I need advice

[Scotttyd]

I have posted a link to my photobucket page where I have a few picks from my lasted trip off coast of North Carolina. I am having problems with my strobe adjustments. I see to almost always overexpose part of the picture. I added a diffuser which has helped soften the light and spread it out. Now the conditions when these pics where taken were less than ideal with a lot of particulate in the water, which I know complicates things, but can any of you give some advice on what I could do better? I am using a Ikelite AF35 strobe with a Nikon Coolpix L11 point and shoot camera.

Scotttyd/unedited pics - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

 

[alcina]

You'd probably get a lot more help faster if you posted two or three examples in this thread - many members don't/can't click into external links.

If you need help embedding images, please have a look at the Pink Link in my signature as there are full directions in our Sticky - Everything Photo.

HTH

 

[Scotttyd]

here is a try to see if it worked to attach

 

[Scotttyd]

here are the rest

 

[kadleck]

Those are pretty cool photos actually, and most are not too over-exposed. Maybe the Coolpix is unable to allow you to get better exposures than you have? Perhaps the answer may be to upgrade the camera, rather than the strobe!

 

[sylpha]

yes the particulates in the water are a pain, in the circumstances well done, but i can see where you are coming from. just a thought though, how are you triggering the flash? i can see patches which are more exposed than others and i'm wondering if you are using a cable or a (can't remember the name for it, you know where the internal camera flash triggers a light sensitive cable). if the latter is some light from the internal flash escaping into the picture.

 

[AndyT]

Hi Scotty

A few things come to mind. Are you sure that the lens port wasn't a bit fogged up?

Strobe placement - correct strobe positionong helps to reduce backscatter.
Here are two links to have a look at.

tip_edge_light

http://www.kelpfish.net/strobe.swf

The two images that appear very green - either your subject was too far away for the strobes to be effective or your strobe aiming was off.

Hope this helps !

 

[Scotttyd]

1. The strobe does not have a cable connections, it has a sensor

2. When looking back at my pictures from Maui, (also on the photobucket page) where it was my first experience using my camera and strobe, I realized I had much better pictures with better color. Obviously the subject matter has more color there, and there was much better viz (50 + feet vs 20 feet) with very little particulate. After reading some other posts, I realize the taking pictures of silver fish are always going to be a problem as they act like mirrors.

3. One thing of interest to me. When playing with these pictures in photoshop I usually start with auto levels (I know I know I should do it manually, but it is an easy way to see what I have to play with). These picture came out very red which is different than any other times I have shot pictures, including at this same dive site. This is the first time I have used the diffuser on my strobe. Anyone have an idea why that is?

 

[ce4jesus]

Just one item of note...is the AF35 made for a digital camera? If not, you might have two issues. One, it may not be syncing up correctly and 2nd, it will only do a full dump of the strobe no matter what.

 

[sylpha]

red is the first colour to be filtered out by the density of the water, green is its oposite on the colour wheel which is why autolevels puts too much red into the picture - it doesn't understand underwater light. manual levels will save you much more time.

i also think Andy may have a point, do you have some condensation on the lens port, a silica gel bag or 2 will sort that for you. (why does it always say to throw them away on the packet, don't they know how useful they are?)