Underground Rain

[Barry]

Caving is a sport which can be quite interesting when mixed with photography, as we are working in complete darkness we can choose our lighting position, this particular image was lit up from a remote flashgun being fired from behind the caver, the only front lighting was coming from my helmet light.

The Caver was standing just this side of a underground waterfall, the flashgun was fired from under the waterfall itself and I stayed in the dry ;D

[chrisc]

Love the shot and the setup.....might be a little happier if his lamp wasn't so bright but at the same time thinking it also adds to lighting his frontal area in conjunction with your lamp.

[Barry]

Hi Chris, I know what you mean about his lamp, that is one of the problems of working in darkness and trying to get the right exposure, even without his lamp on the image would not get the same effect.

[chrisc]

Just googled brecon....beautiful countryside. I am quite jealous.

[Barry]

Nov 11, 2011 17:18:45 GMT chrisc said:

Just googled brecon....beautiful countryside. I am quite jealous.

That is why we moved here and I now I travel 100 miles a day for work. I love my caving, walking, mountainbiking and climbing, plus my wife instructs all of these activities so it is all local for her.

[nickjohnson]

Barry. Gosh that looks hard to do! For me – loose the stuff in the bottom left corner, lighten the cavers face a little (if possible) and take about 10% to 15% off the right hand side. Just my $0.02.

[The Wirefox]

An excellent and unique shot Barry and expertly done in those conditions. I agree with Nick on the incidentals at the lower left but I would clone them out and leave the left hand side alone..but that really is nit picking it is a great image.

[Barry]

I could crop as suggested, but there is no more detail in the face, I do plan on returning to this cave to try and do a better job of recreating this image, but thanks for your comments.

[jiro]

The composition is nice. I like it. I wish I could see more detail of the cave on the shot so I can have an idea where he is but I guess from your situation it is hard to get a lot of detail inside that cave. I wish there was another fill light camera right to give some outline but that is just a personal suggestion. I bet it is really that hard to get a good exposure on this kind of shot but I did like that you converted it to b&w and for me that made the shot look more engaging and interesting. I like it!

[Barry]

Thanks Jiro, I'm off out now for the evening, but I will upload another photo into this thread tomorrow showing more of the cave.

[sahil]

I simply love this shot...
Very nice.

[katynoelle]

Very atmospheric and intriguing, Barry! I like it a lot, too!

[jeeperman]

I have to agree, Well done Barry.

[robmarshall]

Good atmosphere in this. How does your camera cope under-ground? It must be quite wet at times. I definitely prefer it above ground on my bike, with the wind whistling through the hair that I no longer have.

[Barry]

Here are a few more images from this trip. The first one is the entrance where we have to abseil in, the ladder that you see is for those members who do not not use ropes. Photo taken using a simple P&S camera.

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This next shot is looking up from the bottom of the cave entrance, the lines you can see is water falling as this was a 6 second exposure.

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Finally this was further inside the cave where it was dryer and I was able to control the exposure better having more time. Lighting was from the cavers lamp and a remote flash fired on the right hand side. Photo taken using Nikon D70.

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