Raw transcript
this videos about the wet port technique for keeping water drops from sticking to the front of your dome ports so I did say gonna be a little bit gross again there’s there’s probably only one real technique that people use for this you haven’t got many alternatives so if you’re a bit wary of this technique I think you have to deal with it if you want to get really nice shots with no water drops on your lens port at all basically you have to spit on your dome port that’s that’s the essential part of this process so the way I do it is whichever port I’m using this is another reason why if you’re shooting above water the small ports are really good because obviously if you’re shooting below water you don’t worry about it it’s going to be covered in water anyway and if you’re shooting above and below you’re gonna have a big big port that’s where it might be a problem if you’re shooting above water only you’ve usually got quite a small port like this one so you want to I do this as I’m so I’m sitting up I wear a wetsuit 90% at the time in the UK 107 the time in the UK let’s be real and so as you’re sitting up or getting your swim fins on or just watching the lineup to see where you gonna sit when yes when you ready just spit as much as you can it’s gross but it’s it will help I promise as much as you can try and cover the whole of this lens port in spit so some people say if you’ve eaten it like salty food recently like a box of fries or something then that helps I find as long as you’ve got some spit it works so try and cover as much as you can and then leave it as you’re going as you’re getting set up whatever because I think that helps a bit more if it’s just blob on there and you’re not going to do that when you’re in the water cuz you can be going under and under and over the waves there’s get it you’re gonna be shooting photos you’re not gonna be able to leave it on there but I think that helps so I should explain the aim is to have a very thin layer of water cover the whole dome port so when you lift your camera out of the water it looks completely smooth because there’s a tiny layer of water covering the whole of the port and that way it’s impossible to keep because like a flat port is a bit easier to keep dry basically and keep the drops from it at all but we were down port that’s near impossible so trying to shoot with a dry down port is practically impossible it’s not even worth trying that’s why we want to get the whole thing completely wet and then the only time you’re going to see water drops is when that sheet of water breaks up and you can see that happening if you don’t cure your port under the water and you lift it up if you haven’t done all the spitting thing you’ll notice that straight away the water just seeps into like sections and breaks up and you’ll see big gaps in the water on the front of the dome that’s a problem for your photos because you’re going to see those it’s gonna probably be areas of blur rather than really crisp bits of water but you’re gonna see them it’s going to affect your photos if you’ve got water drops on there you’re really gonna see those they’re going to be big blobs of blurry bits and you really really want to avoid that so that’s why we spit on it it creates I don’t know what it does exactly but it it kind of encourages the water to stick for that bit longer on that surface of the dome so if you’re doing it with one of these then a few times that’s that’s alright actually cover it and then leave that when you get in the water don’t stop spitting on it just spit as much as you possibly can it’s it’s pretty grim if you were around people so I tend to try and you know do it discreetly and don’t go you know you don’t cough up stuff you just want to spit what’s in your mouth onto the onto the poor so I find unable to do it discreetly enough I don’t think anyone’s caught me really doing it but I’m do as much as you can some people lick as well that’s another option to come and lick the whole of the thing I didn’t like that because you get lots of saltwater in your mouth and you know some people probably enjoy the taste it’s not great I prefer to spit on it and then you can move it around your fingers gross again but just to get it into a little hard-to-reach spots around the edges mostly so the more I talk about this the more gross it seems to me but I do every time I go in say oh well I’ll look tough I’ll explain it to you you’ll be doing it too when you realize it helps this much when you’re trying to shoot over under and you’ve got a downpour like this that’s where it becomes really important to just keep spitting as much as you can get that all over it you’ll find that it won’t take long you’ll only do it a few times on your paddle out and dunk it lift it up and you’ll notice straight away if you try it in the sink or in a bucket try it now without doing any spitting on your down port see how quickly it go it breaks up and causes a problem of the water on the dome if you do the spitting I promise it’ll take much longer for that to happen so one you’re paddling out you can dunk it lift it up might take I don’t know two or three seconds before anything happens and the more you spit them longer it takes for that water to start breaking up and cause a problem so the key thing is you need to dip the housing so dual you’re spitting stuff in between the sets don’t be doing it right in front of a wave because you might have better get the spit off in time so have it prepared and if there’s a break do a bit of spitting dip it when someone’s coming towards you because with a fisheye and which is what you’re going to be shooting through or a wide angle which is what you’re gonna be shooting through a downpour usually you want to be as close as possible to action whether that’s an empty wave or a surfer or kiteboarder wind surfer someone learning to surf anything like that but they’re gonna be coming towards you and you’re going to want to if you shoot a fisheye shot of them far away then I’m going to see themselves don’t even bother you and wait till they’re really close so the thing is you’ve got it all prepared you don’t you’re spitting don’t get under the water as they’re coming towards you at the last minute maybe not the last minute just before the last minute a couple of seconds before they reach you lift it up and by the time they get to you the water will still be there shoot your shots you’ve probably got yourself in in burst mode so you’re gonna probably take what four or five shots with them as they fly past ideally and then the what normally the way will go past you and obviously that then it doesn’t matter about the water ups but you will not see any drops when your port until they’ve gone way past you and they’re too far away to be worth taking a photo of so bit gross but spit dip lift it out take your shots and I promise that’s really going to help take care of any water drops that are on your lens ports I’ll pop a link below which goes through this in a text form so you can see a bit I won’t show you any video of me doing it because it’s pretty grim but trust me it does work and all the professional photographs every barrel shot you’ve ever seen in a surf magazine a couple of minutes before that shot the photographer was spitting on that lens port so trust me it does work let’s move on this has been a pretty gross section