Help with C5050Z And ES 150 Strobe

[RESCUEDIVER]

Hi,

I purchased a PT-015 package, with Epoque strobe and wide angle lens a couple of weeks ago.. (and obviously a new c5050z)

I finally got into a pool to try it out. After tweaking and playing ( and adjusting too much-too many times)and taking about 100 shots, I really never got very good pictures.

An example of my shooting was as follows:

Shot 1 was taken mid-zoom, distance to swimmer about 8-10', flash set at middle intensity (6) camera set on M ASA200, aperature 3.2 shutter speed 1/300- white balance set at sunny flash setting came up as slow1 and flash was set at slave

Shot 3 was taken with wide angle lens, distance to subjects was about 15' or so, flash was set about (9) 3/4 full intensity, camera set on M, Asa200, aperature 2.8 shutter speed 1/320- white balance set for cloudy flash setting at slow1 (defaulted by camera) and flash set at slave (soory about the body bag)

Most of my photos are "washed out", cloudy and pretty blue, particularly for a pool. These were consistent with most of my useable shots except for the ones I purposefully underexposed

Any suggestions where to start with settings to get crisper shots (my depth of range was pretty good)(do I need to adjust contrast or color balance of camera)???... and where to adjust when I hit some deeper water in a caribbean like area. Most of my underwater photo experience has been with film and a Reefmaster with slave strobe. Very easy to operate, but I'm a digital freak, so...

It has been suggested I start at f4-5 at 90-125. These seems slow and high, but I'm not experienced enough to tell

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Doug Watkins

 

[Dee]

Doug...I don't have a C-5050 so I can't answer your particular camera specific questions. But I can suggest a few things to help get you started.
1) Start in P or Auto mode to get a feel for the camera. When you're comfortable with that, move to Aperture or Shutter mode where you just change one setting. When you're comfortable with that, move to Manual mode where you have full control over everything.
2) Your flash, internal or external, no matter what strength is not going to be cover more than 3ft. So in your first shot description, with your subject 8-10ft away, the only thing lit by your flash is any particles in the water.

The following is a couple of link that may be helpful.

Olympus C-5050 lessons
Olympus C-XOXO Starter settings

 

[RESCUEDIVER]

Thanks, but the C5050z with a slave strobe only works in "M" mode or "A" mode, according to their manual. Maybe I'll try some bench shots in "P" to see if the strobe synchs up with the slave, but I don't believe this will be the case

 

[ReyeR]

Doug, do you know if the ES150 is a 'digicam compatible' strobe ie can it handle the 'pre-flash' that the digicam's built-in flash fires? In most strobes this usually means it is set up to ignore the pre-flash. If so you should be able to sync it in any shooting mode (P, A etc.).

Like Dee suggests it's good to start in 'auto' modes to get a feel. Start with objects close by - say no more than a couple of feet away.

In M mode I usually use 1/125, aperture according to exposure and DOF requirements, white balance on auto and IS0 64 (I find the noise un-satisfactory even at 100). Flash set to Slow1 and 'Int' or 'Slave, Level 1' depending on what I set on my strobe ( TTL or manual).

Some samples of your pics will also help.

 

[zaf88]

i lower the exposure value even on land bc the flash seems to really overexpose pictures. i set it to -.7 personally.

 

[digitaldiver]

The key to the problems you posted is not the settings, it is the distance.

You will never take quality images of anything 8 to 15 feet away from your camera, no matter what camera it is.

 

[RESCUEDIVER]

Thanks to everyone.

Here's what I have discovered, and only if life were simple.

1. Yes, the maximum distance will probably be 15 feet or so with effective strobe use

2. The camera will flash and synch(??) in auto or s with the flash setting listed as auto and set for external The Epoque flash unit must be set on On-Off so it ignores the pre-flash. Problem here is that the camera is still setting its aperature and shutter speed based on what is sees returned from the pre-flash; which in my case is totally obscured due to the velcro cover I have over the flash window. So this really screws up the auto settings

3. If the camera is placed in M (I guess you could use A but why at this point) , the strobe set as a slave, the Epoque set on On, the aperature set 4-5 and the shutter speed set at 1/125-1/250, depending on ISA (200 to start), a starting point is arrived.

The two biggest issues I found were white balance (this setting might need to be set for cloudy or actually force the white balance by calibrating underwater with a white slate) and finding a sweet spot for the strobe power setting.

It looks like this is solved by leaving the histogram "on", taking some sample pictures, refer to the histogram and adjusting the aperature and/or shutter speed to get a good contrast and brightness level. I am guessing (and probably incorrectly) that a mid-level setting on the strobe might equate to 7-8 feet of distnace from the subject. The information provided with the strobe is a little difficult to understand, as it was all in Japanese. A call to Epoque-USA resulted in nothing meaningful, because they said these are guide refernces only (based on what I'm not sure and neither were they)

Digitaldiver's page, referred to in Dees post, has the most complete information and help. Referring to the Canon and Olympus sites also provided some guidelines

I'll try these suppositions out in the next week and post results. This all worked great top side, but who knows when water is interjected