Oly 5050, Inon D2000 and BLUE Photos?

[adjuster-jd]

I have an Oly 5050 with inon D2000 strobe. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I shoot on manual mode and even when my photos look good on the display underwater, they all end up blue. If I turn up the power on the strobe then the photos are overexposed.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but not really sure what to do to fix it. Yes, editing software can fix some stuff but I'm disappointed in the few salvageable shots I end up with.

Anyone have suggestions as to what to try? I'm off to Roatan in a couple days so want to try to make some improvements on my results from prior trips.

TIA.

 

[alcina]

Examples, please

My first two guesses would be 1) too far away for the strobe light to hit your subject and 2) strobe positioned incorrectly. You say that turning up the power blows the exposure, so assuming you aren't also moving the positioning and/or getting closer when you change the power setting, neither of those are the culprits

 

[livewire]

Yes yes examples would be helpful! Also, I'd check your white balance. I shoot with an Oly 5050, too. I'm using a Sea and Sea strobe and not an Inon, BUT white balance setting is important and it's easy one to overlook. I leverage the Oly's "My Modes" feature, which I'll explain momentarily, but setting white balance to AUTO gives the best results with this camera. In my experience with other settings, AUTO is the way to go. I've also heard of people setting white balance manually with a white card underwater, but that seems like a pain, and the Oly's pretty good at it, so go the easy road.

On the "My Mode" settings, what I do is set one mode for macro, one for super macro and a third for wide angle. Essentially you set your camera to the best settings for say macro (put the camera in macro mode, set white balance to AUTO, your f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, resolution, etc.) then save this as MyMode 1. Do the same for super macro and wide angle and now when you go diving you just select the My Mode you want and you're ready to shoot!

Hope this helps!

 

[oly5050user]

did you check to see if the strobe is in sync with the camera?
take a picture of the strobe/or look in a mirror as you take photo - and see if the strobe is firing while the image is taken..could be the strobe is firing on the preflash..this is one of the reasons why I pefer having an ikelite housing with a sync cord to fire strobes reliably every time.
If it is then you probably are too far from subject.Keep close no further than 4 feet to get color saturation..Take a exposure,examine it and if overexposed you can either hold strobe further away, or lower the power on it .
What is the strobes underwater guide number? Divide the distance into the guide number and it will give you a good suggestion to what the f stop should be.If the guide number is 24 with an iso of 100 shutter speed of 100 and the subject is 3 ft away your f stop should be f8.From that info you can bracket an image by changing f stop 1 up or down and or shutter speeds,then you can shoot/examine/adjust until you have you desired effect. By changing shutter speeds you will find that it lightens or darkens background.

 

[Footslogger]

This is a C5050Z shot using the Inon WAL on an Ike housing - DS-125 strobe:

ScubaBoard Gallery - INON WAL - Powered by PhotoPost

Is THIS what you mean by "BLUE" ??

MJ

 

[adjuster-jd]

Here are 3 examples. Preflash is not an issue since camera is in slave mode - no preflash. I really - can't confirm that the strobe is firing on these - I think I saw it.
These are just a couple random selections from last year's trip.

Thanks.,

 

[Footslogger]

Here are 3 examples. Preflash is not an issue since camera is in slave mode - no preflash. I really - can't confirm that the strobe is firing on these - I think I saw it.
These are just a couple random selections from last year's trip.

Thanks.,

==================================

Those look like ambient light shots to me (ie ...no flash). You need to make sure you're strobe is firing AND in synch with your shutter.

MJ

 

[Nemrod]

Again no expert, just bought the D2000 and only had it in a pool so far but don't you have to install that little magnet if not using preflash?

You don't happen to have a BLUE diffuser on the strobe do you?

N

 

[spt29970]

I shot the C5050 for many years. It is a great camera. In your examples, it looks like you metered on the background which means that any flash that you add will cause the image to be overexposed. What you want to do is underexpose the background by a stop or two so that the strobe flash causes the foreground to be perfectly exposed. In this case you will get vibrant foreground colors and blue backgrounds. I also suggest that you shoot in RAW mode so that you can correct for the WB in the RAW converter, although the "cloudy" white balance setting is often a good starting point. Finally, it also looks like you are a bit far from your subjects. Even the strobe light will turn blue if it has to make a long round trip from the camera to the subject and back. The rule of thumb is that you want to get as close as possible, and then get closer!

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

another thing you can do is add a color lens.