Canon S-100 with Sea & Sea YS-O2 strobe. Advice requested

[goclimbing]

After five days of diving and shooting in Cozumel I'm still struggling to figure out how to get my lighting right with my set up.

It's the typical overwhelming blue/cyan and loss of reds/orange.

I'm setting the s-100 to underwater light balance, iso800 with flash on (to relay via the fiber optic to the Sea & Sea).

I have two more days left here so adding a red filter probably isn't an option.

Any advice... well.. I'm begging for. Or if there's a good thread I'm missing on SB simply pointing me in that direction for this discussion would be great.

sometimes I get lucky. Sometimes not. Sometimes Lightroom helps.

 

[supergaijin]

Usually with a strobe you can use Auto White Balance- especially shooting in RAW.

ISO usually at 100 or 200 if it's dark. 800 is very high IME and you may have too much highlights/ exposure.

My learning curve with photography started with AV Mode. I learned the different affects of the Aperture before moving to Manual to control both Ap and Shutter Speed.

Most websites will tell you not to aim the strobe directly at the object, but let the edge of the strobe fall on the object. Strobes have a working range of about 3 feet. Any further away and you won't get an effect. Your most colourful shot is the Butterfly fish- this shows you were in range. For the sharks, there's no way a strobe can reach that distance, using a strobe will only illuminate backscatter.

Underwater Photography Lighting Guide - DivePhotoGuide.com

Lighting with strobes underwater|Underwater Photography Guide

For more specific info on your shots, try to include the info ie. f-4, 1/250 etc.

 

[BoltSnap]

Focus is soft in your pics. Are you sure that your flash is firing when it should? You need to list the F-Stop and Shutter speed you are using.

---------- Post added August 2nd, 2013 at 12:50 PM ----------

Check this page, it may help you:

Great Underwater Photos Without a Strobe|Underwater Photography Guide

---------- Post added August 2nd, 2013 at 01:02 PM ----------

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/underwater-photography-ambient-light-manual-white-balance

 

[goclimbing]

Thanks for the tips! Very helpful! I'll post more later today with some shots from today.

That makes sense about the sharks. Not sure I wanted them any closer.

juvenile french angelfish: 1/80th, f/4.5, iso800. I was about two feet away.

 

[CT Sean]

I'll second the "are you sure the flash fired?" the first couple don't really look like it - especially at iso800. The Moray appears to have some flash but maybe it's not aimed ideally

It was alluded to above but I personally think it's madness to NOT shoot underwater in RAW if you have the capability. White balance is such a pain to attempt to correct in post for a .jpg and it's so easy in RAW.


minor clarification - that "butterfly" fish is actually a juvenile french angelfish.

 

[BoltSnap]

1/80th, f/4.5, iso800. I was about two feet away.

With these settings, very high ISO, wide aperture and not so fast shutter speed, I doubt very much that your strobe fired when it was supposed to fire. (Perhaps it fired at the "pre-flash" before the shutter tripped when the picture was actually taken).

 

[goclimbing]

With these settings, very high ISO, wide aperture and not so fast shutter speed, I doubt very much that your strobe fired when it was supposed to fire. (Perhaps it fired at the "pre-flash" before the shutter tripped when the picture was actually taken).

I think you are right regarding the flash (or close enough to it that the adjustments I'm making will help a lot).
First dive today was devils throat so I brought the camera w/o the flash and just shot a little video. Second dive it turns out my strobe was for some reason dead. The batteries were fresh but somehow got drained. We were only 40-50 deep with mostly clear skies so I shot some w/o any strobe. Going out again shortly this time with fresh batteries.

Regarding RAW - it's madness to not shoot RAW period.

at least I know what I'm doing above water....

 

[BoltSnap]

Try the setup above water and see if the strobe fires and if the pics are effected by the strobes.

 

[corbinco2]

I have a S-95 and YS-01, and I have gone through some of the learning curve. The Canon cameras use pre-flash, so be sure your flash is set appropriately. It is two lightning bolts, one white and one black, on my flash. It looks to me like only the splendid toadfish got any light. Your moray should look like my attached photo--it is probably the same one. I am jealous that you are in CZM. I love it there.

 

[goclimbing]

I have a S-95 and YS-01, and I have gone through some of the learning curve. The Canon cameras use pre-flash, so be sure your flash is set appropriately. It is two lightning bolts, one white and one black, on my flash.

We have essentially the same set up. YS-01 is a bit more powerful otherwise it's the same. And yeah... the reason it looks like the flash didn't fire is because i had the strobe set incorrectly.

125 sec, f4.5, iso 250.

I went with Av setting (great tip to start out as C is just too much to keep track of right now)

I was probably 18" away. No Lightroom magic yet.

think I learned anything?

I can't thank you all enough for taking the time.