Need your advice to me, Newbie to DSLR

[Jfish]

I will go diving with my new toy - D80 + YS90 this Easter holiday. Though, I'm very excited :14: but I'm also worry about whether I could handle this bulky thing.. afraid of flood of camera, scratch the dome port, too heavy for me..etc.. >.<

I did lots of homework to read thru those tips and technics for DSLR here.. and I jot down some notes for myself, could you please comment whether I get it right.

Thanks a lot!

* I have been used Canon A620 + YS90 for a year, therefore I have little basic understanding of digital camera.

MACRO
- shoot with manual mode, match the F stop with my strobe's GN
- start from smaller F stop (=>F11) + faster shutter speed, 1/125 <> 1/250
- Strobe position : place it right above the len and aiming downward. Adjust the distance of strobe in case of under/over exposure.

WIDE ANGLE
- shoot with manual mode, match the F stop with my strobe's GN
- start from F5.6 + shutter speed range (1/100 > 1/250).
- If I wanna try out sunburst, then I should use smaller F stop to freeze sunlight >F11, and 1/250 (with strobe) or faster 1/500 (without strobe)
- strobe position ??? Since I only have 1 strobe, shall I place it above the len to give even coverage or to one side further away but parallel to the len?

- Questions:
1. To reduce blue background, shall I pre-set EV to minus? (say -1.5 to -3?)
2. Since I have to manual adjust my strobe's GN, is that mean I should either use manual mode or aperture priority to shoot (to ensure strobe's GN match with F stop)?

:blinking: Jso

 

[jarhed]

Hi,

Have fun with the D80, i shoot a D200 and I understand that they are quite similar.

some tips:

Don't get hung up on particular settings, try many settings and see what works best.
Shoot often, review pics w/ LCD display after each shot, adjust and shoot again.
Use the histogram display to check exposure
Shoot RAW files in addition to jpg (you can adjust exposure a bit here)
I tend to always shoot manual, but that's more personal preference
Don't rush, settle in and concentrate on making great pictures

Have fun!
John

 

[AUTiger]

Step 1: Go buy equipment insurance. DAN or DEPP http://www.awryinc.com/. Do this before our put your camera in the pool or the ocean for the first time. Do not wait. Don't tempt the scuba gods into taking your camera as a sacrifice.

Step 2: Practice, practice, practice. Get in the pool and take pictures. Go somewhere for an easy dive and take dozens of photos of the same rock and open water background just to see how the shutter and aperture change the appearance of the subject and the background.

I'm just now learning my new D80 myself.

David

 

[Jfish]

Thanks for both of your comments.. I might post some pictures to share with you guys afterward.

That resort don't have a pool to practice :11:

 

[Warren_L]

- Questions:
1. To reduce blue background, shall I pre-set EV to minus? (say -1.5 to -3?)
2. Since I have to manual adjust my strobe's GN, is that mean I should either use manual mode or aperture priority to shoot (to ensure strobe's GN match with F stop)?

:blinking: Jso

As already mentioned, there's no need to get caught up with specific settings before you're even in the water. Do have an idea where you would like to start and go from there. That's the beauty of digital - it's easy to make adjustments on the fly.

As for your questions, if you're not shooting at night and want to reduce the background, you need to set a faster shutter speed. Your strobe will provide the lighting for your subject and really, the shutter speed is the main determinant of how much ambient light (primarily background light) gets through.

I would also avoid aperature priority as well since you are still relying on the camera to select the shutter speed, which will be hit and miss. It's harder to learn from your shots when the camera changes various settings on its own.

Good luck and post some pics for us to see!

 

[Jfish]

Hi all, I have just returned from Anilao, Southern of Manila. This is my first time to use D80 and the strobe YS90.

For macro, I used F11-F13 most of the time. The picture will become so dark if I used F14 or above. I kept the strobe right above the len port and the shutter speed no faster than 1/250 which is the limit of the sycn speed with strobe.

I used wide angle len for the last two dives since Anilao is mostly for macro. I felt so difficult to shoot with wide angle. The water vis was very low and lot of particles in water. I tried to shoot sunburst right after descent at about 15-20meters but all failed. The result were either too dark or too bright.

Here are some pictures to share with you all. For more pictures, please view my latest photo album at www.imagestation.com/members/erso

Damselfish

I love this kind of tinyfish, triplefins. However, I felt a bit difficult to catch the right focus on the fish (instead of the coral in front). I had crossed eyes after view things thru the view finder. Maybe I got used to the LCD screen of DC. @__@

My favorite fish - false clown anemonefish.

For wide angle - too bright or too dark

 

[stu_in_fl]

love the anemonefish

 

[Warren_L]

You got some nice macro shots from your trip - nicely done! And you're right, shooting a good wide angle shot is more challenging than macro, at least that's what I've found too. You have more to deal with in general including more water, wider area, and greater consideration with lighting. What I would do if it is too bright like the one above is to speed up the shutter a bit as it looks like your background is blown out (or stop down the aperature, or perhaps lower the ISO - depending on what settings you're already using). Lighting on the foreground from the strobe looks ok.

 

[Jfish]

Thanks Warran,

I shoot at ISO100. Is it common to change to lower ISO to shoot sunburst?

I tried to shoot at smaller aperture but keep the shutter speed at 1/250 when it's too brighter, but then it ended up with too dark background. It's the problem of using single strobe?

Need more practice..

 

[pakman]

Jfish, Ah nice macro shots in your album! Cute baby squid! Are you using a 60mm macro lens? I don't know what settings you are using on your Nikon, but on my Canon I find I get better focused photos when I choose the center focus pt. so the camera doesn't pick the wrong subject to focus on or if you want to focus on a fish's eyes rather than it's butt

Don't worry, I find wide angle frustrating as well and continue to miss on my sunball shots!!! Some tips I've gotten (which I hopefully will get to use next time!). Instead of just shooting open water directly at the sun, try to get a subject in the picture to block or partially block the sun (maybe a diver, a bangka, etc...) for a silhouette shot. Or try to put the sun to corner or edge...

Also, are you shooting in RAW? You might want to play with the white balance in RAW to remove some of that cyan cast on the foreground of the barrel sponge photo.