Why are all my pics blue?

[Impi]

If your camera has the ability to use custom white balance then you can also adjust the white balance at depth by taking a measurement of a white target object like an underwater slate at your depth where you will be taking photographs. This is only valid if you do not use a strobe for taking photos.


Lodewyk Steyn

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[deeper thoughts]

Filters help some but because the red light is reduces more and more as you decend you have to add more and more red filters to keep the color level constant.....and remove them as you accent. In addition, since they don't "add back" the red but actually remove the other colors, the amount of available light is reduced in an already low light condition. This requires slower shutter speeds and increases the likelyhood of blurry shots due to camera movement. Filters have a place but for the average vacation diver, they are a poor solution. Strobes are the only real way to restore the color and even then you have to realize that the max range of even the biggest, most expensive strobes is maybe 10 feet, a lot less with the low end and lower powered strobes.
The "orbs" you are seeing are known as back scatter and are your flashes light being reflected off particals in the water. Internal flashes are ok for very close shots - 2-3 feet max with no water backgound but otherwise they cause more problems than they solve. The only way to prevent them is proper strobe placement which requires the strobes to be placed a good distance from the camera and at the proper angle. This is one of the reasons low end strobes (Ike AF-35 is a prime example) are not very good since they limit the amount of distance from the camera you can place the strobes.

Finally, if your camera is capable of being placed in full manual mode, ie. you have control over both F-stop and shutter speed, use it. You need to learn to use the camera in manual mode to get the most out of it. No auto mode, even the so called "underwater" modes do a good job at selecting the proper settings.

The Olympus(EPL1) underwater modes dont see to show much of a difference than the auto mode. I shoot Aperture priority most of the time but it is a learning process

 

[chs8084]

If you shoot raw,you can adjust white balance in post processing. But a strobe makes a huge difference,

 

[Tigerman]

Ill try to summarize a few posts into this one as the info has been coming a bit from all directions.

The answer to your question of why all the pictures are blue is that as you decend, the different wavelengths of visible light start being unable to penetrate the water column. The first color to dissapear is as mentioned the red. The deeper you go the more blue it will appear as the other colors start dropping away as well.

There is basically 4 ways of compensating for it.
1. A strobe, which is the best way for photos relatively and very close to the subject. Do be aware that strobe lights have a limited range where they are effective though.

2. Post processing is a very powerful tool that can bring back a great deal of color in your pictures. You do NOT need to download any files other than your editing software if you get a decent one, it will have all the functions you need to adjust it. Photoshop works, aperture or lightroom is great for it as its what theire designed for (PS is designed to be an extention of LR with LR being where you "develop" the photos and PS where you edit them). This works on jpegs but works a LOT better on raw format files as they contain much more data than the compressed (and already processesed) jpegs.

3. A red-filter which is pretty much a disc you put infront of your lens to force the photos to become more red.

4. Manual white balancing/underwater mode. This is a bit of a hassle as youll have to whitebalance the camera for any change in depth. The underwater modes is a bit hit/miss as they are not neccesarilly very well tuned towards your depth and light conditions. On some cameras it works good, on others not so much.

The strobes is the most expensive and probably most practice-requiering way to go as itll involve a purchase of not exactly free specialty items and it takes a bit practice to adjust the strobe(s) correct to get the light you want from your shot.

Post-processing takes a couple of hours practice (if your computer skills is fairly good) and can be a bit tricky in its own way as most screens dont display colors correctly unless you color calibrate it - something there is tools for out there, but then you get back to the cost issue again. If you mainly use the pictures online it dont matter that much as most people tend to have the same factory-default less than perfect colors anyways.

These pictures Sharm El Sheikh 06-2011 - ScubaBoard Gallery are all taken at a depth of twelve meters with no strobe or flash, no red filter and no whitebalancing. They where all quite blue when you checked the camera jpegs, but after spending about 10-15 seconds on each of the raw files in lightroom thats the result..

 

[TracyN]

This is probably a silly question but do you have the underwater color correction mode turned on?

I can set it for snorkeling which is 25 ft or less or diving which is greater than 25 ft

 

[TracyN]

I have the sea life strobe sl961 I can sell to you, I used on my past trip and I was like you using a camera without strobe for a long time , after I tried this strobe which is entry lvl I can See the diference this piece of equipment makes on pictures...

