I'm new to the world of draining and been trying my hand at photographing them. While I'm happy with some of the results, mine pale in compared with a lot of the other ones on this forum. I currently have only a point and click camera. Besides upgrading to a dslr, what tips do you have for underground photography in complete darkness? Camera settings to play around? Backlighting tips? Dealing with wetness/running water? Tripod tips? Etc

I shoot mostly theaters, which have a lot in common with drains/underground things if you think about it. Giant open space which normally takes a lot of light to brighten it some what, especially if youre trying to shoot the stage from the top of the balcony in a 3500 seat theater. Amazon sells various lights that will help lighting up your shots. Just get a good tripod that is sturdy. I use a cheap 30 dollar one, but as long as it doesnt move when youre taking a picture, who cares.

Posted by Rinzler I shoot mostly theaters, which have a lot in common with drains/underground things if you think about it. Giant open space which normally takes a lot of light to brighten it some what, especially if youre trying to shoot the stage from the top of the balcony in a 3500 seat theater. Amazon sells various lights that will help lighting up your shots. Just get a good tripod that is sturdy. I use a cheap 30 dollar one, but as long as it doesnt move when youre taking a picture, who cares.

Do you rely on solely camera external lights and then a long shutter exposure or do you use the cameras flash, plus those lights, or it depends?

The tripod is a must. So is not touching the camera when you take the shot. On any camera, use the lowest ISO possible. No matter what, you will probably have to leave the shutter open for 10-30 secs, but you can cut down on that time if you flood the scene with some sort of high output flashlight, strobe, or floodlight. If you are using a point and shoot, your best bet is to bring 2 or 3 light sources you can hide within the scene to illuminate subjects in the dark.

Experiment with lighting the shots with a flashlight. Play with using different colors, and staging the flashlights strategically around the area.

And yeah, definitely a tripod and DSLR with very long exposures is best. Some of the higher end point-and-shoots that can do long exposure will actually work reasonably well too, like the Cannon Powershot. But a DSLR is always better.

In regards to keeping your camera dry and safe, there's no magic solution to that, but here's a recent thread where we talked about that a little:
http://www.uer.ca/...=1&threadid=118333

Posted by Herm Do you rely on solely camera external lights and then a long shutter exposure or do you use the cameras flash, plus those lights, or it depends?

Ill usually do a long exposure and leave bright lights on or open doors until the picture is bright enough. Unless i'm trying to hurry up(or being lazy), then ill do an exposure and hit a flash multiple times. I've done exposures up to 10+ minutes if I can't get enough light.

This was pitch black with 2 or 3 lights set up with a 5 minute exposure
Rooftop Theater by Rinzler., on Flickr


This was pitch black with multiple external flashes going off
Hoss's Theater by Rinzler., on Flickr

If your p&s camera has manual exposure and you have a tripod, you're set. That's all I had for about a year before I picked up a dslr. Either use a flashlight or an external flash (another camera with built in flash works too) to light the scene. Try to set up your lighting so it points from somewhere other than right behind your camera In order to produce interesting shadows. Note that keeping a flashlight stationary during the exposure will give you hard shadows (similar to a flash) and moving it around will give you softer shadows (not possible with a flash).

I lit this with my external flash with an orange gel from behind the ice to get the hard shadows and catch some of the water droplets coming down. I used my headlamp with a blue gel to light it from the front. I moved the headlamp following the curve of the wall and ceiling to keep the lighting even. Holding it against the wall vs. just holding it in one spot right behind the camera will also bring out the texture of the wall.


This was taken with my p&s a couple years ago. Single flashlight moved around behind the subject for 13 sec.

Posted by NotQuiteHuman If your p&s camera has manual exposure and you have a tripod, you're set. That's all I had for about a year before I picked up a dslr. Either use a flashlight or an external flash (another camera with built in flash works too) to light the scene. Try to set up your lighting so it points from somewhere other than right behind your camera In order to produce interesting shadows. Note that keeping a flashlight stationary during the exposure will give you hard shadows (similar to a flash) and moving it around will give you softer shadows (not possible with a flash). I lit this with my external flash with an orange gel from behind the ice to get the hard shadows and catch some of the water droplets coming down. I used my headlamp with a blue gel to light it from the front. I moved the headlamp following the curve of the wall and ceiling to keep the lighting even. Holding it against the wall vs. just holding it in one spot right behind the camera will also bring out the texture of the wall. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8590/16055334767_5102dbb907_c.jpg This was taken with my p&s a couple years ago. Single flashlight moved around behind the subject for 13 sec. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8492/8382084364_08e704d144_c.jpg

Those are awesome. I'm learning learning a lot from all these tips from everyone

Posted by Herm Those are awesome. I'm learning learning a lot from all these tips from everyone

Hey Herm, welcome to the bunch. Glad you are getting something out of it.
I have one final tip for you:

Disregarding camera setting advice, or equipment advice, consider the color temperature of the light source(s) you eventually decide to use. It has a major influence on the image. The reason for this is, regardless of the camera you use to capture the scene, the color temp will either gain you, or lose you, certain details or colors in the final capture.