Background or Landscape Shots (How Do You Do It?)

[Scuba_Noob]

Hi, I'm pretty new with u/w photography. I basically only do macro, close-up shots, as that's all that comes out decently.

How do you do background or landscape shots? To clarify, I mean something like a shot with multiple subjects from a decent distance away (e.g., more than five feet). Visualize the background/landscape shot of a beach scene. That's kind of what I want.

Whenever I try one of these shots with flash, I get all the particles in the middle lit up with little focus on the subject(s). When I do them without flash, the shot looks very green or blue, and it's near impossible to get the colors right in editing.

Can I do this without strobes? I'm currently using a Canon S95 with an Ikelite housing and diffuser. If so, what settings do you generally suggest (e.g., ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed)?

If I can do it with strobes, then I'm willing to get strobes. How do you do it with strobes, though?

Or is this something that's near impossible without perfect visibility and/or shallow waters?

 

[TSandM]

Especially in the Pacific Northwest, you just can't do wide angle without strobes. The reason is that, even when our viz is "good", there is so much particulate matter in the water, that the direct light from a flash results in too much backscatter. In addition, unless you have a lot of ambient light (which is rare for us) you need a lot more light than you can get from a simple in-camera flash.

I resisted having a strobe for a long time, but I eventually conceded that I just couldn't get anything other than small macro subjects well without one. A strobe is necessary for any larger macro, and two is better for wide-angle photography. Take a look at Rapture of the Deep Photography | About for some examples of very nice wide-angle photography done in Pacific Northwest waters.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Your expectations aren't realistically achievable with your current point-and-shoot setup.

You're going to need strobes. The more light, the better. FYI, you're looking at a significant investment (hundreds - thousands of dollars) in the hobby if you go this route.

Join a local UW photography club. You'll learn a lot from other local divers about what works (and what doesn't). You might also get a few leads on affordable, used camera setups.

You really need to learn about backscatter and the factors that affect exposure (aperture, shutter speed, ISO). It would probably be best to get a book on it and/or take a class on the subject. It can be difficult to learn all of this by asking a few pointed questions in an Internet forum.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Your expectations aren't realistically achievable with your current point-and-shoot setup.

That's why I mentioned in my original post that I would be willing to purchase strobes, and I have an idea of the costs already. Thanks for the other information and suggestions. I'll keep them in mind, though there may be no underwater photography clubs in the area. I'll try to find and bug some expert photographers close by.

I'm not a serious photographer, but I was just looking for very basic tips on wide-angle shots that I could potentially use immediately. In no way am I expecting to learn everything just by asking Scuba Board, and I apologize if my post suggested that.

 

[diverrex]

Read everything on the Underwater Photography Guide website, lots of good advice.

Guide to Underwater Photography | Underwater Photography Guide

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I'm not a serious photographer, but I was just looking for very basic tips on wide-angle shots that I could potentially use immediately. In no way am I expecting to learn everything just by asking Scuba Board, and I apologize if my post suggested that.

I think visibility conditions in your local waters are pretty similar to the vis where I dive (San Diego, CA). Vis is often limited to 10 ft. It's dark. There can be a lot of particulate in the water column. All of these factors make wide angle photography very challenging with just a point-and-shoot and no external strobe. You definitely won't be able to get anything close to the UW equivalent of a landscape beach scene.

Without external strobe lighting and using your current setup...
To avoid backscatter, you'll need to turn off the internal flash. In post-processing, you'll have to adjust the white balance to address the blue-green cast. With limited availability of light, your camera will struggle to find the right exposure settings. In auto mode, in response to low light, the camera will choose a large aperture, slower shutter speed, and probably a higher ISO speed. With UW movement (photographer and subject), such exposure settings will very likely result in blurry, out-of-focus shots. I suppose you can try to using the manual mode to control all these elements optimally, but most casual photographers find that frustrating. At a tropical dive destination in shallow water with lots of ambient light, you will have much more success. It's all about the light.

Wherever there is an active local dive community, you'll find people who are playing around with UW cameras. Join one or more local dive clubs. I'm sure you'll find some folks that can give you tips on equipment and the art of UW photography.

 

[Larry C]

First, change your expectations. Your landscape is much closer. Using an add on wide angle lens, you can get a wider scope that looks like it's distant, but is actually all within 10-15 feet.
To get color, you need to be close to the surface or use a strobe.
Only your foreground or subject will be well lit. Your background will look blue, unless it is within about 8 feet. When you compose the picture, make sure you have light behind you, just like you would topside. If you shoot into the sun, you'll get a dark picture with a blown out upper part. Think of your composition as a triangle, from the camera to about 10 feet away with about a 10 foot spread. Light what you want to emphasize to bring out the color, and accept that the rest will be somewhat blue or green.
In this picture the diver is about 10 feet away. It is taken with a 10mm lens behind a dome port. The strobes were about 2 feet above the camera and were aimed directly at the hydrocoral, to emphasize the color. I was no more than about 3 feet from the foreground part of the pinnacle.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Looks like I'm getting strobes, hopefully partially buffered as a holiday present. Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm going to be busy reading Guide to Underwater Photography | Underwater Photography Guide for Christmas. Very helpful tips.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

If you have problems trying to do post process color correction, maybe you should try to do in water white balance. If all your landscape shots will have subject around 5 ft away, go down into the water, aim at a white subject that is around that distance, and perform a manual white balance and save it in white balance memory if the camera has it. If you have a white card, zoom into it to do it, if you don't have anything, aim at what you think is close to white, be it a white scuba tank, light colored sand, etc. Then when you shoot macro, you use your internal flash, and when you want to shoot landscape subjects, go into white balance memory.

If you have your white balance set at 30ft and you go down to 60ft, your subject will appear more blue-green. If you did you white balance on a subject 5ft away and you take a picture of a subject 10ft away, your subject will appear more blue-green.