Finally pulled the trigger on my upgrade to the Canon S100

[Foxfish]

A few shots from today's dive:




















I think the photos have improved thanks in no small part to the advice given on this thread.

---------- Post Merged at 07:19 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 07:04 AM ----------

All photos were shot in Tv mode with the strobe fired TTL. Shutter speed was adjusted to suit background lighting. ISO set to 100 in most if not all photos.

I found adjusting the strobe manually based on the LCD display was misleading. The TTL seems to do a pretty good job. I've got one strobe.

 

[Interceptor121]

Did you shoot in Tv and override the aperture with CHDK?

 

[Foxfish]

Did you shoot in Tv and override the aperture with CHDK?

No Interceptor. The main exposure adjustment was done with shutter speed.

 

[Interceptor121]

You said Aperture speed was adjusted to suit background lighting. ISO set to 100 in most if not all photos.


Now you are saying you shot in shutter speed priority so the camera chose the aperture by itself

How was the metering set? Evaluative or Centre Weighted?

 

[Foxfish]

You said Aperture speed was adjusted to suit background lighting. ISO set to 100 in most if not all photos.


Now you are saying you shot in shutter speed priority so the camera chose the aperture by itself

How was the metering set? Evaluative or Centre Weighted?

I meant shutter speed. I used spot metering.

---------- Post Merged on July 15th, 2012 at 03:01 AM ---------- Previous Post was on July 14th, 2012 at 07:51 PM ----------

I found that some of my close up shots with flash from yesterdays shoot looked overexposed. That got me thinking and reading the manual. I discovered that you can adjust the flash exposure in Av and Tv mode once you have selected the flash modes by turning the front dial. The camera needs to be set to 'auto' in the main menu. I tried this and found that you could adjust the exposure by up to two stops in either direction. On land, this changed exposure from shots being over exposed at -2, to the right exposure at 0, and then overexposed at the +2 setting. Will try this on the next dive and see how it translates to use in the water.

Have booked in to a photography course for next weekend.

 

[Interceptor121]

Spot metering is ok for macro and close up where the subject is right in the center
There is of course the risk that anything outside the spot is over it under exposed
You should not use spot metering for wide angle or when the subject is not in the center
Flash exposure compensation is useful with clear housing where the light of the internal strobe leaks and ends up compromising the ttl reading
How do you manage the fiver optic connection? Do you have a home made strobe mask or a specific accessory?

 

[Foxfish]

How do you manage the fiver optic connection? Do you have a home made strobe mask or a specific accessory?

The Recsea housing has a plastic moulded flash cap. The bare end of the fibre optic cable slots into a hole in the cap.

 

[Interceptor121]

I was actually reading and you have a recsea so there are no leaks I have the same housing. You should have an adapter that screws on the flash window with 4 holes two big and two small you can plug in a standard sea and sea plug there
I have a sea and sea L type and I never had to use flash exposure compensation, if your fiber optic set up is correct and it reacts in real time the overexposure comes from something else as the housing is totally black and there are no leaks of light anywhere

 

[Foxfish]

It's probably more a personal preference than anything.



Here is a case in point. This to me is pretty good but slightly overexposed. I'd want to tweek the exposure down maybe a fraction of a stop.

 

[Interceptor121]

The shot is not overexposed you just have some clipped highlights coming from the sand
I don't think spot metering helps in this case as the camera will work out exposure in the centre of the frame and the rest will be overexposed
Shots with sand of the sun ball in the picture have potential for clipping you need to figure out how to deal with it which may include using the flash in manual