Olympus 1030sw white balance question/software tweaking

[suzette]

Hello to all!

Quick question: I will be buying a housing/strobe soon for my Olympus 1030 SW, but in the meantime I'm trying to improve my photos a bit and could use some advice.

I've seen some information online about setting the white balance on a camera by taking a photo of a white slate underwater- I'm a bit confused on that or if it's worth doing. Any thoughts or advice on doing that with this particular camera?

I usually shoot on the scene mode with Underwater wide 2 mode (I actually don't know the difference between 1 and 2 and haven't been able to find out) with the flash off. If I use the flash, it gives me scatter from sea monkeys in the water. I try to get as close to my subject as possible.

I'll post a picture example and see what you think. I would love to have some of the photos I've seen posted with the blue nearly eliminated but I'm not sure if that's the result of the camera set up or post photo touchups via software. I have no problem doing that, but am really not sure where to start or if there's a reasonably simple way to help my pics. Right now I use Picasa and the "I feel lucky" option to touch them up, which works pretty well.

Any advice is appreciated. I'm not unhappy with my pictures, but I'm looking to improve and am not really sure where to start (aside from getting a housing/strobe, which I will do eventually).

Original:

I feel lucky fix on Picasa

Neutral color picker in Picasa, where I clicked on the whiteish coral on the right side of the pic:

 

[StreetDoctor]

I can't be of any help but I'm interesed to hear from people who can. I have the same camera, shoot in the same mode, and have the same problem lol

 

[Nemrod]

An external flash will solve your problems. You cannot record what is not there, in this case red light, red light is absorbed from the spectrum rapidly below even a few feet. Getting close will help with your pics being clear-er but the only way to add the red back in is to use a strobe. The filter solution might work in your warm, clear water to about 30 feet, they hold back blue and green light, not add red, thus at some depth (depends on water, light etc) they are only a handicap.

I do not believe your camera has the option for a custom white balance.

N

 

[fallingspeaker]

Nemrod, Since our cameras cannot fire a flash in super-macro mode, what do we do for extreme closeups with a strobe? Are we relegated to using regular macro or stacked len's?

 

[StreetDoctor]

When using a flash how do you get the scatter out then? I ask this as I also have a D90 that I will adventually buy an UW housing for.

 

[Kiwi Sean]

Suzette

Underwater wide 1 is for "underwater landscapes", so probably emphasises a narrow aperture at the expense of shutter speed.

Underwater wide 2 is for shooting "underwater action scenes", suggesting shutter speed takes priority.

The closest thing that the camera has to custom white balance is in Underwater Video mode, where you can select from 3 white balances, which add a progressively redder "filter" to the image. To be honest, I have played with this setting quite a bit, with only very limited success.

For still images, stick with the advice that Nemrod offers - either a red filter on your lens (if there is enough ambient light and you aren't too deep) or external strobe. To eliminate (reduce) backscatter, you need to have the light source coming at the subject from an angle, as opposed to from pretty much straight on like the inbuilt flash offers.

For solutions involving image editing on the computer, a white balance card of some sort can be useful if you aren't too deep (I have found that beyond about 30 feet correcting white balance by using the white/grey/black point droppers in photoshop tends to give you a very grey image). I have had some success with a photoshop filter that was mentioned in a post earlier this year (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ti...-found-using-photoshop-people-no-strobes.html).

Good luck!

cheers
Sean

 

[Nemrod]

If you are wanting super macro then you will need the Inon adapter and an Inon macro lens, then you can use an external strobe and the camera does not need to be in a macro mode. You ask a good question and I have not given a complete answer, in part because I am not much of a macro photog, maybe somebody will jump in and help us out.

An external strobe reduces back scatter from "stuff" in the water because the light from the strobe is not aligned with the lens. The "stuff" in the water still get's illuminated but like the back side of the moon, we just don't see it because it does not face us or in this case, face directly the lens.

N

 

[suzette]

Thanks for the replies, all! I had a feeling the answer was "get a strobe", which is fine, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything huge and obvious.

FWIW, I've been playing with the Neutral Color picker in Picasa with some success today. It was a pretty clear day for diving and I was in a shallow part of the reef and got this shot. Here is the before/after using Picasa.

This one is untouched- I was able to get very close and it came out great, I think:

 

[scottfiji]

Suzette, Streetdoctor -

I believe the camera's underwater mode will work best with photos taken in very shallow water (15ft or less). It's too bad the camera does not have custom white balance.

I think you are better off using the internal flash and taking photos of subjects just a few inches away, until you get the housing. If you are close enough you may not get much scatter. Using a diffuser on the housing will help reduce the backscatter from the internal flash. Using an external strobe will help even more, like Sean said.

Suzette, how deep was your photo taken?

hope this helps a little,
Scott

 

[suzette]

Scott,

In my last post, the edited photos were taken at about 25 feet, I'd say, and the unedited last one was quite shallow, maybe 15 feet. You're absolutely right that this camera takes the best shots very shallow and with excellent natural light- I'm just trying to eek out every last drop of quality I can for what I have right now. It's giving me such an itch to upgrade to a housing and strobe!