Taking Photos in the Caves by Rob Whyte

Disclaimer : All views expressed are those of the webmaster and not those of the Jenolan Caves Reserve Trust. No sponsorship has been accepted from any company mentioned.

This page has been put together to help you take better photos on your visit to Jenolan Caves. Naturally the techniques will vary slightly depending on how serious you want to get. It has also been laid out according to the type of equipment you own. Something that is worth thinking about is that a visit to Jenolan is not just about going into a cave. Along the way you will pass some spectacular scenery. There are also opportunities to photograph wildlife as well as family members. Note that whilst it is okay to take photos in the caves (and that includes using a flash) you are not able to take tripods into the caves.

PREPARATION

A little bit of preparation can save frustration later on in your tour. Carry a spare roll of film. It is a common joke amongst guides that we could make a fortune if we carried spare film and sold it on tours. Carry a lens cloth with you. the caves are about 17 degrees celsius all year round and about 98% humidity. Whilst this seldom gives problems in summer the cooler months will see your camera fogging up almost as soon as you enter the cave. Wearing the camera under a jumper for half and hour before going underground can help to warm it up. If nothing else helps, at least you can use the lens cloth to wipe it clear. Finally, go in with the attitude that if you can't get the photos you want you can always buy a souvenir book or postcards. Don't get stressed over your photos!

FILM

Before anything else, choose your film. My preference is for Fuji film. 400ASA should be the slowest film to use for cave photos taken on tours. I have used Fuji Press 800ASA pushed to 1600ASA but for the average person 400 should be ideal. I like to purchase rolls of 24 exposures for the reason that sometimes you won't shoot a lot of photos and you want to get the film developed soon after your visit. I also tend to shoot prints rather than slides because it is cheaper and it easier to scan prints to post to the internet.

35m compact cameras

The most common type of camera is the 35mm compact. Most of these have a built in flash. If you camera doesn't have a built in flash and you don't have a flash unit for it you will need to shoot 800ASA film although the quality will still leave a lot to be desired. You will use the flash constantly for photos on your cave tour so make certain that you camera battery is not about to go flat on you. The flash that is built in to these types of cameras is not very powerful so the key to taking good photos is to try and stand within 4m of what you are photographing. If you try and take photos of big chambers or cave formations that are a long way off your photos will end coming out muddy in appearance.

If you want to take photos of other people in the caves, try and have them stand with a cave wall or formation within 1 to 2m of them. If they stand further away than that the background will turn out black. The closer the person is to the feature the better will be the photo.

Something that a lot of people forget is that a flash is a separate light source. Photos will rarely come out the way you remember because the flash pumps out light directly from the direction of your camera. Most of the time what you are seeing in the cave has been lit with lights aimed from a number of directions. Shawls are very hard to photograph well as a lot of the time they have been lit from behind, giving a bacon effect. When the flash goes off if overpowers the backlighting and the photo reveals a very plain shawl. A similar effect happens when photographing coloured lights. The flash will wash out most of the colour. The message here is not to waste your time if your goal is to record these effects.

The final message is to take lots of photos. At the end of the day, film is cheap, photographic memories are not. You have probably travelled a couple of hours to visit Jenolan. You have then paid to go on a tour. It seems a shame then to act miserly when taking photos. Often you will find some of your favourite photos turn out to be the ones you snapped off impulsively.

35mm SLR cameras

The 35mm SLR will give you a lot more freedom than a compact although if you rely on the built-in flash you still suffer the limitations mentioned above. Where possible, use a more powerful external flash. Also, if you have a selection of lenses try to work with just one in the cave. I have had several tours where efforts to changes the lens have resulted in the lens departing company with the photographer and in one instance it ended up at the bottom of the underground river. I use a 35-80mm for most of my work on tours. You will rarely have need for a longer lens than 80mm.

Autofocus cameras can prove troublesome on tours since most models require a reasonable amount of light to control the focusing system. When you first enter the cave quickly try out your autofocus system and get a feel for whether it is going to give problems. If it does, turn off the auto-focus and go manual.

If you plan to shoot high speed film without a flash there are a few special tricks to use. The caves are predominantly lit with tungsten light which gives a strong orange cast to your photos. Unfortunately the colour temperature varies enormously so unless you weigh yourself down with a colour meter you will have to use rule of thumb. Most people say to use an 80B to compensate for tungsten light but this only works for a strongly lit subject which rarely happens in the caves. Most of my photos are shot through a combination of 80B + 82C. In very dark areas (such as the Pool of Reflections in the River Cave) I have combined an 80A with an 80B which gives an acceptable compensation. Since I do find myself swapping filters a great deal I have opted to use the Cokin filter system. Of course all of this leads to long exposures which can be a problem when you are not allowed to use a tripod. Take advantage of railings and other fittings in the caves to rest your equipment against.

One of the problems photographers complain about is wire netting. Unfortunately it is needed as without the caves would rapidly be destroyed by curious fingers. The best way to make wire netting vanish is to go for a low f-stop and get up close to wire. The wire will disappear because it ends up being significantly out of focus.

For those people interested, the bulk of the photos used on this website were taken with a Canon EOS50e utilising a 550EX flash. As stated at the beginning of this article, most photos were taken with Fuji 400ASA Superia. Most of my photos are taken with the lighting used in the caves compensated by colour correction filters by Cokin. I often use a Canon ST-E2 which allows me to operate the flash by an infra-red link. This allows all manner of effects by taking the flash well away from the camera. This can help create a large variety of shadows which helps to convery the feeling of being in a cave. Another favourite trick is setting the camera to Aperture priority mode and using fill-in flash. This illuminates the main subject with what appears "normal" colours whilst the rest of the cave has an orange cast to it.