Cave Photography

[destiny86]

i am going oversea soon.. so might probably come across attraction such as cave.

could anyone advise me how should i take pictures in cave? do i attempt to try HDR? if yes, how should i go about doing it? other than HDR, is there any other technique?

thanking you all i advance

[btrenkel]

- tripod
- cable release
- mirror locked up

and try bracketing to be on the safe side. but HDR never worked for me

[neubdetat]

what type of caves are you going to? Are they the sort that have sunlight entering them? Like those in Phuket? Or do you mean limestone caves that are totally underground? Will you be caving by yourself? Or will you be a part of a group going through show cave?

I've been in both a copper mine and a limestone cave before and from what I know, it'll be dark. So dark you either rely on very high ISOs (i'm talking about shutter speed of 1/20 at ISO 6400 f/3.5 type dark) or you have to use a tripod or flash. Which if you're in a tour group or in any cave that is small and narrow, is quite hard.

As for HDR in caves, you don't really need it at all since caves don't really have such a wide dynamic range as to need HDR.

In anycase here are my quite crappy shots of a limestone cave near where I study









as you can see... it's very dark.... and if your in a narrow path in a tour, you can't set up a tripod. So you either bump up ISO or you use a flash. Yup.

[destiny86]

thanks neubdetat .. i still do not know what kind of cave to expect. some parts of the cave is indeed very dim. thanks for your suggestions ..

btrenkel .. eh so u suggest long exposure shot is it?

[neubdetat]

oh just a tip. Very likely they'll ask you to put on a helmet. It's very hard to look through a viewfinder with a helmet on cos the front of hte helmet will keep on hitting the camera. VERY ANNOYING >=-(. So learn to use live view if your camera has it....