First photos from a new diver in Australia {Lots of pics...}

Hello,

Well... I guess I will introduce myself first of all, just to frame the pictures a little...

I got certified with SSI in July back home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I became interested in diving after working on a marine aquarium at home for the past two years, and then I decided to spend this fall semester of study (I'm a college junior) at James Cook University, in Australia... which pushed me over the edge and I HAD to get certified before leaving.

Since then I logged 3 good dives, somewhat less than I was expecting, so I jumped on the recent opportunity to go on a two day dive trip to one of the better areas around Townsville, called Polorus Island. After signing up for this trip, which was supposed to be 5-7 boat dives and camping on the island over night, the shop owner talked me into getting my PADI Advanced OW cert on this trip also... This was kindof interesting to me because I had only 8 dives logged, but oh well...

Before going on this trip I asked a friend if I could borrow her Canon A540 with UW housing, and now I am addicted to underwater photography!

Anyway... below are some of what I think are the best shots I took on the trip. I hope you all enjoy them, and maybe can answer my question at the end.

had to throw that in.... dive boat on the right










I hope its ok that I posted so many! I have a lot more I want to share, but these are the best IMHO.

Anyway, this leads me to my question... Can you guys recommend a camera+housing for me? I really really like underwater photography now, and I want to get one. I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT (350D I believe), but the cases are brutally expensive and I don't think I really want to mess around with a massive complex camera that much (being a relatively new diver). I don't know what the housings sell for used, but yeah.... I want a good camera capable of taking high quality pictures, hopefully in the range of about 800$ or less. I liked the canon I used, but there must be something a bit better...

Thanks for looking, and responding to my question!

Those are very good pictures for a diver with such a little experience! Excellent work! To get those pictures even better try to shoot upwards towards the surface that way your pictures turn out even better and look more interesting. Other thing that we always need to practise is to get close and closer etc but you did an excellent job on that part with those skunk anemone fishies!
When you're buying your own uw digicam/housing make sure it has all manual controls. Both camera and the housing. What you'd be using most of the time (unless you buy an external strobe too) is manual white balance. It's very easy just take a piece of white plastic and point your camera towards it when underwater and tell your camera that it's white. You need to do this fairly often (every 2-5 metres in depth that is). That way you get those crisp colors without backsatter. On the other hand you need good optics since your hands are just that steady. I wouldn't go housing your dslr instantly but instead would give a go to some canon or olympus compact. The one you borrowed should be very decent. It's all about your budget. You can spend pretty much every dime you have on uw-photography. You could try e-bay for used compacts/housings. There are loads of good combos out there. I started with canon a-70 and was very pleased with it.

Anyway that's a very good start and welcome to the board!

Nice collection! That first clown is really sharp!

To get you started on the path, head for the pink link in my signature and have a read and a browse, especially in the section on current cameras. There you will find some popular more or less current (don't be put off by a model that is "outdated") models AND some links to conversations and photos relating to them.

Off the top of my head I would say:
Canon A series - the 520, 540, 620, 640, 710 are all good choices
Fuji f30 if you don't care about having manual controls
Oly 350
Fuji 900 - not my personal favourite, but many people like them especially for macro work with add on lenses

Hi jafoca,

Those are some great pics. If you're shooting without a strobe, you'll lose a lot of colour. I've taken the liberty (if you don't mind) of making a couple of adjustments in Photoshop. I took 4 of your pics, and did a CTRL-SHIFT-L (auto adjust) and then added a color balance adjustment layers and in most cases shifted a bit towards the red channel. Of course it doesn't beat having a strobe.

There are plenty of choices, and IIRC, the links on alcina's sig will point you to some discussions on the pros and cons of going dSLR. I've just gone down that path, and mine rig has only gotten wet a handful of times.

Thanks for the tips guys, and for touching up my photos mark! I have a lot of photography learning to do... yesh!



Since I got my dSLR I have not been able to master WB or any of the finer photography features, I am in college after all and that drains me of a lot of my learning ability! I also spread myself too thin with activities and work... But it is about time I figure out some of the important stuff, and then move on to gaining some basic photoshop skills!

For now I think I will be keeping my dSLR dry and get some sort of other camera. I have also decided that buying my own scuba gear should probably take priority over a camera. At least now I can try to figure my camera out a bit more above water in stead of below..

One question - when using a "point and shoot" type camera with UW housing does it work out ok to use one of the "slave" flashes that uses the built in flash as a trigger? Clearly it is not as good as using a proper cable, but what affect does it have on the photos? It seems like a proper flash was one thing that was missing from my "photo session" this weekend...

Anyway, thanks for looking and being understanding of a photography noobie!

jafoca:

Thanks for the tips guys, and for touching up my photos mark! I have a lot of photography learning to do... yesh!

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No probs. Most of us have got a lot of photography learning to do. I know certainly if I didn't, it wouldn't be as fun or challenging.

[/quote]
Since I got my dSLR I have not been able to master WB or any of the finer photography features, I am in college after all and that drains me of a lot of my learning ability![/quote]

Most of "the finer" skills are not that difficult, once the basic understanding of them "clicks" to you. My cameras pretty much stay in AWB (auto white balance) mode unless there is a particularly tricky situation. Although when I shoot raw (which tends to be most of the time) the white balance setting doesn't really matter that much, because the camera applies the changes only when it generates the JPG. With raw, you can adjust WB to your hearts content on your PC.

More importantly is to get a good understanding of shutter speed and aperture, and what affect they have on your photos.

For now I think I will be keeping my dSLR dry and get some sort of other camera. I have also decided that buying my own scuba gear should probably take priority over a camera. At least now I can try to figure my camera out a bit more above water in stead of below..

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Good plan. The more comfortable you are with your camera and your own scuba gear, the more brain power you will be able to use to on setting up and taking the photo.

One question - when using a "point and shoot" type camera with UW housing does it work out ok to use one of the "slave" flashes that uses the built in flash as a trigger? Clearly it is not as good as using a proper cable, but what affect does it have on the photos? It seems like a proper flash was one thing that was missing from my "photo session" this weekend...

Click to expand...

It's actually not clearly as good as using a "proper" cable. Depending on what camera and strobe you are using, an optical cable may offer you more of the camera's flash functionality than using a wired cable. There's plenty of information available on this, and I am by no means the most knowledgable on the topic.

Anyway, thanks for looking and being understanding of a photography noobie!

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Happy to help out. I'm still a UW photo newbie, and there's been plenty of people help me out, so its the least that I can do

The pink link in my sig has a whole range of ideas for cameras to get started and cameras that will take you well beyond "getting started". Also, although I think strobes are a wonderful thing and that most photo divers will be much happier with one (or two) it doesn't mean that you can't get good images without them.

Have a look at these images from the Canon A85 with no added lenses or strobes.
Remember, it's the photographer not the toys!

Whatever system you get, you will need to learn how to use to get the most from it - which is a good thing because it means more diving!

Shutter and aperture and ISO are essentials - there are many good web sites out there to help you begin learning your dslr rig and the things you learn for land, for the most part, will work just as well underwater.

Shoot RAW from the start. My single biggest regret for my underwater images when I switched to the Oly 5050 was that I didn't listen to everyone telling me to shoot RAW - so now I have images that I can see would take just a little touch in RAW and be really nice. But in jpeg they just degrade too much. So saying, I don't believe that RAW is 100% essential in buying your first compact (not P&S - you want one you can change the settings on for underwater work) - look at Jamdiver's images, his camera doesn't have RAW and works just fine. As does the link above - no RAW there, either.

Have fun shopping and remember, budgets are fantasies