Let me know if you want it ...

Those pics turned out pretty good. How much are you asking?

 

[Tigerman]

I can set it for snorkeling which is 25 ft or less or diving which is greater than 25 ft

That is probably going to help a lot, but youll probably find weaknesses with that as well

 

[flareside]

I can set it for snorkeling which is 25 ft or less or diving which is greater than 25 ft

If you have underwater mode, use it as it will give you better results than a red filter. The mini II is pretty basic and doesn't offer a whole lot of adjustments so you will just have to punch up the color in the photos afterward with a photo editor like lightroom 3 or photoshop elements. (It's not hard once you get the hang of it) Using the underwater mode however is the best place to start to help you get rid of the blues.

 

[DevonDiver]

I just started playing around with underwater photography but no matter how colorful the reefs are they always turn out blue. I can see yellows, blues, and blacks just fine but no red or other pretty colors.

This is due to colour absorption at depth. Open Water course - dive environment 101. Of course, that absorption occurs horizontally, as well as vertically, in the water column. The 'red' end of the light spectrum is the first to be absorbed - meaning that greater distance from the surface - or greater distance from the camera lens - will give the created image an increasingly blue cast.

Is the only remedy for this to buy a strobe light? I tried using flash but when I do I get hundreds of orbs in the pictures that ruin everything.

There's several options;

1. Ensure your camera is appropriately set to take photos underwater. Many cameras have a dedicated 'underwater mode'. If so, use it. If it doesn't then you need to investigate potential manual settings that will maximise the efficiency of your camera underwater. Google can be your friend with that.

2. Ensure you 'white balance' at depth. Some cameras are automatic, others are manual.

3. Be realistic about the limitations of your camera system. Unless you're spending $000's on a camera set-up, you are unlikely to get really pleasing shots at a greater range. Understand what you can, and cannot, achieve with your camera and work within those proximities.

4. Built-in flash has severe limitations for underwater photography. They lack power to illuminate subjects beyond short range and cause 'backscatter' (reflections from particles in the water). However, they can be used effectively for macro subjects.

5. Strobe flash increases the power/illumination you can achieve, but the primary benefit is to enable the diver to prevent back-scatter. Most strobes still won't provide great results beyond a couple of meters range - so limitations in panorama, reefscape and big critter shots can still apply.

6. Red Filters reduce the blue light reaching the lens. That 'balances' the colour. However... however... what they are doing is reducing light to the lens, not adding it. If overall ambient light is low (uncannily, this is normally the case underwater) then you're still going to end with screwed photos. The knock-on impact is that you'll need slower shutter speeds, ISO etc... which will result in blurred images, underexposure or noisy tones. Red filters are only useful in very shallow, very well lit water - even then, there are better alternatives.

7. Wide-angle lenses allow the photographer to close the distance between themselves and the subject. This results in more flash effectiveness and less intrusion from water particles. Wide-angle works great with a strobe flash, if you're aim is to take photos of med-large size critters/other divers/wrecks/reefscapes etc.

8. Post-photo digital editing can work wonders at improving your photo colour and quality. This is applicable to any camera system, regardless of cost or complexity. I created a 'how to' blog article that illustrates how I use Photoshop for improving the photos I take. All my photos are taken with a point-and-shoot digital camera with no external strobes or lenses. This might give you some ideas: 5 Minute Photoshop Edit for Underwater Photographs - Scuba Tech Philippines

9. Last, but not least, make use of whatever natural light you do have. Consider the angle of the subject relative to the direction sun/ambient light... position yourself appropriately.

Here's some examples of macro shots I've taken, using a Sony Cybershot DSC-T20 with no strobes, lenses or filters... Nudibranch in the Philippines - Sea Slug Underwater Photography - Scuba Tech Philippines

Some more photos, again... no expensive camera extras... of a wider variety of subjects.... Scuba Diving Photographs from the Philippines

 

[WetBoy101]

I agree with the above poster as far as why your pictures are blue, but I have to disagree with how good a red filter works. Most of the best reefs are between 15' and maybe 50' (at least in Hawaii) and there is normally enough ambient light at least to 40' to get some great results. The brightness that might be lost due to a filter can easily be adjusted with any basic photoshop type program, but it is nearly impossible to bring in colors that just are not there (like red) and I have lots of great photos and video using just a red filter.