to diffuse or not to diffuse ...that is the question!

[sportsgirl98052]

HI there everyone,
I just purchased a c 5060 and pt-020. Iam taking out for the first time this weekend to practice before a big trip. I am new to underwater photography and am wondering whether to leave the diffuser on or not. I'm not planning to get a strobe for a few months ( you know, the money thing!), so am only using the internal flash . I live in the pacific NW and know the vis will be marginal at best this weekend. Also any recommendations for settings to get started would be much appreciated! Thanks so much!

 

[Eya]

You need to leave it there anytime that if you want to avoid "backscattering", or at least try to reduce it.
Personally speaking I disable internal strobe when taking shots of subject more distant than half a meter. That's why you would light the suspension and not the subject. If you're taking shots one meter away turn the strobe off and try to increase ISO sensitivity.

As you're a beginner I suggest you try to shoot in "P" mode (that's fully auto), after some practice you can try to use "S" mode with a shutter speed of at least 1/60 without the strobe or faster if you're closer to the subject and can turn it on.
Shutter speed in S mode affects both the background color (the more it's fast the more it turns to black) both the aperture the camera will choose.
If you're taking macro shots using the strobe (by the way always shoot with macro mode ON, otherwise in SuperMacro mode if you get very close to the subject) choose a shutter speed that will allow the camera to use the highest aperture value as possible (that's f.8)

Then you'll go for the "M" mode that 's much simpler when using the internal strobe and very hard to use when taking wide shots without it or with external strobes...but this is another looong story

Hope I didn't make a mess (since English is not my language) and this helps you

 

[diveborg]

I don't know about helping sportsgirl, but you did help me.

Your command of the English language is very good, BTW.

 

[Eya]

Glad I could help you, too.
Posting in this forum will help my English too to get more fluent.
Any suggestion will be welcome, anyway.

 

[sportsgirl98052]

Thanks Eya! That really helped! I feel more confident now! I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow after my dive. And your engish was great!
Thanks again
dj

 

[fpoole]

Howdy 052,
I'm up here too (Seattle), use an oly4040.. also a 5050 for natural light shots.

Keep the diffuser as is, it will do no harm... actually better to leave it on as it's a diffuser, heheh doh!!!... but softens the light...

The internal flash is good at close up, lights up the colors and works fine... further away and you start picking up backscatter... sometimes, sometimes not, depends upon vis etc.

Try turning the flash off, in manual mode and bring the F-stop down to the lowest setting f-1.8 or 2.0 and the shutter speed down to around 1/30th or 1/40th of a second, depending upon available light.

Hold the camera steady and you'll get some 'clean' read No backscatter, shots..

Hope that helps for now eh???

 

[scubaaaronh]

Check out this web site and set your settings similar to column 4.
http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gallery/underwater_photography/up_settings.htm
Even though it says c 5050 still use it for the c5060
Also learn to use the white balance and not use your flash use the ambiant light available and turn the flash off. We were in bonaire for a week with a c5060 and pt-020 and never once used the flash and i have 2 gigs of pics that came out really good. I have also used it in the great lakes and a rock quarry where vis was low no flash just white balance. You have to reset it about every ten feet or less depending on how mucky the water is. Once you get used to changing it, it is really simple and quick. I shoot in a mode set to 5.6 or 4.8 SHQ pics with the housing mode on, Set your focus point to spot and iso at 100. I did use the flash with difuser on one dive because we were under a pier and the light was very low i set the cam the same way and didn't use white balance then and my pics came out really good. The white balance adds the red back into the spectrum of light that you loose when you go deeper under water. and lessens the blue that becomes more prominent when loosing the red. there is also a little chart if you want to take more contorl of your camera in the middle of the web page. Those setting worked great for me in bonaire. If you take more control of your camera and not use the auto modes your can get clearer shots and less blurring. Good luck and if any questions let me know. I dont think i will buy a strobe after the pics i took. I have 2 gig of pics that are incredible and the nice thing about digital is i forgot to reset the white balance a couple time and with software i was able to put the red back in and lessen the blue and make them look like what i saw unerwater. Take a look at my pics copy the link and paste it gilboa was a quarry in ohio with about 20 ft vis. The others were in bonaire and the ones feeding fish were with Dee scarr from touch the sea in bonaire. On those pics feeding the fish i did use the flash a few times but again mostly white balance. The bristol worm was 50 feet down with white balance with the above settings. Good luck and shoot till your fingers bleed, get used to the controls and where to find them on your cam.

There are a few pics of an octopus we saw and you can see the pic where i didnt adjust the white balance in one and then i adjusted it and took a couple more pics and you can see the result of doing so

 

[TostitoBandito]

I just took my new C-765 to Cozumel and used it for the first time. I got some great pictures using no flash or the onboard flash with diffuser. The only ones I used flash on were the lobster and octopus which were at night, and the scorpionfish because it was a closeup in a shadow. I white balanced constantly when changing depths and light so most of my pictures came out with good colors.


-Eric

 

[Eya]

Try turning the flash off, in manual mode and bring the F-stop down to the lowest setting f-1.8 or 2.0 and the shutter speed down to around 1/30th or 1/40th of a second, depending upon available light.
Hold the camera steady and you'll get some 'clean' read No backscatter, shots..
Hope that helps for now eh???

Hi
personally I don't suggest such a setting.
The reason is that while UW it's very hard to hold a camera... expecially when floating without touching anything, you risk to shoot 50% blurred picts.
Another important reason is that such an aperture value (1.8) will reduce DoF consistently forcing you to make a perfect focus, and you know in low light conditions the AF sometimes doesn't work well. You need as much DoF as possible to get sharp images... that's why the only way is to increase ISO SETTINGS instead, while praying the noise filter works fine, eheheh

IMHO

 

[fpoole]

Yes, you're absolutely right Eya,
but the point was to "Try" it and get an idea of what limits you can get away with..

Most people are surprised at what they can do with those settings...
I found it only because my strobes wouldn't fire (short in wiring) so out of frustation, just started to shoot at the extreme settings to see what would happen. As you can see below, they are NOT clear, but they are, IMNSHO, passable...

So you are correct in that it won't do certain things at those settings, it Will give you a possible photo that is usable and certainly better than nothing. Up here, Settle, WA, the backscatter is so bad a that sometimes the strobes are pretty much useless...

Sample photos below.. apx 40feet on cloudy/rainy day (hope I got the right ones eh?)
EXIF: Oly 5050 (untouched in PS which mean you can lighten them up a little)
2 divers f-1.8 1/50th
1 diver f-1.8 1/60th (sharper as you can see)