Red Filter for DC1400

[Pillpusher]

Regarding the "hot" button for WB, you say to hold the menu button down? do I need to have the slate in front of it while doing this?
How do I manually do it the regular way? my instructor showed me but seems like a lot of work...and honestly I don't think she knows what she is doing, just the impression I got...didn't learn a darn thing from her during my class. What a waste that was. I mean, if I come out of an UW photo class and don't know how to white balance my camera (also have not done it under water) it was pretty much a joke.

When you hold down the "Menu" piano key, the screen will ask if you want to "Use Data" (your most recently set manual WB) or "Set New". Put something neutrally colored in front of the camera and hit "Set New". What I'll do, is when I have decent depth on my first dive of the day (80'-90'), I'll set a manual WB from there so that I'll have something to use in a pinch if I need to (for example, a spotted eagle ray coming at you and you don't have time to set a new manual WB). Using the hot key, you can switch to manual WB pretty quickly. Another tip, is that if you feel your subject is out of the range of your strobes (like in example pic #2 above), set the camera to "camera only". This way, your strobes don't fire and the camera doesn't compensate for lighting that won't show up in the image (which would make it underexposed). There may be better ways to take these types of shots with this camera, but I haven't figured them out. SeaLife cameras are great, especially for their price point and ease of use... You just have to understand and work inside some of its limitations.

With the exception of macro shots, any shot in open water will typically still have some blue tint in areas of the image (especially shadows), regardless of your white balance settings with this camera. So, when touching up your photos, be sure to use a program that has individual color slider bars (I use Aperture) so you can manually dial down some of the blue using the aqua saturation slider. Also, while you can't do a ton without RAW, the white balance adjustments there can help at times as well.

Yeah, I think most of the photo classes are just to teach the basics of underwater photography... Composition, exposure, shoot up not down, etc... It would be tough for someone to know the ins and outs of all the different cameras out there.

---------- Post added July 21st, 2015 at 05:28 PM ----------

Wow - I just looked at some of your pictures and I'm inspired! Really taken with a DC1400 huh?! I will continue to work at it. (I started to say 'try', but Yoda says "Do or do not. There is no try."!)

Thanks! And yes, they were... Or with older models. I've been using SeaLife cameras for nearly a decade now. As I said, there's trial and error involved with just about any camera out there, but the learning curve with the SeaLife's probably isn't nearly as steep as with others. For someone like myself who doesn't take it too seriously, wants to be a diver first and a photographer second, but still come away with some great photos, SeaLife cameras are great.

 

[kimbalabala]

Regarding the "hot" button for WB, you say to hold the menu button down? do I need to have the slate in front of it while doing this?
How do I manually do it the regular way? my instructor showed me but seems like a lot of work...and honestly I don't think she knows what she is doing, just the impression I got...didn't learn a darn thing from her during my class. What a waste that was. I mean, if I come out of an UW photo class and don't know how to white balance my camera (also have not done it under water) it was pretty much a joke.

I’ll walk you through how I do it and see if it helps.


Hit the Menu button and choose Easy Setup. Toggle over to Underwater (white balance isn’t available as an option to change unless you’re in Underwater mode). Choose your configuration – mind is the second one over – the camera with a single light on the left side. Then you get the “That Was Easy” note. Yay!


Now hit the Menu button again. Now you’ll notice that the W Balance is accessible. Toggle down and choose that. Now you have a bunch of choices that mystify me as I just look at what they say! But as you toggle along you will notice that the text across the top tells you what they mean. So if you toggle over the one that say B 0-8m at the top it says “W.Balance – BluWtr.25ft. I’m going to choose the next one that is >25ft and I’m done. The next one over is for green water, etc.


Maybe that’s all stuff you already know, but I had to learn that after my last trip – and I’m leaving for another trip in a few days so I’m thrilled that I have a new set up to try.



Good luck!

---------- Post added July 22nd, 2015 at 10:38 AM ----------

When you hold down the "Menu" piano key, the screen will ask if you want to "Use Data" (your most recently set manual WB) or "Set New". Put something neutrally colored in front of the camera and hit "Set New". What I'll do, is when I have decent depth on my first dive of the day (80'-90'), I'll set a manual WB from there so that I'll have something to use in a pinch if I need to (for example, a spotted eagle ray coming at you and you don't have time to set a new manual WB).

