First time doing underwater photography, need some advise!

[Tauge31]

Hi All,

I just got back from a dive trip last month and faced some difficulties trying out underwater photography for the first time.

My set up:
S100 in Recsea housing + 1 S&S YS-01 Strobe.

I shoot mostly in manual mode, ISO 80 and manually adjust my strobe's output.
My camera's settings as such

Digital zoom: off
Servo AF: on
AF-assist beam: off
MF-point zoom: on
Safety MF: on
Spot AE point: AF point

With those settings, I've had pics either over exposed, or under exposed. (what should I adjust here? my strobe output or camera settings?)
My strobe is placed above my housing, pointing slightly down.
All photos were taken at night.



Also, I found it very difficult to focus underwater (i used macro mode to help focus but with the small screen, i cant really tell if my subject is focused until i see it on the computer.)



I just bought a SOLA 800, and intending to fixed it onto the recsea housing to help with focusing at night. Will the focus light cause my photos to be overexposed?

I found myself constantly adjusting my camera's settings and also the strobe's output. Is there a way to streamline this so that I dont have to adjust so many factors underwater and just concentrate on framing the subject?



I'm not sure if my settings are suitable underwater photography so I would appreciate some advise here.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Interceptor121]

Your strobe supports ttl
Set it in ttl mode and most of the overexposed shots should be resolved
Read also about CHDK and using ttl in manual
Right now you are operating the strobe manual so if the pictures are not exposed correctly is actually your own fault

 

[Tauge31]

Your strobe supports ttl
Set it in ttl mode and most of the overexposed shots should be resolved
Read also about CHDK and using ttl in manual
Right now you are operating the strobe manual so if the pictures are not exposed correctly is actually your own fault

Hi interceptor,
As it was my first time with the set, Im still trying to figure out how to use the equipments.
sure I'd read up on CHDK and how to use ttl in manual.
Besides using ttl, what strobe power would you recommend I start with? high or low power if my settings were iso 80, 1/125 and F8?
Im trying to minimise the time taken to fiddle with strobe settings without going into CHDK for now.

 

[peeweediver]

Having learned more than half of what I do from people on this , specifically Interceptor, this is more one newbie to another. I have an S100 with the Fix housing, a D-1 strobe, and a Sola 2000. I do not use the Sola for anything but video. I do set the flash on low power and play with shutter speed and apeture, mostly apeture until I like what I see. I have taken two trips with this set up and one, Socorro Islands, does not allow night dives. I will say that manual did make me nuts at first, I just kept playing around. Now, I realy like it. I set my flash off to the side and up, so it shoots down and 2 feet or so from the subject. My night dive photos from my first trip were not worth keeping, but my day shots ended up pretty cool for me. Same with Socorro. During the next two trips, I'll be doing many more night dives and will keep playing with camera setings and a bit with the strobe.
I stay with auto focus for now and it has worked well. As Interceptor told me in a post, practice until you think you're done, then practice more.

Rob

Rob

 

[mjh]

There are no fixed "settings" when shooting underwater that work for such a dynamic environment, only starting points. Eventually shooting in Manual is what is going to give you the most control over your photos. To begin set the strobe to TTL, power to full and try either Shutter Priority or aperture priority. Shutter priority works with fast moving subjects, starting at 1/100 and go up from there depending on your subject. For Macro aperture priority is best, the higher the f/stop the sharper the subject will be from front to back. So on your camera I think the max is f/8(?)

Once you move to shooting in manual and Macro subjects f/8, or higher, 1/80, ISO 100-200, strobe on 1/2 power is a starting point

For WA f/2.8 or higher, ISO 200-400, 1/125, strobe 3/4 power is another starting point.

Here are a couple of tutorial that might help with some of the basics.
Basics
http://opticaloceansales.com/files/OOS-Shooting-Tips.pdf
Basic Strobe positioning
http://opticaloceansales.com/files/OOS-Strobe-Positioning.pdf

There are a lot of decent underwater photography tutorial books, Martin Edge's is a very good one.

