Need advice...Soon!

[Tkojis]

Hello....Im new to underwater still photography and a have a few questions that my have already been covered here or seem pretty simplistic. I will be taking my Cannon S 50, Ys 90dx strobe with a 20mm WAL. Please bear with me. The more I THINK I understand...The less I ACTUALLY understand!
1) Is this camera capable of achieving good results in the "P" mode? 2) As I understand it, when Im in Shutter priority,the camera automaticly sets the aperture. When in aperture priority,it sets the shutter speed. Wont the final settings ultimatly be very similar regardless of which setting I choose?..If Im confused about this issue, which settings should I be using? I understand the principle of shoot, review and adjust the settings...but I need a place to start.
3) As far as white balance goes.since Im using a flash,should I set it to flash mode or use cloudy for deeper water and sunny for shallow water?
4) Are the manual settings on my strobe a function of available light in terms of depth...or is it more a function of distance from the subjec
Any answers to all or part of theses questions will bve greatly appreciated. Im trying to keep things simple and am not expecting to win any photo contests. Im just looking for decent quality photos. Any other advice about specific settings or tips would be greatly appreciated...Thanks again

 

[Dee]

I know next to nothing about the Canon cameras. If no one give you the info you're looking for, I'll give you some general guidelines.

 

[Tortuga Roja]

Tkojis once bubbled...

1) Is this camera capable of achieving good results in the "P" mode?

Yes. I have never used one but I have a friend that dives with one w/o the strobe and get very good pix. With the stobe - you will do better. Any mode you understand will do well. If you don't like the instant replay, change something and try again. Make sure you have the largest storage card you can afford.

2) As I understand it, when Im in Shutter priority,the camera automaticly sets the aperture. When in aperture priority,it sets the shutter speed. Wont the final settings ultimatly be very similar regardless of which setting I choose?

What you left out of the equation is that YOU set what the camera doesn't. It's called priority because you choose which is most important. If you want a fast shutter speed, i.e. you have a moving target, you would choose shutter priority so you can set a fast shutter. The camera will set the aperture according to what the available light is and what the shutter speed you decided on.

Like anything, there's always a compromise. The faster your shutter, the wider your aperture will be so you will have less depth in focus. So if you want to shoot something that is sitting still in good clean water, you might want to set your aperture and let the camera set the shutter speed to match.

Test this topside with just the camera before trying to learn it underwater when you have other things to think about.

3) As far as white balance goes.since Im using a flash,should I set it to flash mode or use cloudy for deeper water and sunny for shallow water?

I think cloudy is the best unless you have auto. If you can shoot RAW, that's even better. Then you can adjust the white balance on your computer for the best results by far. Your camera instructions probably show how to set a custom balance by using a white card. A dive slate will work but you will need to redo it at different depths.

Sorry, I know nothing about your strobe.

Hope this helps...