Rooster1
Guest
nice pics
Photos with Canon S40 (Bonaire)
- Thread starter SunshineFish
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Eli
Guest
Thanks Sandy, the admiration is mutual. Youve got an excellent eye for composition, a great sense of timing, and an appreciation of fine photography
The key issue in getting a strobe for the S40 is the fact that our camera uses a preflash. This is a brief flash that always fires a millisecond before the main flash and is used to set white balance and exposure. The preflash will fool all older strobes. This limits us to the new digital Strobes such as the DS-125 from Ikelite or the YS-90DX from Sea & Sea. I bought both from B&H tried them both out, and decided in favor of the Sea& Sea. It was much lighter and synchronized better with our camera. You have to set the strobe power manually. I found this wasnt a problem, and I missed few photos this way. There is a dial with 12 different levels.
As fas as attaching the strobe to the camera, you can buy a complete package with strobe, baseplate, strobe arm, fiberoptic cable, and hardware. Go to B&H and search for SEDLK.( I think thats it their website is down). There is a black velcro tape which you will need to cut to match the WPDC300 housing. It blocks out the internal flash, and attaches the fiberoptic cable to the housing. Dont worry, they give you an extra piece of velcro tape! I attached a small divelight to my setup with a rubberband for night photography, it also doubled as a focus assist in low light.
As far as settings, I used either aperture priority (Av) or shutter (Tv) priority. Set the internal flash to always on, no red eye reduction. Set the internal flash power at minus 2 to save battery juice. The white balance can be set to cloudy (or custom, and meter off a grey or white object). If you use shutter priority at a speed faster than 1/250, the photo is taken at 1/250 but the f stop is increased. This way you can get the full range of f stops in shutter priority. I took most of my photos in macro mode, and also did touch-up in photoshop.
Email me if you have any other questions. I see you do event planning. If you do medical meetings in the Caribbean let me Know! Thats how I dove in St Thomas, I played hooky for a few days at a medical meeting. (Golf is too boring.)
Eli :relaxing:
The key issue in getting a strobe for the S40 is the fact that our camera uses a preflash. This is a brief flash that always fires a millisecond before the main flash and is used to set white balance and exposure. The preflash will fool all older strobes. This limits us to the new digital Strobes such as the DS-125 from Ikelite or the YS-90DX from Sea & Sea. I bought both from B&H tried them both out, and decided in favor of the Sea& Sea. It was much lighter and synchronized better with our camera. You have to set the strobe power manually. I found this wasnt a problem, and I missed few photos this way. There is a dial with 12 different levels.
As fas as attaching the strobe to the camera, you can buy a complete package with strobe, baseplate, strobe arm, fiberoptic cable, and hardware. Go to B&H and search for SEDLK.( I think thats it their website is down). There is a black velcro tape which you will need to cut to match the WPDC300 housing. It blocks out the internal flash, and attaches the fiberoptic cable to the housing. Dont worry, they give you an extra piece of velcro tape! I attached a small divelight to my setup with a rubberband for night photography, it also doubled as a focus assist in low light.
As far as settings, I used either aperture priority (Av) or shutter (Tv) priority. Set the internal flash to always on, no red eye reduction. Set the internal flash power at minus 2 to save battery juice. The white balance can be set to cloudy (or custom, and meter off a grey or white object). If you use shutter priority at a speed faster than 1/250, the photo is taken at 1/250 but the f stop is increased. This way you can get the full range of f stops in shutter priority. I took most of my photos in macro mode, and also did touch-up in photoshop.
Email me if you have any other questions. I see you do event planning. If you do medical meetings in the Caribbean let me Know! Thats how I dove in St Thomas, I played hooky for a few days at a medical meeting. (Golf is too boring.)
Eli :relaxing:
MikeSK
Guest
Greetings,
Excellent pictures both of you, thanks
I'm looking at getting a digital and have more or less decided on this one based on features, price and especially the housing price. The strobe really does make a huge difference.
Eli, I'm curious on how attaching the strobe works. For the price of the strobe it almost seems to make more sense to get a different camera and housing that better supports these. Divers discount has a slightly better price on it though than B&H.
Any chance you can provide pics on exactly how this is done? I would greatly appreciate it as i am a complete novice at UW photog. Actually, a novice has more experience than i do
Excellent pictures both of you, thanks
I'm looking at getting a digital and have more or less decided on this one based on features, price and especially the housing price. The strobe really does make a huge difference.
Eli, I'm curious on how attaching the strobe works. For the price of the strobe it almost seems to make more sense to get a different camera and housing that better supports these. Divers discount has a slightly better price on it though than B&H.
Any chance you can provide pics on exactly how this is done? I would greatly appreciate it as i am a complete novice at UW photog. Actually, a novice has more experience than i do
Eli
Guest
As requested. As far as getting a strobe, you may not even need one. The best underwater photos Ive seen were done by Ellen Muller, using the Sony DSC P series of cameras, without an external strobe. All her her photos were taken at close range, using the built in flash. She must have great diving skills to get so close to the critters without spooking them. I suspect that the key to good underwater photography is diving skills, then photographic skills, then equipment in that order. Check out:
http://www.pbase.com/imagine
An external strobe is essential if you want to take pictures at greater than arms length. Photos of my setup are at:
http://www.pbase.com/elif/equipment
For some reason the thumbnail image didnt come out for one of the photos. Click on the title to see the full size photo.
There is really nothing to assembling the system. Everything screws together. You have to cut the velcro tape to fit the housing. The velcro blocks the internal flash when attached, and hold the fiber optic cable in position. The fiber optic cable syncronizes the internal flash to the external strobe. The image labeled Canon S40 setup shows the system ready for action. The photo labelled S40 closeup shows the velcro outer tape removed.
