Bad first UW pictures

Today after 2 moths waiting to go diving I had the opportunity to try my UW photo equipment.
It’s a disaster. I took many pictures and no fish are nice enough to be put on the web. Only those two friends which were posing for me are good enough.

It was of course my first try so… I hope to be excused…

I do believe that when I am diving without shooting pictures I do have a good buoyancy. When taking pictures if you can not have your fin on sand or something, having an hand holding a rock a good buoyancy is really not enough. This has to be perfect. I will do my best to practice this art. :sprite10: I did not now it was so difficult.

I need to know much more the camera and housing; distances from object, sensivity of the buttons... So different when using the housing compare on the camera directly. Not always easy and quick to change parameters under water.

For the first trials I did program P (Canon), I just played with the white balance, macro pictures, flash on flash off.

Seing the result I need to buy an external strobe. Still don't know if Inon, Ikelite or Sea&sea. Will look through the net and Scubaboard to make the good choice...

Said this I will continue read and searching on the web for info. I found already many, now it’s only time for practice and practice.


Enjoy your dives. Tuesday leaving for Pakistan and India for two weeks (work purpose) and so Monday will be the last day to see your pictures welcoming new members. I already missing the board… :bawling:

The diver shots look nice. Go ahead and post one or two of the fish photos. They may not be as disastrous as you think.

This board is a great place to get advice on settings. As a little insurance policy, you may want to use your camera's RAW image format. Things like white balance can be changed later. Not only that but if an image is overexposed you have more room than if shooting JPG.

I'm still learning how to make the camera do what I want it to do. The best advice I ever got was - shoot more pictures -shoot more pictures - shoot more pictures - shoot more pictures - shoot more pictures ... . Don't be afraid to post them here, folks here are very helpful and friendly too!

Some advice. From these two pictures I can already tell the problems you are having. You are not close enough. I know that you want to fit in divers etc. But not point until you get a wide angle lens and strobe. Try shooting macro - and get very, very close. I mean try around 5 - 15cm away (closest focusing distance at wide angle). This will reduce backscatter, give better colour and have improved sharpness.

Can you manualy control your f-stop and shutter speed underwater (dont know the camera your using)

I always shoot in manual mode and have full control of my f-stop and shutter speed.

A camera on Program will seldom (if ever) get the desired shot.

I would suggest, changing to 100% manual, get as close as possible to your subject. Use only an extenal flash. Try to use natural sunlight on shallow reefs.

AND THE MAIN THING!!!!!!

Shoot more pictures then you ever thought possible.

I use a D100 in and Aquatica housing 10.5mm wide angle lense and a Nikon SB104 strobe. I shoot the strobe on manual also. I have a 1 gig card in the camera and shoot on Highest JPG which gives me 200+ shots on every dive.

I was in the Caymans (pray for them, go south IVAN) a couple weeks ago for 6 Days and shot 1800+ photos. Out of the 1800, I got about 140 I liked and only 24 I REALLY liked.

Dont get down on yourself, if it was easy, we would all be pros

Curt Bowen:

<snip>...I was in the Caymans (pray for them, go south IVAN) a couple weeks ago for 6 Days and shot 1800+ photos. Out of the 1800, I got about 140 I liked and only 24 I REALLY liked.

Dont get down on yourself, if it was easy, we would all be pros

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WOW Curt!

When I worked at the newspaper, I'd shoot 3-5 rolls to get a single, good, publishable shot on a single assignment. That's one good shot out of 150, and you're getting way better than that.

Good one on ya!

All the best, James

DesertEagle:

The diver shots look nice. Go ahead and post one or two of the fish photos. They may not be as disastrous as you think.

This board is a great place to get advice on settings. As a little insurance policy, you may want to use your camera's RAW image format. Things like white balance can be changed later. Not only that but if an image is overexposed you have more room than if shooting JPG.

Click to expand...

I do not have with me at the office other pictures to put in the web. Unfortunately if I was shooting in RAW format with 256 MB disk I could do only 56 pictures. I knew that for the first dive with new equipment I would do more. I am going to buy a 512 MB or 1 G Compact flash very soon.

lukeROB:

Some advice. From these two pictures I can already tell the problems you are having. You are not close enough. I know that you want to fit in divers etc. But not point until you get a wide angle lens and strobe. Try shooting macro - and get very, very close. I mean try around 5 - 15cm away (closest focusing distance at wide angle). This will reduce backscatter, give better colour and have improved sharpness.

Click to expand...

I actually try to get very close to subject when shooting macro but seem that with the internal flash I used either a wrong white balance (I put cloud instead of flash) either I did not decrease a little bit the flash power.

Before the end of the year as a personal Christmas gift I will probably buy an external strobe. The wide angle I wait to become much more familiar with UW photography.

Curt Bowen:

Can you manualy control your f-stop and shutter speed underwater (dont know the camera your using)

I always shoot in manual mode and have full control of my f-stop and shutter speed.

A camera on Program will seldom (if ever) get the desired shot.

I would suggest, changing to 100% manual, get as close as possible to your subject. Use only an extenal flash. Try to use natural sunlight on shallow reefs.


The camera can do all. Either full manual, either controlling the f-stop and camera ctrl the shutter speed or you ctrl the shutter speed and camera will change the f-stop.
No as first dive with camera I did not want to have to many thing to take care off. Already buoyancy, focusing, macro or not… was too much.
As I am using for the moment an internal flash what manual set up would you suggest (f-stop and shutter) when shooting macro?
Thanks for the help…

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