Suggestions on DX1G and Great Lake shipwrecks

[CDNScubaMoose]

I am an avid Great Lakes diver and a couple of years ago I upgraded my camera to a DX1G so that I could shoot in manual mode. I also have dual strobes (YS 27 on right and YS110 on left) and the wide angle lens. About once a year I make a trip down to the Caribbean and have loved what I am able to capture with my setup on those dives.

However, I have become somewhat frustrated with shooting shipwrecks when diving in the Great Lakes - I must admit that a percentage of my dives are either teaching or mentoring less experienced when I don't take my camera (or training to upgrade my own skills) so I haven't been able to practice as much as I would like.

My biggest issues seem to be the shots are too dark (as soon as I increase the strobe power, the back scatter starts to be an issue) - I've decreased shutter speed somewhat (down to about 1/160th from 1/400th), kept the f-stop as low as possible and bumped the exposure value to close to +1. So far limited results that continue to frustrate me, so I am wondering if anyone has experience in shooting in darker waters, what kind of base settings you are using?

 

[Nemrod]

You need to get closer to the subject, you might try the adapter ring that Devildiver did to install the fisheye 165 degree FOV Fisheye UWL-04 lens. This lens should essentially double your current FOV over the kit wide angle lens.

http://forum.scubatoys.com/gear-information-42/fix-uwl-04-fisheye-wet-lens-29601/

Try shooting B&W.

Try shooting ambient exposure only, no flash or using the strobe for foreground close focus wide angle and exposing for the back ground with your shutter speed choice, letting your strobes and f stop expose for the near ground especially if they have an auto exposure setting--do they?

Go to a higher ISO, like 400.

N

 

[bladephotog]

Well, it's pretty tough to suggest basic exposures since the conditions are so variable. Here in the Great Lakes we can have pretty good visibility but lots of particulate matter in the water. Hence you need to be wide and close. But going wide and close presents problems with strobe coverage. Try taking your strobes out wide, slightly behind the front of the lens and angled slightly outward. This should help with backscatter. I use two 8" arms on each side but don't always use them at full extension.

Also, shoot manual. I'm not real familiar with your camera and strobes but you really need to be able to control you exposure and not let your camera set it for you - you'll get wildly varying results. If you can, take a spot meter reading about halfway up the water column and set your exposure to that. Then balance with strobes. What I mean, is if your strobes put out f5.6 worth of light at 5 feet at say ISO 400, set your camera to what ever shutter speed you get half way up the water column at f5.6, as long as it's not above your max sync speed.

I also like to shoot some ambient exposures as well as strobed shots. I hope this isn't too confusing but it's hard to explain in a short post.

 

[scottfiji]

I hope you are in manual mode. EV will have no effect. you are probably too far from the wreck for your strobes to be effective. your shutter speed also seems too fast, try 1/100th, 1/50th, etc. The slower the shutter speed, the more ambient light is let in.

good luck!

 

[CDNScubaMoose]

Thanks for the suggestions - that is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I normally shoot in manual mode but I was getting rather frustrated with the pictures being too dark so I had attempted to shoot in aperture priority mode and had some slightly better success although I am determined to figure out where I was struggling with manual mode.

The conditions I had the most difficulty was in Lake Erie where there is an algae layer down to about 45' after which point I had 50' of vis but due to the algae above, ambient light is much more limited then when I am in the upper lakes such as Huron around Tobermory.

I will be trying the higher ISO setting, I had set it to 100 as I was concerned the higher settings might have led to more of a "grainy" appearance. Likewise on the shutter speed - I wasn't sure how low to go and still get a good shot that wasn't blurry.

Thanks again folks ... especially the suggestion that there might be a fisheye option (just added that to my Christmas list).

 

[CDNScubaMoose]

I did some dives in Lake Erie over this weekend and tried a few things that were mentioned.

#1) Moving ISO to 400 wasn't such a great idea with this camera. The pictures came out grainy and although I knew this was a possibility, it was worse then I expected. I had been shooting at 100 before but before I go back to that, I will try 200.

#2) Shutter speed - moving from 1/200th to 1/60th was a huge help. I was below 100' for the most part and the sky was overcast so although I noticed a big improvement, I think on a sunny day the effect will be even better.

#3) Started to work on strobe placement although with 2 stobes, and the other settings I was doing and some light decompression diving ... I limited my changes here although I got some great shots close up so I think this is an area that will offer me some improvements as well.

Thanks everyone, I'll post some pictures once I am a bit happier with my results.