I'll be doing an underwater shoot in a pool and I'm looking at renting the Nikonos V for the shoot.
Here's my questions:
How in the heck do you meter underwater with a manual camera? My thought is to take my D3, aim it at the subject above water to get the meter readings close, then eye-ball it when I'm in the water. Any better ideas? (which I'm sure there are...)
If I rent the strobe to go with it, am I dealing with the flash power on manual or is there some sort of TTL type mode to automatically adjust it's power for the shot. I'm thinking it's all manual considering that I've heard the Nikonos is manual. So again, if it is manual, how the heck to you check settings underwater?
Any extra thoughts would be great. Thanks so much in advance.
IIRC, the V can either be Aperture priority or full manual. There are without a doubt underwater meters available. There are also waterproof Nikon flashes available that are camera controlled, although I am not sure if they are truly TTL.
The more modern Nikonos Flashes (102, 103, 105) are all TTL. Also the Nikonos V has a built in light meter, so you can just use it like you would use any camera on land. If I was shooting upwards toward the surface I'd normaly underexpose the surface/sky/background slightly and let the flash light the main subject.
Nikonos is a film camera, him saying to use "print film" implies a certain type of negative.
It means to use print/negative film rather the slide/reversal film, due to the latter's narrower exposure lattitude, and the ability to adjust prints after the shoot.
With experience, one can succesfully shoot reversal film underwater as easily as on the surface, and not all that long ago, most publications preferred slides/chromes for submissions. Nowadays, when everything gets converted to digital at some point in the workflow, it really shouldn't matter whether you shoot on negative film, reversal film, or digital sensors...heck, even glass plates if that flips your pancakes.
But if you're not used to underwater photography in general, and the Nikonos in particular, shooting negatives rather than slides will make it just a bit more likely that you'll have a good percentage of "keepers."
One more question. What ISO film would you use for a shoot underwater? Obviously this would be kind of a shot in the dark guess without seeing the lighting. It would be in a pool with white floors and underwater lights in the side of the pool.
I'm thinking 800 or 1600. Is the grain in 1600 film pretty decent/tolerable? If so, it would give me much more exposure adjustment leverage with the camera.
If it'll be daytime, or you'll have flash and be shooting at close range, I'd go for a 400-speed film for better IQ.
If it'll be dark I'd go for 800. I don't think you'd be happy with the results of a 1600 film. Unlike digital, film hasn't progressed to the point where super-high sensitivity can coexist with high IQ.
One thing to remember about U/W photography is that water absorbs some wavelengths of light more than others. Reds tend to go first and blues last. A flash can help retain normal colors as you go deeper.
Use a high-contrast, high saturation film. If you're in Bellevue, a trip to Glaser's in Seattle would be worth it; they have one of the best film selections around and can advise on what's best for your needs.
(BTW, I'm actually in Everett. I say Seattle because more people know where that is.)
After getting some sleep I remembered something. If you're shooting by available light you can use 800 or 1600 film, but if you're going to use flash it has to be ISO 400 or less; the TTL system won't work with faster films.
