Color correction

[seb2609]

Hello

I am about to buy an PEN E PL-1, camera with housing and I ask myself how to deal with the "blue" color. I hesitate between several possibilities, do you have experience with them? This concerns both pictures and videos.

- digitial integrated filter
- extern flash lamp
- filter for tropical water
- reworking colors later on computer

thanks

 

[jlyle]

Use a strobe and underexpose your images by about -2.0EV for the dark blue background you want. If you don't have any open water in your shots, then expose normally, using the strobe.

 

[seb2609]

Thanks. And how far does the strobe work?
likely only for very close pictures. Am I wrong?

 

[jlyle]

Depending on the power of the strobe, you can effectively light subjects closer than five feet. Remember, light has to travel from the strobe to the subject and back again - ten feet is a long path for light to travel underwater. If you are shooting a subject that is more than four feet away, it's either extremely large or you aren't close enough; get closer.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for the info also

 

[seb2609]

means then:
close pictures: strobe
far away pictures: raw with postprocessing
video: red filter

seems like nobody really likes this integrated underwater filter of the camera!

 

[Dannybot]

Just got LR yesterday, if you go to the WB options and select "auto", it does wonders on some of my old shots that I have tried.

 

[MJSmith]

Does that mean that you should ONLY use the strobe for shots closer than 5 feet? For photos beyond 5 feet, should you turn off the stobe? Would the stobe increase backscatter for pictures beyond 5 feet?

 

[under water]

Does that mean that you should ONLY use the strobe for shots closer than 5 feet? ....?

It depends.
If there is anything that can benefit by some additional light, especially something red, then using a strobe will probably enhance the picture a bit.
Here is an example showing how the stobe's effect trails off as the distance from the camera increases. The whip coral is extending down and you can clearly see if getting darker and losing it's red hue.
Without a strobe, the whole coral would be black.. and this picture was shot with just a single DS-51.

I like to use all of the methods mentioned.
Use strobes when possible.
White balance and use RAW for wide angle or ambient shots.
Use a red filter for video (plus white balance)
Use RAW all the time.
BTW: using RAW implies you are probably going to do some post-processing work in Lightroom or another program.

Some of the best shots are combo strobe and wide angle, so no real hard rules.
This article will explain combining strobe & background a bit more.
Balanced light underwater photography tutorial|Underwater Photography Guide

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I went with a housed digital camera a few years ago after years with a Nikonos and a pair of SB 105 strobes.

I never got the Nikonos strobes to successfully talk to the camera and for the diving I do, if I take a camera at all, I want something light and compact that I can clip off close to my chest and carry hands free, so it's going to stay small digital with a smallish strobe rather than a DSLR and large dual strobes.

Part of the reasoning there is also the ability for very quick and easy post processing to correct color balance issues on the images with excellent subject and composition that are worth enhancing. I use Photoshop CS2 and use that to fill in any color lost with the smaller strobe and in the loger distances. And unless you have a wide angle lens, stay close and enough strobe to expose the full frame, getting comfortable with good image processing software is going to be imnportant.