My First Attempt at UW Photography

Picasa Web Albums - Chris - Bonneville Se...

First of all, thanks for all the suggestions I received when purchasing my camera. Here are the pics from the Bonneville Seabase on Friday. This was my first time shooting UW photos. These were taken with my Canon A570 with the Canon housing, mostly w/o a flash. The water was green and murky with lots of floating particles, w/ vis around 10'. They were shot with the Aperture all the way down the 2.6, Macro, ISO between 80 and 200 (usually 100), and in the Cloudy or Underwater modes. I didn't want to mess w/ manual white balance on my first try. I edited the pics with Picasa. The originals came out very green so I used the Auto Color, Auto White Balance, and the Shadows/Highlights features of Picasa and it worked pretty well.

I would appreciate your suggestions on how to improve my shots. They seem fuzzy and grainy to me. Only about 20-30% of the shots were "keepers" and those are the ones in the album. Thanks.

Link does not work for me, don't know if it's on my end or your's, ??try again....

http://picasaweb.google.com/c...nevilleSeabase

he had the http twice...

Welcome to UW photography. You will never view the UW world the same way again....gone are the days of a casual glance here and there.

My first attempt yielded only 5 keepers from almost 45 shots.... Its all about practice buddy. Shoot as much as you can and get in as close as possible.....and I mean really close. It will help loads especially if the vis is not good. Get up close, use your flash so that you can use different Fstops. I would play around with your camera on land shooting Macro in manual. It really helps you to understand what happens in the water.

Good stuff and happy shooting!

Picasa Web Albums - Chris - Bonneville Se...

Try this one

Try shooting in Av, use the flash of the camera, leave the ISO on 80(lowest), white balance on UW setting, macro all the time, F-stop on 2.8 to 4(try several different ones & edit on the go)--- that ought to get it.......You can also try(much simpler & what I use on nite dives) SCN with UW white balance, macro on & use the flash.....As somene else said get as close as you can ie inches away vs a couple feet(when the subject allows).....good luck.....look @ a post from alcina here, she has alot of good info for shooting these kind of cameras in her sig.....

Hey Chris,
After having visited the Bonneville split pea soup site...you did pretty good. Did you have good viz? When I went you couldn't see past an arm's length.

Good Job Dive&Ski:

You're going to do really well when you get to the tropics. Couple of tips that I think you've already learned...

1. Get close. Awesome job with that! It's especially important in low viz conditions like the ones you had this day.
2. Shoot up. It's always an interesting perspective to give a viewer that makes them feel more like they are underwater when they can see the surface above. This technique also helps to minimize backscatter.
3. Shoot often. It's digital! Shoot away and experiment to your hearts desire, you can always delete the bad ones!

Don't sweat it that only 20-30% were keepers. In the days of film I was lucky to get 10%. You'll likely see better pictures in better visibilities. Also as you experiment with your camera's settings you'll gain valuable experience on what works best in what situations.

Some other composition tips: use the rule of thirds, try to create lines that slant upward, and for wildlife in general, always try to focus on the eye of the animal you're shooting. Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the tips. The vis was the best I'd seen at the Seabase, about 10-12'. I went there last may and it was 4' at best. My next trip is to the "Mighty O" in Pensacola in June. For that, I think I may invest in a Magic Filter and a WA lens. For a free download, I though Picasa did pretty well for quick edits. Should I decide to start shooting in RAW, which software would be the best for a new, completely ameteur guy like me?

Also, Livewire, what is the rule of thirds?

Please put some images in your post - most of the time I can't follow the link for one reason or another and I feel left out!

Dive&Ski:

On the rule of thirds, check out Jodie Coston's free online photography course. There are some great tips here that apply well for composition underwater.

http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php

Also, I think going wide angle is great. WA is a bit more challenging but can offer spectacular results. If you want to nearly instantly improve your "keepers" ratio, I'd also recommend shooting macro. Macro subjects are generally easier to shoot since they're more stationary, and the close distance typically eliminates backscatter and lighting issues. The reason is once you figure out what your optimal exposure settings are for the camera in macro mode, you can shoot this way and get great shots every time.

Most of all, experiment with lots of different shooting modes and styles and learn what you enjoy best.