DSLR Underwater Camera Settings for Divers - Diving Maluku

[Maluku Diving]

Diving Maluku Blog

DSLR cameras today come with many features that can be very overwhelming if you are a new shooter. Additionally, if you have the wrong settings, you may think that the camera is faulty when really a small adjustment will have it working perfectly. Here are tips to help you out:

• Turn off the AF Illuminator – Turn this off because you really don’t need to have the build in focus light on.

• AF Drive – If you are looking for an easy way to focus in on one point, then you should have single AF on instead of continuous.

• AF-ON – Instead of having autofocus on half press, turn on the AF-ON button. This will cause your lens to keep pun on manual focus until you press the AF-ON button which will then kick in autofocus.

• Center Focus – This is a single point focus and it is actually the strongest focus you have on your camera.

LCD Brightness – It is important to make sure that your screen is not too bright since this can give you the illusion that your picture is bright only to find that it is very dark on the computer. Always bear in mind that it is a dark environment underwater.

• Metering – Make sure you can meter the entire scene. You don’t want center.
• Priority Release – You want to set your camera to priority release and not focus since this will allow your camera to release even though the camera may not think you are in focus.
• Highlight Warning and Display Histograms – This helps you know if you have the right exposure.

• Go Raw – This file format produces vibrant color tones and better results because it is uncompressed.

• Color Space Adobe RGB – This will give you a huge color range to play with which is excellent for printing.

• Macro Lens – This should not be set to limit.

• White Balance – You can have it set on auto if you will be shooting with strobes, but if raw, you can make changes after the shoot.

• Turn off Auto ISO – Especially if you are making adjustments to aperture or shutter speed.

• Keep picture style as standard or normal and not vivid.

• Sleep/ Meter off – This is a great idea so you will not have to wake the camera up.

• Consecutive Numbering – This way your images will not be overwritten in the computer for having a similar name.

• Red Eye – If you will be using the TTL convertor, avoid flash settings. Use fill-in flash only.