Canon G16 setting

[bunty99]

I used to use a gopro and recently just bought a G16 with fantasea housing. I'm going to Kota Kinabalu to dive this weekend and plan to test the camera out then, but I'm having some issues with the settings which you guys might be able to help me with. I don't have strobes right now, I'm still figuring out the basics.

I've been testing the underwater settings on land (using fantasea advice, google search, scubaboard, etc), and the results seem "weird" for both macro and wide angle.

My macro settings:
Aperture: F8
ISO: 100
Shutter:1/125
Flash: On

Pictures I take always have a black background, and if I'm not close enough to the object, the entire picture is almost black. Would the effect be different underwater or should I be using something different if I didn't want black backgrounds?

Wide angle isn't very much different still using F8 but flash is off. The problem here then is my LCD is always black until the flash is activated and I can't seem to figure out why.

I know I'll probably need to play around with the settings when I'm actually underwater, but the land results haven't been very encouraging so far.

Appreciate any tips so my first dive trip with a camera doesn't end up in a disaster lol.

 

[rob1967]

Those settings would be good if you had a strobe, but without a strobe, yes, it will be dark. I'm assuming you are in manual mode. Your best option would be to invest in a strobe, but failing that, you can try opening up your aperture a bit, and upping your ISO a bit to 200.

Are you able to use your onboard flash? Do you have a diffuser for it? Try to max out your onboard flash by putting it at a higher power and opening up your aperture more. I think F8 is almost all the way closed on that camera, so try F6 or F4 or thereabouts. For wide angle, try also upping to ISO 400.

As a last resort, you can try slowing down your shutter speed, but this will let in more ambient light (but not more strobe light), and the ambient light is quite blue, washed out and dull, especially as you go deeper. Plus on top of that you will get motion blur if you go much slower than 1/100. The blue is ok for your background if shooting wide-angle, but for your foreground, and for macro, you will want some strobe, or at least your onboard flash if possible.

Ideally you have a strobe and you can then keep your shutter fast, say 1/200 or faster.

 

[bunty99]

Thanks for the tips rob. I will be using onboard flash with a diffuser for now. I plan to get a strobe only at the end of this year when I go to Japan.

 

[KeithG]

Black background is because your camera settings are dependent upon "strobe lighting" and not "ambient lighting" and your flash is not powerful enough to light up the whole world.

This is not always a bad effect. A black background removes clutter from the picture.

If you want less "black" you have 2 choices:
- get closer to allow the onboard flash to light more stuff up
- alter camera settings to allow more ambient light in

And underwater your onboard flash will be less effective as water absorbs more light than air. You may find the onboard flash will not project more than 3 (or less?) feet underwater.

F8 is the smallest aperature the G16 can do. So least amount of light. I use F8 all the time with external strobes and macro (ISO 80, 1/1000 shutter ish). I have no idea how close or what power level my strobes were set at.

A quick peak of my last dive trip indicates a turtle swimming by during the day in the blue needed F2.8 ISO 80 and 1/320 shutter. It was too far away (10 ft?) for even my external strobes.

 

[timz]

If you aren't familiar with basic photography, u can always leave the setting to the camera.

May not achieve the best the camera could provide. But when u are not able to set it right, let the camera handle it for u rather than screwing up everything not knowing why.

 

[rob1967]

Sorry Timz, I would have to disagree with that one. There are a couple of good reasons why it is important to shoot manual underwater. #1) Automatic settings will meter for ambient light and add strobe if necessary. Underwater, with perhaps a few exceptions, you will want to minimize ambient light and try to max out the strobe light. The easiest way to do so is to shoot in manual mode. (you can get away with shooting automatic if you are very shallow, tropical, good viz, middle of the day on a sunny day, but otherwise the ambient light is of poor quality).#2) It is really only by shooting manual that you can begin to appreciate and understand how aperture, shutter speed and ISO affect exposure, strobe and depth of field.

 

[bunty99]

I went with manual settings on my first dive. Initially it took a while to figure out what to tweak underwater, but seemed to have gotten the hang of it after 2-3 dives. For a first timer on manual, the pictures certainly weren't too shabby after post processing. Much better than I had imagined.

I could have went with auto, but that wouldn't help me in the future since the real power of the camera is in its manual mode. Might as well learn it now first.

 

[timz]

Sorry Timz, I would have to disagree with that one. There are a couple of good reasons why it is important to shoot manual underwater. #1) Automatic settings will meter for ambient light and add strobe if necessary. Underwater, with perhaps a few exceptions, you will want to minimize ambient light and try to max out the strobe light. The easiest way to do so is to shoot in manual mode. (you can get away with shooting automatic if you are very shallow, tropical, good viz, middle of the day on a sunny day, but otherwise the ambient light is of poor quality).#2) It is really only by shooting manual that you can begin to appreciate and understand how aperture, shutter speed and ISO affect exposure, strobe and depth of field.

Yeah... i was just giving some suggestion if the manual didn't work. Sipadan isn't a cheap place to dive. At least for Malaysian like myself. So, i was just suggesting a situation of something is better than nothing.

I might be naive though...