Grrr im so frustrated with my camera :(

[attractiverat]

Im so frustrated with it and the photos just suck so much.I read books on underwater
photograghy and ask questions and they still suck.I have an olympus c-5050 zoom digital and am using a sea and sea ys-90dx strobe.My pictures are not sharp and ive have alot of trouble getting the strobe to fire,today it worked most of the time but the pictures are too washed out,when I turn the light level control down the strobe does not flash.Ive also tried the ttl mode with no luck as well.when I am on land the strobe works just fine and when I practice at home in the dark no problem.When im in the water it will work sometimes but the pictures are washed out with no detail to the subjects.

 

[vladimir]

Underwater photography is a challenging pursuit, especially as a beginner. On my last trip to Bonaire, the suitcase my strobes were in got delayed for a couple of days. I put a 20mm lens on my camera and took natural light pictures, mostly in the shallows, from close range, and got decent results. I'm sure it would be harder in Vancouver, but it might be worth a try. Strobes are a complicating factor that you might not be ready for.

 

[stakanak]

If you show us some pictures, I am certain the pro's can help you figure things out.
Washed out sounds like an overexposure/white balance issue to me.
Set the camera at 5500 degree color temp, or daylight correct if there is no manual setting.
One way to figure out exposure is to set the light to a setting (no ttl), set shutter speed (1/100th minimum), and fire off a string of shots at a static object/distance while changing aperture-start out at say F5.6 and continue to close down to F22. See what happens.
Good luck and don't get frustrated. It just takes time tempered with patience and I guarantee you that you will succeed with your photography!
Get Wet!

 

[attractiverat]

Oh Thanks! I will try to post some of mistakes tomorrow and lord knows I have many

 

[attractiverat]

Ok here are some pics of the strobe when it works and when it does not work.

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[deirdre]

Well the really blown out ones are harder to work with, but there's a surprising amount of information in the anemone one. I'm no photoshop expert, but if it's okay with you, I'd be willing to post a "remix" that's probably closer to true color.

 

[pennywise]

Looks better this way after a couple of minutes post editing. I'd say.... nothing to be frustrated about!!
The strobe issue is another chapter.... Ive been using a 5050 myself a couple of years (and cams) ago and never had any probs with my strobes... must say those were Inons.

 

[herman]

The 5050 is quite capable of very good shots, it is what I shoot.

First off, turn off any auto setting except white balance and shoot full manual control and the strobe in slave mode. Auto modes do not work well underwater. Turn on your histogram function so you can see what the actual exposure of the shot is, DO NOT depend on the LCD display, it will lie to you.

Manual is not hard and once you get the hang of it and reading the histogram it becomes easy. Here is a link to some manual shooting examples I posted a while back. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-photography/214500-help-manual-camera-settings.html Start with a setting of F5.6 and a shutter speed of 80, strobe set for slave and 6.7. The actual strobe settings may or may not be the same as the camera setting; it all depends on distance and water clarity. Then adjust as necessary based on the information in the histogram. I suggest you start by learning to use the controls and reading the histogram above water.
The histogram is your exposure meter. On the 5050 you will see 2 vertical lines on it. To the left is the underexposed line and to the right is the over exposed line, basically you keep the shot "between the lines", realizing that as far as the camera is concerned black is just another way underexposed part of the photo so if you shot has a lot of black in it (wet suit for example) you should expect to see some of the graph in the underexposed area. The major concern is where the majority of the graph forms, it should be somewhere in the middle with a shift to one side or the other depending on the subject. A dark background will shift it to the left and a light blue background will shift it to the right. Shoot a few land shots and review it and you will get the idea.

As for the strobe not firing, I assume you are using a fiber optic connection. The fiber must be clean and very close to the internal flash to work properly. I would suggest you remove the fibers, clean them (polishing across your clean blue jeans works fairly well) and make sure they are snug against the camera/strobe when installed. Also, if your 5050's flash is not covered, you need to make a shield so it only fires the strobe but does not contribute to the lighting of the object. This is not for exposure but rather to help stop back scatter in the shot.

 

[jlyle]

What mode are you shooting in? The camera's brain is tiny and doesn't make the best choices.

For all shots with water backgrounds, either set the EV to -1.7 or, in manual mode, adjust shutter speed/aperture to meter -1.7EV. For shots without open water backgrounds, EV = 0.

Use manual mode for all macro work - use a large f-stop and fast shutter speed, crank up the strobe.

ISO = 64 for all shots.

Either S or A priority work better with the 5050 for non-macro work.

White balance = cloudy or automatic.

I've always used Ikelite strobes, so I can't help you with the YS...

I upgraded to a dslr several years ago; I still miss my 5050.

Here's a trip report with many 5050 images that I took in 2006: http://chemistry.csudh.edu/faculty/jim/trip reports/Cozumel August 2006.html

 

[jlyle]

Here you go. I remembered that Splashdown Divers had a website with all the settings for the 5050:

Splashdown Divers - Boynton Beach, Florida - Underwater Digital Photography - 5050 Settings - 5060 Settings

Required reading.