Newbie U\W Photography thread

[Divernoob]

I decided to start a thread for u\w photography newbs who have done a little research, maybe have their own camera or even their own strobe to go with that camera, and better yet, a little experience with their new camera equipment.

I don't mean this thread to turn into, "What camera\housing\strobe should I buy?" There are plenty of threads for that already. The search function works!

SB has some very helpful, intelligent and experienced u\w photographers that we should be thankful (and I am!) to have here. But the professional lingo\abbreviations are dizzying to amateurs like me.

So I'd like to exchange info in a dumbed-down way so that I, and other rookies, can improve our skills with less expensive camera gear ($1,000.00 or less?) versus the more costly stuff that the veterans are talking about.

My rig is a Canon S90, Canon WP-DC35 housing and Ultramax UXDS-1 strobe. I tried it out recently in Cozumel, and found that the strobe was somewhat unreliable to fire, even with the OEM fiber optic sync cord. I realized that the OEM mount for the sync cord did not place it directly over the light sensor on the strobe, but off to the side. I came up with a new mount that seems to fire the strobe without fail. I posted pics and a description here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/st...-re-fiber-optic-cable-housing-attachment.html

Another thing I noticed was that when the S90 was in Aperture Priority mode (Av), the pre-flash on the strobe should be set at "1", but in Manual mode, the pre-flash on this strobe should be set to "0." Also, having the S90 flash set to 2/3's power helps as well.

 

[clifftondiver]

good thread. I'll be keeping up with this one

 

[herman]

The best advise I can give to a new shooter, other than get your buoyancy control dead on before picking up a camera, is to learn to shoot in manual mode and to use a histogram if you camera has it. Preset modes work well above water but are not adequate for more than fair photos UW.
Manual is not nearly as difficult as you might imagine and once you get the basics down, your photos will improve greatly. In addition, manual allows you creativity that is not possible with an auto mode. Histograms allow you an instant and more importantly an accurate view of the exposure of your shot. On board screens will lie to you, the histogram will not. I almost totally ignore the screen for exposure information

Here are some shots to illustrate what I mean. The shots in these examples were taken within a minute of each other but have a totally different look, something not possible with an auto mode. The only difference between the photo pairs is shutter speed, light blue background means I used a slow speed, black means it was fast. I could have picked any blue from very light to black just by changing shutter speed.

Not the best lit photos but again, a good illustration.

Here is another thread you might find useful. I put more examples and explanations of the relationship between F-stop, shutter speed and flash power in the thread. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-photography/214500-help-manual-camera-settings.html

 

[mjh]

Basic principles and "rules" that I learned as I have progressed through this hobby and want to thank those who have shared them with me.

"Rules"
1. Don't touch the reef. No more than one finger on a dead part of the reef.
2. Don't manipulate the creatures.
3. Perfect and practice your buoyancy with camera in hand.
4. Think of how you want to frame the shot before moving in on the subject.
5. If the guide finds a creature take 3-4 pictures and then get in the back of the line.
6. If the creature or subject is in a spot “known by all” or pointed out by the guide see rule 5.
7. If you find the subject take all the time you want with it.
8. If someone else finds a subject of interest to you do not "Hover" over their shoulder. Respect their space till they are finished with subject.

Photo Tips
1. Get close, get closer, and get closer yet! This of course requires being conscious of buoyancy.
2. “Paint” your subject with light, don’t blast it. Know how your strobes work, play with their positioning to get different looks and textures.
3. Interesting photos require a different kind of diving. Meaning you are going to cover 1/2 or less of the distance you use to before taking down a camera.
4. Behavior is one thing that helps elevate a photo. That takes knowledge of subject, time, and patience.
5. Shoot "up" at a subject.
6. Rule of Thirds, look it up.
7. Eye Contact with the subject is crucial.
8. The advantage of digital is “shoot till your finger bleeds”.
9. Look at a lot of dive photos to see what you like, what interests you and try to copy it. Then try to add something to it to make it your “own”.

 

[Nemrod]

Another thing I noticed was that when the S90 was in Aperture Priority mode (Av), the pre-flash on the strobe should be set at "1", but in Manual mode, the pre-flash on this strobe should be set to "0." Also, having the S90 flash set to 2/3's power helps as well.

Yes and no, you can go into your camera set up under Menu and then go to strobe settings and select manual flash and then set your power to 1/3, 2/3 or 3/3 power level.

Selecting Manual flash will eliminate the pre-flash in the Av/Tv modes. There is NEVER a preflash in Manual mode and there is ALWAYS a preflash in P/A modes.

Pre-flash is the default setting from the factory for the camera flash in Av/Tv modes.

N

 

[Dee]

Herman.....could you explain how to read a histogram? My new camera has this feature and I need to know how to use it. Up to now I've run across the histograms in CS2 but other than playing with the Levels haven't really learned exactly how to read it.

TIA

 

[herman]

For you Dee, gladly. Nice to see you back.

