Dave’s Blog 7 (100612)
Well how time fly! It’s been months since I last blogged. This one is all about The SNOOT – or more precisely a strobe snoot. What a funny word to describe a piece of photography equipment.
Generally it is a protruding thingy ….“nose; beak; honker; hooter; nozzle; snoot; snout; schnozzle or schnoz”
This device has enjoyed something of a revival in the underwater photography world recently. Judging from the number of winning photos using such device in UW photography competitions this is no surprise. Many of my customers are asking me do I have such a thing and yet this lighting technique has been around in studio photography since the invention of photography, along with essential gear such as the light tent, umbrellas and reflectors.
I have also come across some ingenious contraptions made by friends during my dive trips. Some are just laterally made out of plastic drink bottles with gaffer tapes and bungee while others are more sophisticated using plumbing parts, plastic pipes and drinking straws…..yes I am clutching at straws a bit with this blog.
So before you fall asleep here is my take on the subject matter – a snoot with a difference.
Dave’s telescopic strobe snoot!
Essentially it is made out of drain pipes; a rubber grommet and some…..yes straws!
And here it is all nicely shrink wrapped one. This is a cheapo solution to a simple problem. That is how to narrow the light beam down from a strobe?
I learn that a honeycomb like structure is not always necessary if the snoot has a long snout. It is however necessary if the snoot has a short snout. Short snout usually have a bigger aperture and therefore the strobe light has more power or ‘beam angle’. A longer snout usually gets narrower at the end. Light has to travels further thus weaker as light bounce around the snoot wall. For maximum flexibility a telescopic schnozzle seems to be the best way to go.
This one shown is developed for Colin, a good friend and a customer, who uses Seacam Seaflash 150. This is a very wide angle strobe so a honeycomb structure is also included inside the rubber grommet.
The parts all dissembled as shown. As you can see there is not much to the snoot. A plastic bottle of the right size and blacken will work.
In the Scubacam tradition I do things differently and generally like to muck about. So I added a telescopic snout. All nicely machined and ready for testing.
Here is the first shot with the Seaflash! Not bad at all. So the thing really works. Camera used is a Canon 400D with 18-55 mm set at ISO 200, 1/80 and F11.
A few days later, the door bell rings and one happy Scubacam customer. Colin is going to try the telescopic snoots out soon and then I will post some of his shots here if they are as good as his PADI dive cert photos.
Oh now that I know the thing works I have made a few versions for other strobes. Here is one for Inon S2000 strobe.
In fact this has been so much fun I might make a batch of these for my friends. I suggest if you are keen to do DIY just try it – it is really simple. It works with taped up drink bottles. Save those drinking straws. Then again if you want a telescopic version I am all ears.
Till next time. Happy underwater snapping.