The photo labelled homemade was a bracket I made when the Sea & Sea bracket was backordered. You can ignore this photo, unless you want to make your own bracket. I made the mistake of mounting the strobe directly over the camera, which makes reflections from particles in the water worse. A newbie error. Hey I guess Im a novice too!
:relaxing: Eli
http://www.pbase.com/imagine
An external strobe is essential if you want to take pictures at greater than arms length. Photos of my setup are at:
http://www.pbase.com/elif/equipment
For some reason the thumbnail image didnt come out for one of the photos. Click on the title to see the full size photo.
There is really nothing to assembling the system. Everything screws together. You have to cut the velcro tape to fit the housing. The velcro blocks the internal flash when attached, and hold the fiber optic cable in position. The fiber optic cable syncronizes the internal flash to the external strobe. The image labeled Canon S40 setup shows the system ready for action. The photo labelled S40 closeup shows the velcro outer tape removed.
The photo labelled homemade was a bracket I made when the Sea & Sea bracket was backordered. You can ignore this photo, unless you want to make your own bracket. I made the mistake of mounting the strobe directly over the camera, which makes reflections from particles in the water worse. A newbie error. Hey I guess Im a novice too!
:relaxing: Eli
Fancy, expensive equipment does not make a photographer. Obviously, at least basic photographic skills are a must but if you aren't a good diver with excellent bouyancy skills and able to focus on several tasks at one time, you'll be totally disappointed in your results. As well as a danger to the environment and perhaps to those around you.
There's more to it than just taking pictures.
MikeSK
Guest
Thanks Eli, really appreciate it.
Years ago in Bonaire i had great bouyancy skills but I've been out of the water for like five years so I'll obviously work on that first. With my daughter getting certified soon i also want some pics of her hopefully enjoying herself.
Ok, makes sense now. For some reason I thought the velcro was also to hold the strobe on. Looks like the bracket just attaches to the bottom of the housing no prob.
Thanks again
Years ago in Bonaire i had great bouyancy skills but I've been out of the water for like five years so I'll obviously work on that first. With my daughter getting certified soon i also want some pics of her hopefully enjoying herself.
Ok, makes sense now. For some reason I thought the velcro was also to hold the strobe on. Looks like the bracket just attaches to the bottom of the housing no prob.
Thanks again
Eli
Guest
Dee, Is there a trick to getting the critters to trust you? Im told that you should let the critters approach you, as opposed to vice-versa. However most critters wont come near enough to photograph. I try not to think about how good they would taste as catch of the day, but they still avoid me. I mean some critters are easy - Morays are especially unafraid of people, so its easy to get good Moray shots. But even the ubiquitous Parrotfish will always keep just out of photographic distance with me. Somehow I think that people who consistently get great close up shots of fish must have a sixth sense about them to achieve rapport with the fish. Or do they just feed them?
P.S. I like your gallery!
Eli :relaxing:
P.S. I like your gallery!
Eli :relaxing:
Patience! Oh yeah...and a zoom lens helps! Seriously, some are easier than others. I'm still trying for decent shots of Parrotfish, Rock Beauties, and Longnose Butterflies. All my Parrotfish shots are of Parrot butts! All the Wrasses are extremely curious and Damsels are the Terriers of the fish world who think they are Dobermans! They dare ya to get close!
A few things to work on are...
You have to have good bouyancy in order to stay in place and not damage anything. Learn to breath slowly. And for short periods, you can breath shallow but that will lead to O2 headaches if you aren't careful! It's your bubbles that some fish are scared of. I also like to find a patch of sand and just lay there. If there is rubble laying around, turn it over gently...you'll soon have several Wrasses hanging around waiting to see what you will turn up. This was fun until one darted in and ate a baby Brittle Star I felt like an accessary to murder! I never feed reef fish. Or I should say I don't take anything to feed them with me. You'll also be amazed at what lives in, on and around the sandy patches so be careful where you lay.
For the local Perch, yes I feed them but never on the training platforms. Ours like snack crackers! Captian's Wafers with cream cheese is a favorite! LOL Also weinies. The little buggers can get quite persistant and will nip at you when the food runs out or you don't have any with you. In fact, folks were starting to complain about the nips! So I've stopped feeding them just anywhere. I have just 2-3 places around the lake that I feed them and they know it! When the food is gone, they'll follow us all the way around but they've gotten better about the nipping.
Glad you like the galleries...thanks.
Seriously, some are easier than others. I'm still trying for decent shots of Parrotfish, Rock Beauties, and Longnose Butterflies. All my Parrotfish shots are of Parrot butts! All the Wrasses are extremely curious and Damsels are the Terriers of the fish world who think they are Dobermans! They dare ya to get close!A few things to work on are...
You have to have good bouyancy in order to stay in place and not damage anything. Learn to breath slowly. And for short periods, you can breath shallow but that will lead to O2 headaches if you aren't careful! It's your bubbles that some fish are scared of. I also like to find a patch of sand and just lay there. If there is rubble laying around, turn it over gently...you'll soon have several Wrasses hanging around waiting to see what you will turn up. This was fun until one darted in and ate a baby Brittle Star
I felt like an accessary to murder! I never feed reef fish. Or I should say I don't take anything to feed them with me. You'll also be amazed at what lives in, on and around the sandy patches so be careful where you lay.For the local Perch, yes I feed them but never on the training platforms. Ours like snack crackers! Captian's Wafers with cream cheese is a favorite! LOL Also weinies. The little buggers can get quite persistant and will nip at you when the food runs out or you don't have any with you. In fact, folks were starting to complain about the nips! So I've stopped feeding them just anywhere. I have just 2-3 places around the lake that I feed them and they know it! When the food is gone, they'll follow us all the way around but they've gotten better about the nipping.
Glad you like the galleries...thanks.
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