The histogram is not hard to read if you keep it simple and is very useful. With a little experience and understanding you can determine shot exposure at a glance. The histogram will never lie to you, the LCD screens rarely give you a good representation of actual exposure.

Lets see if I can explain it and keep it simple.
The histogram screen is broken into 3 zones with lines to the left and right sides of the screen. The center zone being with widest. To the left of the left line is the underexposed zone, to the right of the right line is the overexposed zone. Anything between the lines is properly exposed so in essence you want to keep the graph between the 2 lines. Depending on the color or lightness of the objects in your photo the graph may be bunched to one side- darker objects will be more to the left and lighter objects more to the right and if you have a good mix of light and dark shades, the graph will be somewhat flat and wide. You have to realize that black and underexposed is pretty much the same thing to the camera so if you have black or very dark items in your photo then there will be some of the graph in the "underexposed" area, this is acceptable as long as there is something black/very dark in the shot. The opposite is not the case, anything in the overexposed zone is overexposed, often bubbles will be overexposed.
So, the object is to keep the exposure (taking into account black and dark subjects) between the lines. Once you get the hang of reading the graph, you can very quickly determine the exposure of the photo by how the graph looks. Photos with a lighter content should reside to the right of center and conversely darker subjects will group to the left side of the graph. A good test shot is to photograph a sheet with some black and some white areas. There will be 2 spikes on the histogram, the black one will be in the underexposed zone and another one will reside somewhere in the rest of the graph. As you increase or decrease the strobe power (or F-stop) the position of the white spike will move depending on what the exposure is. Add a gray area and a 3rd spike will appear somewhere in the properly exposed zone, where depends on the shade of the gray area.


That clear as mud?

 

[slowhands]

Herman.....could you explain how to read a histogram? My new camera has this feature and I need to know how to use it. Up to now I've run across the histograms in CS2 but other than playing with the Levels haven't really learned exactly how to read it.

TIA

What is a histogram? It's a bar graph with 256 bars. The position of each bar corresponds to a brightness level, and the height of each bar indicates the number of pixels at that brightness in your image. On the left are the darker pixels, on the right are the light pixels, and the grays are in the middle. That's the basic idea.

(I think the correct term is luminosity, not brightness, but I want to keep this simple. If you want a more correct technical explanation, go to this website:
Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Tones and Contrast )

The E-PL1 has a single histogram showing the brightness levels of all the pixels in an image as a bar graph; it usually looks something like a mountain range silhouette.

How do you use it? It can tell you quickly if your exposure is OK. If most of the pixels are on the left side (mountain on the left) your photo is too dark. If most of the pixels are on the right, your photo is too bright. Try to have a balance of half the pixels on the left, and half on the right. Reading the histogram is a very quick, accurate way to graphically evaluate exposure. Your camera's processor does the computation, you just make a judgment based on the result.

On the E-PL1, touch the INFO button to see the histogram. I've set it up to show during live view and playback. To enable histograms (they are off by default), click the GEAR Symbol, DISPLAY, INFO, then both Playback INFO and Live View INFO ON.

LIVE VIEW HISTOGRAM ON THE E-PL1

When you are taking a photo, the Live View Histogram helps you verify that you have a "reasonable" exposure before you shoot. The thing to avoid is having all the pixels on the left (too dark, way under-exposed) or all on the right (too bright, way overexposed). Blown highlights are especially bad, because no amount of post processing can recover detail in them. Sometimes underexposed areas can be recovered in post processing. The histogram shows you all this before you take the picture, and you can adjust exposure as needed.

Example: E-PL1 Live View Histogram of an image with middle brightness

This shaded woodland scene does not have much contrast and it is underexposed slightly. The Histogram has a smooth mounded shape in the center, slightly left. That smooth mound in center is typical for a low contrast scene, and the underexposure conveys a mood. So the histogram does not indicate exposure problems.

PLAYBACK HISTOGRAM ON THE E-PL1

The Playback Histogram lets you review the exposure of your shot, so know right away if you want to re-shoot with better exposure.

Example: E-PL1 Playback Histogram of an image with lots of black and white

We can see the image has mainly very dark and very light areas, but not much gray. That's OK for this product photo. The Histogram has strong peaks left and right and not much in the middle, normal for this subject.

I use histograms a lot when shooting the E-PL1. I aim for a balance of pixels on the left and right half of the histogram, roughly speaking. Depending on your subject, the histogram can vary from a smooth mound in the center to peaks at both ends and still be OK as these examples showed. Try hard not to blow the highlights, with too many pixels in a peak to the right, because you can't recover the highlights in development. With practice, it's an easy to use tool.

 

[Dee]

Thanks Herman and Slowhands.....Yes, lots clearer than mud! Between you both and the illustration I see now what you mean about the 3 zones.

Thanks to you both!

 

[herman]

I am still shooting the 5050 which has lines on the histogram to show you the over and under exposed regions, the examples Slowhand has do not have them so your camera may not have the demarks but still you get the idea.