UW photo is there a tip ?

[Gilles Debord]

Hi

Is there tips to take photography in two different medium Air/Water with water level as middle horizontal line ? in my experiments the line is blur.

Best regards

Gilles

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

The central section line will always be out of focus, but you can film so that both above and below the water line is sharp in the same shot.
With stills photography I mainly use Nikon Nikonos underwater cameras such as my Nikonos RS with 50mm UW lens that provides sharp photos both above and below the water line. This lens can also be matched to Canon XL2 and Canon XL-H1 for filming video using my Nikkor XL adapter (by Les Bosher).

Split filming will also work if you place the video camera inside a underwater housing with a flat glass front port and use the normal DV lens, although a domed port will also work. You must take into consideration that the section of the lens underwater will focus on the magnified subject (things always seem closer/larger underwater) while the section of the lens above water will focus normally - so turn off the AF and focus manually until you get both above and below subjects in focus.
If you use a lens like the 16X or 20X it will change lens view underwater, so the widest setting of a 35mm equivalent lens above water will be about 50mm underwater - so try to use the widest lenses you've got, such as a 3X lens or with wide adapter such 0.7X or 0.5x in front of the main lens.

Another good ploy is to use a small glass aquarium partially submerged so it sits on the bottom of the lake/river and then film from inside of the aquarium with the lens hood tight against the inside of the glass. This produces amazing above & underwater footage and the added advantage is that when you slide the DV camera above and below the waterline there is no water droplets on the front lens element/housing port, so all you see in the footage is a very clean transition between air and water.

[Gilles Debord]

Hi

Thank's a lot Tony i try it.


Gilles