and takes practice. I handhold my strobe so I can aim more easily from any direction; Dan has his on an articulated arm for the same reason. A camera with an integrated flash is pretty much guaranteed to give you backscatter -- a separate strobe is a must.

Faith

i'd hate to think the limited problem i had with back scatter was due to not having the strobe really pointed at the subject(s)...

beginner's luck

and good luck!

As Faith mentioned, strobe positioning is the most important element in reducing backscatter. The image of sponges Faith referred to was taken at Halfway Rock. I was shooting the with the 15mm lens on my Nikonos setup, and was very close to the subject.

I tend to have the strobe arm extended far to my left and below the subject. I like the effect of foreground lighting from the strobe, with background and/or sun ball lighting from behind.

For the more serious photographers, I'd highly recommend the Nikon School of Underwater Photography, which is taught on Cayman Brac and sometimes on Bonaire. What you learn in one week is amazing, even for those who have been taking underwater photos already.

Faith, Daniel, Bob, and, of course, Jake. Thank you for your input and suggestions!!

While I am rather new at underwater photography, the others in the group (Toronto Superturtles & Friends) are fairly experienced.

We are all used to problems with backscatter, especially trying to shoot the numerous shipwrecks we have in our area!

Biggest part of the question - which I definitely did not articulate well enough - was (is)...

is the particulate level in the water higher than normal for this time of year??

Thanks again!! (I'm the only one with backscatter problems due to my rig...an MX-10

Bill

I'll let Jake or someone else on Bonaire answer the question about particulate level vs. time of year.

One thing I will mention is Sea&Sea was showing a remote kit of some sort at DEMA, which permits you to move the strobe off of your MX-10 and position it further away. It uses fiber optic cabling. If you hunt around their website, you'll find a picture of it.

Dan

Backscatter, a vicious rumor started by film photographers. I don't believe in it and it never occurs with a good digital camera. Get close and shoot down and no problem.

Hi Bill,
I also have an MX-10 and I know what you mean about backscatter, especially when using the 20mm wide conversion lens. I purchased the fiberoptic cable kit that Dan is talking about, and it's made all the difference. It allows you to hand-hold the strobe in your left hand, and angle it any way you choose. Angling it at 45 degrees above the subject has worked best for me, although I've never tried aiming the light from below--I'll have to give that a try. The cable is about 20" long, so you really have a lot of freedom with positioning the strobe. When you're not taking pictures, you can slide the strobe back onto the bracket on the side of the camera for ease of carrying. The only caution is that when you do this, the cable can form a loop which dangles and gets snagged on things, so before I re-mount the strobe, I wrap the cable around the arm of the strobe. The kit is available from the Divers Direct website for $159.99. I'm also headed down to Bonaire in March,,from the 15th - 22nd. What dates are you going? Good luck. Robyn

Robyn;

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner!!

We're going down the same time!!

Staying at Caribbean Court. and hoping to get to Gibis one (or both ) Tuesdays!!

Bill