beasleym:
Does anybody out there have recommendations for a newbie on settings that work well for you with an S9? There are a ton of settings that could be used, Fantasea has some guidelines, but to try out all of the various combinations and permutations of options would take more diving than I have left in me!
Some settings matters more than others.
If you are a complete newbie, then go for the auto mode.
As soon as possible, read some about camera aperture and speed.
That is if your camera can be set in speed priority, aperture priority mode or manual mode.
If it has speed priority mode, use that and select 1/100.
If it has manual mode, try that with 1/100 and for close ups aperture f8. If it gets too dark, simply open up the aperture (smaller number).
If you want to go advanced, then here's a few simple rule of thumbs.
The speeds controls the background light. The slower speed, the more background light (think water will become light blue instead of black).
The aperture is related and will somewhat also control the color of the water, but to keep it simple, think of it as a deph of field controller. The larger aperture (small number), the shorter depth of field (dof). As focusing is hard, go for the smallest aperture you can (large number) as it will make as much as possible sharp (but be careful that the image is not too dark). When shooting macro that means you get a few extra centimeters sharp (or millimeters depending on how clos up up you are). In reality it means that you (the AF on your camera) can be a little off and you will still get sharp shots.
Practice alot to keep the camera dead steady when focusing and shooting. Make sure you don't move at all. Note that holding your breath will make you move (up!).
Unless you only shoot subjects far away, your results will become 1000-times better if you get an external flash. Make sure it doesn't point directly to the subject, and mask the internal flash.
Hope this was helpful!
/Fota