I want to make sure I understand this. So I am going to set a manual WB based on colors at depth - so it will be essentially fairly dark and blue. Does that then compensate for that dark blue in my future pictures? I really am a noob on this stuff and trying to make sense of it. Thanks for your patience.

 

[Pillpusher]

---------- Post added July 22nd, 2015 at 10:38 AM ----------



I want to make sure I understand this. So I am going to set a manual WB based on colors at depth - so it will be essentially fairly dark and blue. Does that then compensate for that dark blue in my future pictures? I really am a noob on this stuff and trying to make sense of it. Thanks for your patience.

I suggest using manual WB only when you aren't going to use your strobes. The >25ft that it defaults to in "Camera Only" mode is decent up until about 35', but I'll use manual WB any deeper than that. When using your strobes, you are supposed to use the "External Flash WB" setting. But, depending on the water, I have at times found that setting to be too "warm" for my liking, and I'll either use the "Auto" WB for a more natural look, or manual if I need something in between.

 

[kimbalabala]

I suggest using manual WB only when you aren't going to use your strobes. The >25ft that it defaults to in "Camera Only" mode is decent up until about 35', but I'll use manual WB any deeper than that. When using your strobes, you are supposed to use the "External Flash WB" setting. But, depending on the water, I have at times found that setting to be too "warm" for my liking, and I'll either use the "Auto" WB for a more natural look, or manual if I need something in between.

I think I'm going to have to experiment and see what works. We're going on the Juliet next week so I'll have plenty of opportunities to try different configurations. Until I started reading this board I really didn't know there was a WB function on the camera. Well, that's not entirely true - the owner of the LDS told me it's there, but I didn't have time to go by so she could tutor me. Thanks for the help.

 

[dmaziuk]

So I am going to set a manual WB based on colors at depth - so it will be essentially fairly dark and blue. Does that then compensate for that dark blue in my future pictures?

Keep in mind there's only so much light falling on the sensor. The deeper you go, the less there is. There's no help for it other than bringing your own light and using a physically bigger sensor, as in DSLR (with the same amount of light falling on a square inch, more square inches = more light). Less light translates to more colour noise and more motion blur, and filtering out blue/green to capture more red means getting less light still.

 

[shellmoundal]

I think we're (or at least I was) mainly talking about using manual white balance with natural light only (cave diving pics/video is using external lighting). If that's what you were referring to as well, do you have any unaltered examples you can share? I'm curious if I'm just doing something wrong...lol.

These were taken from 60 to 145 ft.

 

[Pillpusher]

These were taken from 60 to 145 ft.

Yeah, those are using external lighting.

 

[shellmoundal]

No external lighting used on these photos.

 

[BFRedrocks]

So if I understand this all correctly, if I'm using my strobe, then the "correction settings" (e.g., Dive Mode or Snorkel Mode) won't have any effect? IOW, the strobe is supposed to provide the light to bring out the colors, so there is no need for the camera to "correct" the color itself? Is that why it's easier to just select the "Easy Mode" so you're not dealing with the WB settings? Then, if I'm not using my strobe, I do want to start with Dive Mode or Snorkel Mode, or do a Manual WB (as you guys have described) to get the proper color correction? I'm just trying to understand how the camera functions (WRT WB and color correction) with and without operating the strobe. THANKS!

 

[Pillpusher]

No external lighting used on these photos.View attachment 217551View attachment 217550View attachment 217549View attachment 217548

See, in my opinion, that's not very good white balance, but it's about as good as can be expected with this camera. Don't get me wrong this camera takes great pics, but white balance is one of its weaker spots.

---------- Post added October 20th, 2015 at 07:51 PM ----------

So if I understand this all correctly, if I'm using my strobe, then the "correction settings" (e.g., Dive Mode or Snorkel Mode) won't have any effect? IOW, the strobe is supposed to provide the light to bring out the colors, so there is no need for the camera to "correct" the color itself? Is that why it's easier to just select the "Easy Mode" so you're not dealing with the WB settings? Then, if I'm not using my strobe, I do want to start with Dive Mode or Snorkel Mode, or do a Manual WB (as you guys have described) to get the proper color correction? I'm just trying to understand how the camera functions (WRT WB and color correction) with and without operating the strobe. THANKS!

If you are using external lighting, and also use the color correction settings along with it, your pictures will likely come out too red in most cases. Correct, color correction modes and manual white balance are mainly for use without external lighting.