Into the blue

[Hintermann]

I have found that when photographing underwater "into the blue" ie without a solid background, a blue colour cast is a major problem and not easy to satisfactorily edit by photoshopping. Since the objectives of most such photo attempts are pelagics like sharks and mantas, getting close enough to make the strobes effective is difficult and often impossible. When I cannot get close, I have found that better results can be obtained in the camera's "underwater" mode.

In May 2015 I am going to Socorro and obviously, most photo subjects will be large pelagics. The Giant Mantas might come close by themselves but with the hammerheads and other sharks it might be difficult. I am therefore thinkig of using the underwater mode of my Canon S95 with forced flash/strobe only if I cannot get close. AFAIK, having the flash on does not alter the cameras meter setting in the UW mode and the blue cast is significantly less.

I would appreciate any tips and advice for this Socorro trip.

PS: I am using large memory SD cards and in addition to snapshots, hope to get a few video clips of the mantas and sharks. They allow video lights and I have one that can be mounted above the camera.

 

[rob1967]

Hey I've been to Socorro twice, the last time I was using the Canon S100, basically almost the same camera as yours. My advice is shoot in manual mode, put your strobes as high as you can, and try to get as close as you can. But you are right, most of the time, the large pelagics will be just out of reach of your strobes. The best was around this is to shoot in RAW and fix the white balance later.

Same with video, you will get nice colours if the critter is in range of your video light, but that drops off pretty quickly with distance.

Here are a few photos from the last trip. Socorro 2013 - robertroy

The whale shark was way too big for my strobes, but I was able to sort of fix the white balance in post. As for the white tip sharks, I was able to light them up quite well with my strobes.

 

[Hintermann]

Thanks Rob. When you shot in the manual mode in Socorro, what sort of settings did you use in general?
Also, if I am shooting RAW, will the large file sizes not limit the actual number of pics per card? I am going to Bonaire after Socorro on the same trip and would like to have some space for the smaller critters. I guess it will mean a couple of additional SD cards.

Superb photos by the way. What was that poor green moray eel doing alongside the trio of sharks? Waiting to be had for lunch?

 

[rob1967]

Thanks Hintermann. You can actually see my settings by clicking the "i" button below each photo. For wide-angle, I have to adjust my settings more compared to macro. There are more variables, such as distance to subject, water clarity, amount of ambient light, and size of subject. Generally for the Canon S100 shooting wide-angle, my ISO would be from 160 to 400, aperture around 5, shutter speed from 1/80 to 1/160. Basically use strobe power to adjust foreground exposure, and shutter speed to adjust background exposure. Use ISO and aperture to adjust overall exposure. (Don't fret too much about getting exposure exactly right, it can be fixed in post unless it is way off).

I also used an accessory wide-angle lens which comes in handy when shooting the big stuff.

You will see lots of those green morays all over the place, sometimes up to a half-dozen or so poking out of every crevice.