1st day out w new EPM-1

[Capt Doug]

Took the camera for two dives off Jupiter, Fl on Saturday. Struggled w the white slate to set the white balance but finally got the camera to focus on it. Attached is one of my pix of three sharks having a little party. I had the Sea and Sea YS-01strobe set to "TTL" and the camera in the "P" mode. Water was full of crud and we had about 30 feet max visibilty. I shot it in RAW but have switched the camera to JPG since my skill set with Photo Shop is limited.

1. Any suggestions on camera settings?
2. Does anyone have a recommendation for a simple but effective programing for editing digital photos?

Help and sugggestions would be much appreciated.

Doug

 

[MrPfeffer]

Picasa is a free photo editor and works pretty well. 30' Viz I wish we had it that good up here lol. Can also shoot in JPG + RAW and have both copies if you have the space for it.

 

[Capt Doug]

I use Picasa but I want something that does a little bit more w/o getting too cumbersome.

 

[Jak Crow]

If you're shooting with a strobe, don't bother with doing a custom white balance. The strobe will give you a shot with proper color. Also if there's plenty of ambient light, the camera will pretty much ignore the flash and give you what you ended up with on that pic. Try playing with the camera's flash power settings. Use 1/4th, 1/8th, etc. The strobe will play along and the camera won't discard the output. You can also assign the underwater modes to one of the buttons.

I also recommend picasa. Other apps are more cumbersome.

 

[Capt Doug]

So I should set the camera on the underwater setting (the icon w the fish) and use the strobe? Also, does the TTL strobe setting work with the YS-1 and the Olympus?

I really appreciate the advice.

Doug

 

[deeper thoughts]

Did you ever consider shooting in Aperture priority mode?

 

[Capt Doug]

That's what I use primarily with my Nikon, above water.

In the A mode, does the TTL work with the YS-1 strobe?

 

[deeper thoughts]

That's what I use primarily with my Nikon, above water.

In the A mode, does the TTL work with the YS-1 strobe?

Yes for the EPL-1

 

[Jak Crow]

So I should set the camera on the underwater setting (the icon w the fish) and use the strobe? Also, does the TTL strobe setting work with the YS-1 and the Olympus?

I really appreciate the advice.

Doug

The underwater modes can be useful. It all depends on visibility and current lighting conditions for the most part. With my E-PL3 (pretty much the same camera as the E-PM1), I've found the underwater macro setting (the one with the single fish) has worked better for me than the underwater wide setting as far as flash results. The YS-01 in TTL mode works just fine with the E-PM1, but like I said, if there's enough ambient light, the camera ignores the additional light from the strobe. In that case, I usually set the camera's flash to one of the power settings. For macro shots I'm played with 1/8th to 1/64th. It all depends on how close you are to the subject. I will usually take several shots of the same thing using different outputs. I've probably got thousands of over and under-exposed photos of the same things on my hard drive.

 

[Capt Doug]

Thank you! Headed back out this Saturday.