ok I am really frustrated!!

[diverrick]

We recently bought a digital underwater camera after using the cheap disposable ones and getting poor quality photos from them. We thought the better camera would fix the problems... it didn't. So I am turning to all of you to help us fix them now.

Problem #1 all the photos are blue. Even close ups. All the colors are washed out to blue, even with a strobe. For istance a white sand bottom with a jawfish, in 15 feet of clear water. All the sand is blue. The jawfish is blue. Or large colorful sponge, comes out a bluish color, nit the color I saw when I was down there.
Photo shop doesn't seem to be able to fix it either. or I don't know how to get PS to fix it. what am I doing wrong here? The photo is taken from about two feet away. I'd post it here but I don;t know how to do that yet.

Problem #2 when I do manage to get some colors by using the strobe, it looks like a spot of light, surrounded by darker reef. The strobe doesn't illuminate the whole area of the picture, just a spot in the picture.

Problem #3 When I attempt to photograph a fish, there is a lag between when I push the button, and when the camera takes the photo. in between these times, the fish seems to always swim off, and I get a picture of a blank reef instead.
I have others but I'll start with these three. Thanks

 

[Uncle Pug]

1. I have a setting on my Optio for underwater. I assume that it sets a digital color filter to keep things from looking too blue. Do you have such a setting on your camera? The fotofolks will probably give better advice if they knew what model camera you have.

2. Do you have a diffuser on your flash? The built in stobe on my camera is all I have but the underwater housing has a small diffuser in front of it to spread and soften the light. Even at that, a small strobe isn't going to light up much more than the subject close at hand. If you look at the pictures in my gallery you will see what I mean.

3. That drives me nuts! It is especially troublesome with low light as the autofocus takes so much time to lock on. Taking pictures of moving fish is very difficult for me... as is taking pictures when I am in surge or kelp and debries is blowing by in the current. I am going to put a red gel on the lense of a Q40 and use that as a focusing light and that should help.

 

[justleesa]

To #1) every thing over 3 feet away will be blue, even with the internal strobe. if you were to get a wide angle lens in might help a bit.

to #2) Like UP asks, do you have a difuser? that might be your problem right there.

to # 3) If you press the shutter button halfway before you are ready to take the shot you can reduse your lag a lot. You just have to estimate your focusing point (but focusing on something else first) first.

I have a question, what set up do you have? I know that there are digital cameras out there that really doesn't take all that great pictures, so digital does not = digital.
Also could you post a pic so we could play with it a bit for you?

 

[divenutny]

Diverrick - I have gotten some good advise from one of the SB sub categories, I vaguely remember it being named "Altered Realities". It is under the Digital Photo category. I recently switched to digital and are having similar issues, but not as bad as you state. Photoshop allows you to increase reds and yellows along with increasing sharpness. SB has threads that explain how to use PhotoShop 6, 7 and CS. You might be able to find specific advise for your camera. I have a Canon S1 with the Canon underwater case. The camera worked fairly well having issues printing some of the photos when there is a blue background. The Canon subcategory gave me a lot of insight getting a better photo from my camera.

Good luck - Tom

 

[ScubaDoobaDo]

Hey Diverrick, I had the same problem! I finally took an underwater photography lesson in Roatan (CoCoView Resort's own the ornery Tim Blanton) and WOW... white balance saved my pictures. I have an oly c750 w/PT18 housing and no strobes. If you want to look at before (the Belize photos) and after (Roatan-practicing and Utila-getting much better) go to: http://community.webshots.com/user/klfraser11 -- I was amazed what my camera could do and I had absolutely no idea. I had always used the auto feature and had no idea that I had the white balance and macro feature on my camera. You may want to sign up for a class (with a highly recommended photographer) on your next trip or before, you will be thrilled that you did. Good luck.. Kelly

 

[dbh]

It would help if I knew what camera, housing and strobe combination you are using.

WB control is good unless you shoot in RAW, then is a moot point.


Dave

 

[slingshot]

I understand your frustrations, and am hopeful that with a bit of info about your setup that the good folks here on the board can help. White balance settings can be key. One other tip I've gotten is that distance is very difficult to judge underwater, and that getting closer to the subject is key: it reduces particulates between you and the subject, improves the effectiveness of your strobe, etc. I've seen David Doubilet quoted as saying something like "get as close as you can [to your subject], then get even closer" (sorry if that's a misquote David!).

Best of luck.

 

[PapaBob]

Rick:

I will not add to the shooting advice you have already gotten in this thread. Often you can save one or more of your better images with post processing in Photoshop. If you have a few images you think were fairly sharp and had good subjects (but for the color cast) either post them here or send me a Private Message and I will give you my email address if you want to send a larger file. I will see what I can to to help.

Obviously, Photoshop is not substitute for getting the shot right in the camera. But when you have a problem like you describe, some of the shots may be salvageable.

---Bob

 

[diverrick]

Thanks for all the advise. I FINALLY was able to get a few of my problem pics into the gallery for all of you to look at. I really like the jawfish pic, but I fooled around with a copy of it in PS and adjusted almost everything I could adjust, but the blue just won't come out enough. My wife tells me that there is supposed to be a salt water filter 67 MM
(what ever that means)
that was back ordered, so that might help as well. The strobe is a digital strobe (
Bonica neon W/ variable power) with a diffuser lens. Camera is Bonica 5.0 MP I am not having any luck getting the macro setting to work as of yet, so I can't get too close to subjects as of yet. I am thinking that a close up lens might also help with the clarity issue, but I have to see if they make one for that camera case (sea-pix) maybe the one that is back odereed is a close up one?
As you may have seen in another post, the camera case failed after the 4th dive, so we are sending it back to them for repair or replacement. After we get back up and running I am going to practice in our pool a bit more, though no pretty coral exists there yet. (new fangled salt water pool)

 

[Land Locked]

There is still hope for your blue photo's Rick. You can download a plug-in
for photo shop that will color correct your digital photo's. See attached
links. Try the underwater.atn plug-in, or if your not happy with the results
play with the manual settings.

http://pt010.da-kine.info/adjustments.htm

http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAss...dio.adobe.com/axBrowseProductType.asp?p=2&t=5