Photo Help

[adamsh]

Hi Guys,

I have just got back from a week in the red sea, where I took my Olympus Stylus 400 Camera with an inon D-180 Strobe and a Wide Angle Lens. I didnt expect to come back with photos as good as gilligans but I did expect to some back with some good ones.

It seems as though I was doing something wrong. I have included some links to show you the results.

The 1st one is when I tried to get close to the subject, as you can see the flash made parts of the image to light.
http://207.44.244.38/~apophis/P1010037.JPG

I then decided to try and keep my distance and zoom in a little, the bright spots were no longer a problem but the images look colorless.
http://207.44.244.38/~apophis/P1010040.JPG
http://207.44.244.38/~apophis/P1010099.JPG

This is one of the better photos taken.
http://207.44.244.38/~apophis/P1010207.JPG

As i'm sure you have noticed, they didnt come out very sharp either .

Thanks for any help.
Adam

 

[Gilligan]

Aloha Adam,
Thanks for the compliment on my pics. I have the luxury of diving 4 to 5 times a week to play with my camera and I am learning all the time and am far from being any kind of an expert.
I'm not sure what settings you used on your trip. I always use manual settings where I set the aperture and shutter speed. I set the Inon strobe to Auto and move the F stop dial up or down a notch or two from the cameras F stop to get the best results.
The strobe won't give you much more distance from a subject, just better light. I stay within 4 feet max.
I have to compensate for shots taken against a light sand background versus a dark lava background. The same for the color of the fish or other specimen. Fish with a lot of white in them will blow out if the strobe is too strong. It's a never ending learning curve.
Focusing is touchy with digital cameras because of shutter lag. I don't use Full time auto focus. I don't want the lens working all the time as respects wear and tear as well as battery consumption. The half way down shutter focusing method works best for me. You can't rush digital camera shots.
I played with 2 of your shots in Photoshop. I adjusted both for auto levels, some contrast and brightness and with the sharpen tool to help the focus.

Both photos look like you were too far away for the strobe. On shots that fade out beyond the strobe range you may want to crop them to capture the best part of the photo. I crop most of my shots. I prefer to use manual white balance w/o a strobe to capture a large reef or wreck shot.

PS: You may want to post your pics at 640 X 480 or 600 X 450 at 72dpi as they would load faster and be easier to view. The two I posted are 640 X 480 at 72dpi.

 

[ReyeR]

Adam,
What your pictures are suffering from are classic symptoms of using a strobe with a full-auto camera. Looking at the EXIF data of your photos the shutter speed ranges from 1/30 to 1/80s and f-stop of 3.1 (widest at that focal length). Which means you would need to dial a very low strength on the D-180 (like 2.8) - it's acting more like a fill light and hence the predominant bluish colours. I don't know if this will help, I've never tried it myself, but try dialing the Exposure Compenstation down next time.

 

[justleesa]

The Olympus Stylus 400 is a point and shoot camera and there are no settings to be changed, such as F-stop or shutter. The only option available is macro and regular photo. It seems that you just had a greater distance and the flash doesn't do to much for you over 3 Feet, give or take a bit. Using the zoom doesn't do much good either. Most pictures are touched up with Photoshop and you can get rid of a lot of the blue/green hue. In the end it's practice, practice, practice. This picture was taken with a stylus 400, I was about 1 and 1/2 feet away using the internal strobe.

 

[adamsh]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I tried the Mandrake process on a couple of them, it removes a lot of the blue and makes them a lot clearer but I dont know if it makes them look fake.

I cant post them at the moment as i'm at work, but when I get home i'll show you what I mean

 

[ukmidlands]

Adam,
I had this scenario last october in the red sea with a Stylus300 and Epoque strobe. I ended up having to use the strobe on very little power at all. About a month later i sold the camera and strobe and purchased a C750uz and YS-90auto. This camera allows full manual control, and it makes a big difference to the results (at least in UK waters anyway). Recently added a WAL and am due back to the red sea in 9 weeks (not that i am counting or anything).
I think the exposure compensation could well help give better results though.
If you wish to see red sea pics taken with the stylus see here :
http://freespace.virgin.net/peter.york1/index.htm