 

[00wabbit]

Along with the above - Are you shooting in RAW?

If you are shooting in RAW you may be able to save some of the under or overexposed shots if they aren't too far off. It can't help you with the focus though.

My rule of thumb - If the shot or location is important always shoot in RAW

 

[bvanant]

Keep shooting in manual mode (best way to learn). There are two variables that make the most difference in shooting underwater; f stop and strobe power. There are two ways to make your pictures lighter, increase strobe power or larger f stop (smaller number). If you open the aperture from say f8 to f4 you will get 4 times as much light through the lens and your picture will be brighter BUT you will have less depth of field (sometimes this is what you want, sometimes not). A very simple way to learn about this is to set up some flower or something with detail on your kitchen counter and take a bunch of photos of it with your camera in the housing and with the strobe at different powers and in different locations. Take some notes and you will be able to figure out what is most pleasing to you.
Bill
P.S. A focus light for the most part will not show up in your photos.

 

[TSandM]

I don't know about the Sola, but the focus light I use has a sensor that shuts it off briefly when the strobe fires, so you don't burn out the image.

One of the things I learned from my photo classes (and I am still very much a novice) is that you don't want to aim the strobe directly at your subject. If you think about the light output of the strobe being a cone, you want the subject in the side of the cone, not in the center. That will help with the burnout, because the lighting across the frame will be more even, and it will also reduce backscatter.

I've found it more useful, most of the time, to play with aperture and ISO rather than strobe power (shooting white objects is an exception). Shutter speed rarely comes into play, because strobe duration is really the deciding factor. I shoot at ISO 200 for macro, and run it up to 500 or more for WA shots here in Puget Sound.

I can't help you much with focus -- I'm with you; judging whether focus is right in a small screen can be quite difficult.

 

[Interceptor121]

The focus light is not powerful enough to create problems even at full power unless you use very wide aperture so don't worry you have done a rightful purchase. I would recommend you buy the Dive version of the Sola instead of the photo as that can serve as a dive light

My recommendation is similar to bvanant in terms of keeping shooting in manual, I usually start as follows for strobe shots
Extreme close up and macro: ISO 80, f/8, Shutter from 1/125 to 1/500 depending on what I want to do with the background and if it is against rocks or water
Close focus wide angle: Does not apply until you have a wet lens however my settings are ISO 100, f/5.6 (with my lens), 1/125

I really cannot recommend more about keeping the strobe in TTL to start with as the camera will automatically expose the foreground quite well and you have less to worry, to do this read similar posts on TTL hack and install CHDK this will work like a breeze

I do not recommend the automatic modes for close up, they tend to use slow shutter and wide apertures I would not waste my time

If you can't work out CHDK and the script you have to use the strobe in manual this will be frustrating but your starting point is the nominal rate of guide numbers
Those are the steps of the YS-01

1 / 1.4 / 2 / 2.8 / 4 / 5.6 / 8 / 11 / 16 / 20

In water divide this by 3 so those become
0.3 / 0.45 etc

Now those are at 1 meter so for close up you need to multiply for 1m/Distance say at 10cm it means times 10 which means you go back to the original table

1 / 1.4 / 2 / 2.8 / 4 / 5.6 / 8 / 11 / 16 / 20

Which means if you shoot at f/8 you have to be at knob position 7

At 15 cm you would be looking at know position 6 and at 10 cm at position 4

Those would be your starting points. You can see that this is quite hard as you don't want to waste too much time working out the best knob position and as the relationship between Guide number and aperture is quite hard you end up bracketing with both strobe power and strobe distance

Painful for a beginner!

 

[Tauge31]

thanks to everyone with their helpful advises. mjh, your link for strobe positioning is especially helpful, will give those a try.
As I am not very incline towards post-processing, I shoot strictly in jpeg only. I believe that if i always depend on raw files, I'd get lazy and not learn to get the techniques right. Probably in the future when I've more or less mastered the techniques of shooting underwater.

looks like i will have to start reading more into CHDK as interceptor121 has advised to quit worrying about all the strobe settings.