“Splitsville by Gug” at sfups meeting

---

I am a fan of half and half shots and Chris Gug from aquaexposure.com was given a “how-to” workshop at sfups meeting in North Miami.

Last minute I decided to improvise and film Gug’s presentation with my slr. I use the optics that I happened to have on. The 28-70mm at the 28mm end, gave me just enough wide angle to work with. I improvised stability with chocolate bars, and a phone charger that I had in my backpack. Without a proper tripod it was a challenge to handhold the camera to follow Chris from one side of the room to the other as he was illustrating his examples. I was concentrated in pulling focus and I heard half of his presentation….
0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false

To record a video in Manual in D7000: Turn Manual Movie settings always On and turn the body to Manual. Turn the Live View on (Can’t record video with the view finder..) and change shutter speed and Iso. The live view doesn’t show metering but it shows the results as you change. Can NOT change the aperture with Liveview if the lens doesn’t have an aperture dial. To change aperture get out of liveview change A and go back to live view .The D7000 records sections up to 20min (at any resolution) non stop before the motors start getting hot. Each section took about 2Gb and after 40 min recording the battery only moved 1 bar. That is awesome. Don forget: Shutter speed never lower than 50, turn down sharpening and contrast, pic control in Neutro and expose to the right.
0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false

/* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}




D7000 records sections of 20min (at any resolution) non stop before the motors start getting hot. Each section took about 2Gb and after 40 min recording the battery only moved 1 bar. That is awesome. The lack of tripod or the need to get skilled at “pulling focus’ didn’t bother me much. Until I find out at the end of the session that I had left the micro off from my last dive. That was “not cool”. Lesson: No need to turn the micro off, there are to many things to forget, it is possible to mute the sound later if I don’t like it.

The video of chris's presentation is of course un-usable. But to get the most out of it I screened shot the video to have a sequence of images to go with my notes from Gug’s presentation.

Split shots:

Forget the small ports for split. Go big.

Use wide angle, the wider the better.

The higher f-stop the better. If you want both above and below in focus use smaller apertures. F22 to be safe, if possible. But no lower that f16..

Don’t worry about WB. Fix it at processing time. Chris showed ACR to polish up with.

Keep the sun in the back to light the subject and use natural light.

The use of strobes are at discretion of the shot to accomplish.

Iso. The lower the better. A few newer cameras have low noise at high iso.

Spit on the port to avoid droplets. Don’t use chemicals.

Move the camera slowly to position and shoot just before the water starts dripping down the port enough to show.

Spot Meter. Center Weighted.

Can’t focus in both above or below. Choose one + Focus on whatever is closest to the camera.

On a bright day there is 2 f stop difference between above and below.

On a darker day, sunset or sunrise there is a 6 f-stop difference so play with strobes to light the bottom until you are happy.

In open water and If not using the strobes let them hang down and inflate your bc to the max. Some suggested to use floating devices to keep your camera at the surface.

If you don’t need the strobes at all get rid of them. Disconnect them and plug the housing.

If using a strobe above. Let it rest on the dome to help with the weight.

…that is all I can remember for now. If anyone feels like correcting my notes of adding something that we can all benefit from please go for it. I am ready to play! How about You?

…that is all I can remember for now. If anyone feels like correcting my notes of adding something that we can all benefit from please go for it. I am ready to play! How about You?



http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-techniques/article/over-unders/

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/over-under-split-photography/

---