New to manual mode underwater photography

[picjunkie]

I just got an a650is and housing. I am trying to get the most of the camera, and even did the underwater photography class in my advanced. I still feel a bit confused on how to keep the most realistic coloration while diving. I have been white ballancing, and using 400 exposure and fstops between 3 and 8. Some 0of my photos come out a bit greenish still. I will post some pics as soon as i get bak to the states this weekend.
Any tips would be greatly appreacieated.
Scottie

 

[alcina]

Scottie - I'm off diving so will just real quick point you to the Pink Link in my signature. It takes you to the sticky and there you will find detailed information on choosing settings. These will need to be adapted to where you are diving, of course, but they are a good starting point.

I don't know what "400 exposure" is? Are you setting your ISO to 400? Unless you really really need it, I would try to reduce that to the lowest your camera has - 50 or 100. If you are diving very dark waters you may have to keep the ISO higher and just live with the resultant noise it creates.

Everything in photography is a trade-off and the goal is light!

If you don't have extra lights (strobes) and you are too far away from your subject to light things up with the internal, you will get the water colour cast to your photos. Setting the white balance manually will help, but you'll still get the cast in many shots until you overpower the cast with light.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Most photo dives in Advanced are not photo classes, just the first dive of the actual photo class. If that instructor is a good photo instructor, taking the complete photo class with that instructor might be just one more dive with all the classroom information that was likely not emphasized in AOW.

 

[gladtobehere]

Scottie,

First, whatever Alcina says is right. Especially "the goal is light". I may even now adopt that as a life saying.

Remember the first rule of uw photography - "get close and then get closer". Hmmm....maybe this should be a life saying too.

Also, post processing will help remove that greenish tint. I find that the "Remove Color Cast" tool in Adobe PSE works great for that and is a very simple fix. Below are before and after examples of Remove Color Cast (and I suck at PSE!).

Marc

Before

After

 

[Jim Ernst]

I will also second what Alcina say's ... she knows her stuff!!

I have one question... ALCINA.....

Why are we not pushing the OP towords auto white balance that we /most of us photographers use???????

 

[alcina]

I will also second what Alcina say's ... she knows her stuff!!

I have one question... ALCINA.....

Why are we not pushing the OP towords auto white balance that we /most of us photographers use???????

Because auto white balance without a strobe sucks The only times I use auto white balance on a compact camera is when I know I am in range for my internal flash or if I am using external strobes; otherwise, it's manual white balance if I'm shooting without strobes.

Manual white balance is the way forward without a strobe, imho. Auto can be pretty hit or miss, in my experience. The cameras just don't "get" what the scene underwater is meant to look like in a lot of cases. Sometimes it will nail it just right, but not enough of the time for my tastes.

I will shoot "auto white balance" on my dslrs when I am shooting RAW (read, all the time) because that's one of the main benefits of RAW - you don't have to deal with it, you set it in post, not underwater.

 

[picjunkie]

thanks for the great responses. I will check out that link when i can, and PS to remove the green. Here is an example of one of the pics I messed up the F stop.

 

[picjunkie]

here is one of my favorite shots.