How to turn green water blue

[CLA]

Hi

I noticed that some of my pictures have greenish water. What causes this and how do you avoid it (without photoediting)? It happens sometimes with or without the flash but not in all of my pics.

I'm using an oly 5060 in PT-020 with only an internal flash and no lense attachments. When not using the flash I adjust the white balance manually with my slate

Here are some of my green pics without photoediting

What am I doing wrong?

CLA

 

[Michael_Lambert]

THe deeper you go the water is distorting the light causing the green look, You need to adjust the white balance on your camera if you have that ablitiy.. What i have seen some other divers do is carry a white sheet of paper laminated for diving and use it your depths to adjust the white balance.

 

[kapula]

You've done nothing wrong. I don't normally use my internal flash on my 8080. I do use the slate I have to adjust the white balance. You just need to do it more often the deeper you go and see that adjust it so that there's light coming to your slate (don't press it directly to the lense ). Next step is photoshop. You can do pretty much with it.

 

[scubaaaronh]

adjust your white balance more often using a slate or sand on the bottom if the sand is pretty white. I adjust every few feet difference. place your slate in front of the lense far away enough to just fill the lense capture

 

[CLA]

Hmmm... now I'm a bit confused. Can you also adjust white balance manually while using internal flash? I thought you could only do that with the flash off. When it's on I use autoWB but still get greenish pics. In the previous attachments only the puffer was taken without the flash.

Here are some more greenpics with flash (nudi and hermitcrab). In the last 2 pics I got lucky (nudisquirt and scorpionfish) but unfortunately I can't remember the settings I used. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that I lost my diffuser for the last pic (scorpionfish with lense barrel shadow).

Sorry guys. I don't really understand photography very well yet and I'm just trying to learn by trial and error. Your suggestions are much appreciated.

CLA

 

[scubak]

Hi! I don't want to hijack this thread...but I have a question...
I have an Oly 5060 in Ike housing and the 125strobe...
Love it except that I am getting the dark shadow on the lower left corner of my pics like you have in the scorpian fish pic...what causes this? How can I correct this???
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again,
Kirsten

 

[kapula]

To CLA: You can manually adjust the wb while using flash. Just leave the flash on while adjusting wb. I don't normally do this since I use flash on subjects I can get very close to. No need for wb adjusting. You get nice red pictures when you forget to turn wb to auto if you haven't calibrated it with your flash on. I have a few of those

 

[bobf]

first question to ask is what color is the water! some water may actually be green....

secondly, leave the WB on auto......imho it is not the problem with these images.....

What I see in the images (greenish~bluish, generally washed out backgrounds except for the last nudi image and scorpionfish) is lack of background exposure control. This is most likely caused by too slow a shutter speed chosen in relationship to aperture setting. Also, regarding composition, the backgrounds in most of these images is not of water, but of ground. If you aim your camera up towards the primary subject, you have a better chance of capturing blue water backgrounds than by aiming down towards the sea floor.

In the last two images of the nudi and scorpionfish, which portray a black background, one of two possibilities could explain the result:

One. They were either taken late afternoon or at night, when minimal to no ambient light was available and the background was beyond the reach of the strobe power (water itself is a poor reflector of light, although particles in the water are a good reflector so backscatter may still be present if strobes are not properly positioned).

Or two.

If captured in the presence of ambient light, the shutter speed was increased to (just a guess) in the neighborhood of 1/500 sec. (or faster)and again, the background was beyond the reach of the strobe.

If you want blue water in your background image and the water indeed is blue, then all you have to do is meter for it. Set your digicam to manual mode (not auto, not aperture priority, not shutter priority). When you get to the depth at which you will be capturing images, point your lens out to open water. Set your aperture to f/4. Then choose a shutter speed next that puts the EV readout at around -1 (underexpose by about an f/stop). Take a pic. and check your LCD review. If the image is still too light, increase shutter speed. If the image is too dark for your taste, choose a slower speed.

Or simply put, if you wish to darken the background, increase shutter speed. If you wish to lighten the background, decrease shutter speed. Shutter speed will have no role in foreground exposure as long as you choose a speed within the sync capabilities of the strobe (camera model dependent).

Simultaneously controlling foreground exposure (aperture and strobe intensity), along with background exposure (aperture and shutter speed), is just one more step and could be addressed in another thread..................

hth,
b

 

[Gilligan]

Are you using the camera in "manual" mode so that you are setting the F stops and shutter speeds? This is important for underwater photos. "Auto" IMHO is not going to yield the best results underwater.

Keep in mind your built in strobe is good to about 2 feet. After that just use the manual white balance setting with no strobe. It is also important that you have a software program such as Photoshop Elements or the like to edit your photos. As previously stated forgetting to re-calibrate the manual WB with and without the strobe will yield red photos if used with a strobe and the no-strobe WB calibration. "Auto" WB is fine with the strobe.

You may want to read this article about using FL-D and FL-B filters coupled with the manual white balance calibration. Keep in mind the author refers to using a gray card instead of a white card only because that particular camera brand and model required a gray card. A white card is most commonly used.

I have been using manual white balance for quite some time with good results. Keep in mind I am in very clear blue water. I recently started experimenting with an FL-B 67mm thread on filter that I picked used at B&H Photo for under $20.

I took these shots with manual white balance and no strobe.

 

[AndyT]

Hi

bobf is correct in what he is saying .I generally dive in greenish water .With my 5060 what I have found is that if I slow down the shuter speed I can get a blue background.You need to go as slow as 1/50 or 1/60 to get this right , and it doesn't always work 100% .The problem with this is that if you have a moving subject it will most likely be blurred .Ditto the comments on f stops etc .

I also shoot in RAW format - sooner or later you are going to want photoediting software .

Safe Diving

Andrew