James Emery has posted this image on the Wetpixel Facebook Group showing the creative use of long shutter speeds and continuous lighting to achieve an effect showing the movement of the fish hunting around a barrel coral in Koh Tao, Thailand. James describes how he created the image:

“When I first saw Alex Mustard’s photo entitled “Night Moves” I instantly wanted to try the technique used for myself. Last night I finally got to give it a go with my photo student Ed.

The technique is done by back-lighting a subject with a video light. Our subject was a barrel sponge and with the camera stabilized on the other side we were able to use a slow shutter speed to capture the movement and trails of the moving fish above. Here you can see the movement of a school of yellowtail fusiliers (Caesio cuning) hunting the zooplankton lit by the video light.

We also used another video light to paint in the front the barrel sponge giving the photo more colour. Its not a perfect photo yet but one we are excited to experiment with more.

Here is a link to Alex Mustard’s photo which gave us the inspiration.

Canon G7X with a Big Blue VL5800 video light.

f11@4”,ISO200”