Not our safety, but that of what they are filming. Some of these things never see the light of day and James Cameron over here is blasting it in the face with what must feel like the light of a billion suns, how does this not damage the eyes of the animals that have them?
In: Biology
The answer is actually already ELI5 easy – they’re deep sea animals, so they’ve never had light, so they don’t really have eyes. This makes sense if you think about it – if you lived in total darkness for your entire life, what good would it do you to be able to see anything? So, those animals simply evolved away from needing vision the way we do.
We don’t really know, but the things we see on camera don’t seem to mind. The ones who really dislike light are gonna run or hide long before the light gets close enough to be really bright. From what we understand about vision in identified species, even if camera lighting does blind or disorient them, the ill effects should mostly be temporary. Even if the creatures we study are harmed, the assumption is that the ocean is vast enough that a few individuals having a bad time shouldn’t cause a major issue for the population at large. These risks are outweighed by the benefits of this research, which can include conservation programs that help the whole ecosystem. There’s also the long tail of medical+engineering+other technologies that tend to be discovered when we gain better understandings of new species. So no, perfect safety of the individuals under study is not a requirement for research to happen, but we figure the end result is worth small-scale risks.
I believe they use a special infrared light that the eyes of certain creatures (particularly ones that spend a good deal of time in darkness) are unable to detect
Another aspect is that the lights don’t have to be all *that* bright. We’re used to thinking about film studios with all their hot, bright lighting, but most of that is only necessary to achieve a certain aesthetic vision. Bright light allows us to use less sensitive film and sensors, which reduces the visual “noise” of film grain. It also allows us to achieve very fast shutter speeds, that only allow a small proportion of the very bright light to enter the camera. This creates a very “crisp” looking video, with little motion blur.
Neither thing is as much a concern with underwater photography for research purposes. They have the luxury of not caring too much about the quality of the video, as long as it’s “good enough”. Therefore they can use more sensitive sensors that are noisier. They can also use (reasonably) slow shutter speeds and low frame rates, to allow more light to enter the camera during each frame.
Don’t get me wrong, the lights are still brighter than those creatures have probably ever seen, but they don’t even have to be as bright as regular sunlight, let alone multiple times brighter, in order to do the job.
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