Blue waters

A question on exposure. What kind of setting for the shutter speed would u need to get a blue water background (assuming a strobe is involved)?

There is no standard exposure ! Go experiment, you have a digital.

I am usually trying to get a portrait of either coral or fish with water in the background, but somehow, it usually comes out greenish. The problem with trying it out is that it is kinda hard to see underwater what the background color is. I just need to get an idea of faster or slower. I will usually use 2.8 to 3.6 for aperture.

It'll be tough for you to get a blue background with 2.8 or 3.6, unless you have a really high shutter speed. With my Olympus 4000 I will program a custom setting above water, say 1/125 sec and f8, and if the background is too light I'll adjust underwater with a higher shutter speed and/or smaller aperture (higher f#). With these settings, if you're using an internal flash only, you won't be able to properly expose your foreground subject unless you're within a foot or two of it. If you have external strobes, don't bother taking a photo unless you're within 2-3 feet of the subject. The problem with many consumer digital cameras underwater is that they take an exposure reading of the background water and will be fooled into thinking that there's not enough light so the aperture goes really low/shutter goes slower than what you need if you want the background darker.

You can experiment above water with this in a dimly lit room or outside in the shade. You'll need to go fully manual. Try 1/125 or higher and f8 or higher, and take a photo of something within 1 foot using only internal flash. If the background is too light, use a higher shutter speed of f-stop. Happy snappy!

For Blue Water backgrounds you have to meter on the water beyond...I usually set my aperture first for the depth of field I want and then set the shutter per the meter...use a spot meter option if you have it and aim to the blue...don't use matrix unless that's all you have....I underexpose between 1/3 and 2/3 of a stop for richer blues

set your flash for the foreground

Karl

Bracket your exposures until you get the blues that you want. Try diving in blue waters! You cannot change the color by varying the exposure. I have noticed my slide pictures from different sites in the Philippines. Same film same settings, the pictures from Bohol always come out with a cobalt blue to light blue background. The Anilao pictures almost always comes out green, possibly due to the high plankton bloom around Batangas (runoff from fertilizers). I see the same green cass diving the westcoast of the US.

I think Wolverine is asking about how to get a rich blue background when diving in blue water....exposure does matter....the blue can become black or very light blue depending on the exposure

The way to get it right is to meter on the water and set the camera up for the background ambient light and then adjust the strobes for the foreground...IMHO

Karl

Read Wolverine's 2nd post about being "greenish".

f3nikon:

Read Wolverine's 2nd post about being "greenish".

Click to expand...

I agree if the water is green unfortunatly you can't make it blue - however that is what photoshop is for, right?

Definately agree that you need to underexpose slightly and use the strobe to fill and colour the foreground. External strobe makes it a million times easier because you have so much more light to play with.

soory guys..sometimes i do get greenish tones in seemingly blue waters...(go figure!?) ... which is why i am trying to figure out the settings... i will be bohol in 3 weeks and want to be ready