I know this camera can do better ... advice?

[Kimela]

Your better pics look great!

Thank you! I guess I've set a challenge for myself, to get some great shots and not use any post-processing stuff. I'm not motivated to do a dive trip geared to teach how to use Lightroom - but you never know when my mind might be changed. I didn't want a strobe either ...

 

[Searcaigh]

The Backscatter + Snoot is excellent.

I agree, and it's very well priced too. In fact I bought a second strobe and with two you can get decent wide angle coverage

One thing you need to learn is to avoid diving in groups and go slow only diving with another photographer or a buddy that can spot for you.

Want a picture of a blenny then hang around with one for most of the dive. They are creatures of habit and although they move around a lot, they tend to use the same spots.

This shot was a bit more tricky as the fish was moving around a lot, and I took about ten shots before I was happy.

 

[KevinG58]

Do you know how I can determine what that is? WAIT: HOLD THE PRESS! I typed that and then grabbed my camera, put it on 'underwater' mode and macro, then half-pressed the shutter when I had an item to actually focus on and the GREEN BOX appeared! Then I tried to focus on my mouse pad (all black) and NO BOX! Please don't give me TOO much grief about not knowing what the green box is. I saw people referring to it in this thread and thought my camera didn't have it!!!!! Doh! Now I'm 'assuming' this is the 'smallest focus spot' my camera allows? (No, I haven't taken any classes - why do you ask?! Duh!).

Final excuse ... like most people my age, I have to use readers. I did get my masked updated with my new script for near and far vision, but it's still not optimal. I wish I could take a pair of readers down there with me!

I'm not a TG6 user but while looking at it as a backup camera I read the manual, would Focus Peaking help out? As I read it, this will highlight the sharpest part of the image with a contrasting color.

 

[Gareth J]

Thank you! I guess I've set a challenge for myself, to get some great shots and not use any post-processing stuff. I'm not motivated to do a dive trip geared to teach how to use Lightroom - but you never know when my mind might be changed. I didn't want a strobe either ...

From reading comments from 'proper' photographers here, I understand that there are some limitations with your camera, the lack of adjustment for shutter speed and aperture.
I dive with an old Canon S95.
For your comments, you appear to dive mostly warm tropical water. Which means you should have reasonably good light.
In the early days, I used to dive without Strobes. So I would white balance at my working depth and shoot without artificial light. (Which avoids scaring things off).
If your camera allows easy adjustment of the white balance, then this might be an option.

Also, even the basic windows photo editing program (which you probably use to crop your photos), gives a white balance option. This allows you to correct for the 'blue' if you didn't have the correct white balance for your depth, or are unable to adjust white balance on the fly.

 

[Darnold9999]

... and just to manage expectations a strobe really only penetrates for a few feet so will not help much on anything more than two or three feet away.

... and another cautionary tale - I started with a Sealife camera and a single strobe fifteen years ago and now dive with a housed DSLR, a GoPro, two strobes and two video lights. Don't publish anything, all for my own amusement.

 

[Kimela]

... and just to manage expectations a strobe really only penetrates for a few feet so will not help much on anything more than two or three feet away.

Unless a ray, turtle or shark swims by, I'm generally only shooting stuff within a foot or less. Hopefully, a strobe will do what I want. My husband has gifted me one of his powerful lights to put on an arm if I decide to have that in addition to a strobe - but the only time I can see me wanting to use that would be for those rays, turtles, sharks ...

... and another cautionary tale - I started with a Sealife camera and a single strobe fifteen years ago and now dive with a housed DSLR, a GoPro, two strobes and two video lights. Don't publish anything, all for my own amusement.

You were bitten by the bug, eh? That's a lot of stuff to lug. But when you get 'that one picture' it really is amazing, isn't it!

 

[Kimela]

I'm not a TG6 user but while looking at it as a backup camera I read the manual, would Focus Peaking help out? As I read it, this will highlight the sharpest part of the image with a contrasting color.

You read the manual!?!? Guess I'll have to go look that up ...

Oh ... I know what you're talking about - Focus Bracketing. It's not in the underwater settings mode, and you can set it up to take up to 30 pictures. I accidentally did that once and was frustrated by the number of pictures I had to choose from - and it didn't have the filters for underwater pics. There is also the underwater HDR mode that takes several pictures and combines them all to give you the best focus across all pics, but in one picture. It takes about 2 seconds to write to the memory (you get a 'busy' message) - and 2 seconds, underwater, seems like forever if the critter I want to take pic of is in motion. So ...

 

[Gareth J]

. It takes about 2 seconds to write to the memory (you get a 'busy' message) - and 2 seconds, underwater, seems like forever if the critter I want to take pic of is in motion. So ...

I did a photo course a few years ago, one of the exercise was to track and shoot, holding down the shutter button.

My camera click...............................................................................click.......................................................................click

The person next to me
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I got three shots, she got thirty or fifty in half the time.

That said, I still like the S95.

 

[Blackcrusader]

That's pretty darned funny! I have rarely had the opportunity to take that much time to set up a shot. Usually I'm with a group and have to keep up.

Firstly find a guide that isn't in a rush to get from A to B. Dives are not races to a finish line. Secondly your buddy should stay with you. So find one who is also a photographer having two pairs of eyes looking is good. Also one can take photos the other wait. You can have some separation in a group with a buddy especially when the direction is following a reef wall. Use the current to your advantage turn into it and hover using fins. If current really too strong then maybe not the time for a macro shot but video can still be good.

BTW all the photos you see I post, I could not see too well. I had not so great eyesight so I relied on that green focus square and then took the shots. Sometimes you take a few but you will get some really good ones. I'm only slightly aged at 60 lol. This crab was only tenths of an inch. It was a blurry blob to my eyes. The Nudies were easier. Also take shots from along the body from the side you can get it all in focus. Head on shots you get the head the body won't be in focus as in Macro the focal depth is very shallow.

PS I rarely do anything on my photos as I am very lazy and I am not proficient with editing. On some photos I just use the auto adjustment in light room classic. I shoot in raw and jpeg and the ones I post are jpeg where the camera really does the processing. Most are as they come out of the camera. I may crop the sides or top and bottom but that's about it.

 

[Blackcrusader]

The green box is essential. It needs lines to focus on...the camera tries to make the lines sharp. Some nudis, for example, have a mottled pattern that appears out-of-focus...and indeed it is hard to focus on. Rule of thumb: focus on the eyes for a fish, the rhinophores for a nudi. For the little blennies, try and get an angle so the mouth and teeth are the same distance from the lens as the eyes...then all three will be sharp.

Yup this is great advice. Same for my Dragon Sea Moth photo I focused on the eye. Same for this lion fish, Close enough to touch its spines almost.