Lighting

[ERIEWRECKDIVER]

Hello Everyone,

I have spent the majority of my life as a Stage Lighting Designer. I am new to the ROV world, but I see that lighting is a BIG issue. I want to wreck dive my ROV when it is built. So to do this from everyone's videos, I already know a few things.

1) LED's are new to everyone and they may or may not be what we need to use. There are a lot of performance characteristics about LED that will need to be overcome if we use them. The biggest problem is that they are not easily focus-able. That is why they seem very bright on the surface, but when they are at depth they disappear. More on that later.

2) The use of spotted DYS lamps limits what you can see around the spot. I believe that these lamps are our best bet for now. I am going to have to experiment but, with the use of diffusion type gel media placed behind the lens and in front of the reflector. Maybe this can be mediated. What is gel you ask. It is the transparent yet colored plastic sheeting we use on stage lights to color or blend the light. Do a search on Roscolux, Lee, Apollo brands and look at the diffusion and silk gels. These may give you some ideas for your own lighting.

3) To get the kind of video shots of wrecks that I am going to want. I may need to provide additional "Lighting Platforms" to make it work. Because in lighting an object in absolute darkness, it is necessary to sometimes have Side, Back and Down light in addition to the front light to bring out the detail on an object. This sounds complicated. It may be. Again I will experiment and let everyone know what I find out. But it may be as simple as a second source of light on a boom arm to the side of your camera light. Coloring, or color correction of the light might help too. Time will tell.

Anyway, I can't wait to get started. Please let me know if you think I can help.

B.C.

aka ERIEWRECKDIVER

[Silver dollar]

This is very interesting! Nice to have a pro on the forum now

[sthone]

Very interesting indeed, gives me a few things to think about as I've been trying to find the best lights for awhile. (well honestly I haven't done much in the last year or so but I hope to change that this year. So I probably have more questions for you in the future.

-Steve

[ERIEWRECKDIVER]

I hope to have some new data about this in the next month or so.