Need advice for my first underwater photography adventure

[BigAirHarper]

I just bought a camera housing for my nikon S9 point and shoot camera. I'm going to be trying it out this weekend and I was wondering if there is anything I should do with my settings (ISO, Flash, etc.) before I take it on its first dive. I will only be in max 20ft of water. Thanks for any tips.

 

[herman]

Spend some time on land outdoors in the evening shooting to get use to the controls and features. I say late evening because it does a nice job of simulating UW lighting conditions. Also remember, things look a lot closer underwater. The first rule of underwater photography is get close, get closer, get even closer and when you think you are too close you are just about close enough.
If your camera has a manual mode, go directly to it and learn to use it. Reguardless of the camera, none of them do a great job UW in an auto mode.

 

[Michel Braunstein]

Hello!
I think you might be interested by the answer I just wrote here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tips-techniques/350936-why-my-images-appear-bluish-do-underwater-mode-helps.html
Cheers,
Michel

 

[trigfunctions]

Most things you will want to take pictures of will be moving, and you will also be moving. Even if you are taking pictures of coral, you will be moving somewhat. Therefore, you need to make sure that your shutter speed is no less than 1/60, and preferably something like 1/200. If you don't know how to adjust that manually, try putting the camera in the "sport" or "action" mode that you would use to take pictures of moving things on land. Otherwise, a lot of your pictures will probably be blurry. Colors and even underexposure can be corrected with software, but blurry photos can't.

 

[BLUESEASONBALI]

Hi Bigair,

1) You are doing the right thing by staying on a nice shallow dive for the first few times you use your camera, not only because there is far more light and color at these depths, but also if you haven't used a camera in that environment before it can be a little distracting from your dive plan, so stay shallow until you get a good feel for what your doing.

2) Practice on land with the housing on the camera to get used to its functions

3) Get in the water and practice as much as possible, don't be afraid to take as many pictures as you want! Remember we live in a DIGITAL AGE now!!

4) Shoot upwards all the time and get as much ambient light into your photos as possible.

5) I don't know what your level of diving is at the moment, but if you are fairly new then work on your buoyancy, in my eyes a Peak Performance Buoyancy course is more effective for taking good photographs than rushing straight in to a photography course. Composition is key!

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