Please help improve my cenote photos...

[cavew0man]

To preface, let me state that I by no stretch of the imagination could be considered a knowledgeable (or talented) photographer. I have a little consumer Canon SD 850 IS Powershot, with a housing.

My goal is to be able to take a halfway decent photo in the cavern environment, mostly friends visiting and taking cenote tours. I have messed around a bit with different settings, but I either get a black picture, motion blur, or the flash reflecting off of particles in the water so the image is covered in spots.

The camera (ok, the camera's operator) works decently in the ocean with the "underwater" scene setting turned on.

Can anyone recommend a combination of settings that might accomplish this? I am really not interested in purchasing any more photography equipment (there's other scuba toys on the list before that!). Just hoping to document a few dives with friends for posterity.

 

[Diver Lori]

I don't know what to suggest to you since you do not want to purchase any additional equipment at this time....but I will tell you what we do.

My buddy and I have had some personal success with our cave shots, having several published in NSS-CDS publications and brochures.

We shoot Nikonos V, with a SB-105 strobe. We shoot strictly by guide number. On the "non-shooting" buddy, an Ikelite 200 slave is mounted between the tanks, with an Ikelite sensor being hand held and pointed at the SB-105 when needed.

A few of my shots are uploaded here on the board.

 

[TSandM]

Looking at what my friends and I have been able to do, and what my husband can do with a point and shoot AND a strobe, I'd say you really need a strobe to get good cavern pictures. You can get some great shots of the sunlight coming down into the cavern with a P&S, but portraits of people really need more light.

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

You will need good lighting which is difficult in a cavern environment. I would recommend a good strobe if your camera system accepts it. If not try lighting your subject with a couple of dive lights using the "edges" of the beam so you don't get "hot spots". As far as camera settings go, dial up your ISO to around 400 if possible (a lot of point & shoots can get grainy at much higher ISO settings). Your shutter speed can be relatively slow if your subjects aren't moving, say 1/30, or so. If you get a lot of blurring go to faster shutter speeds even though this will limit your light. Finally, open your f stop way up, realizing that you will lose depth of field with this.

Setting (Pros & Cons)

Pros to each setting is more light

Cons:

Higher ISO -- "Grainy" photos if too high
Longer shutter speed -- Prone to blurring of your images
Larger aperture -- Loss of depth of field

 

[AUTiger]

I think that you might have fun using the movie setting on your camera. You won't realistically be able to take decent wide angle photos, but the movies might look nice with the flashlights illuminating the cavern and divers backlit by the surface light. The movie mode might do better with less light than the photo mode.

You might get some decent strobeless wide angle shots of diver silhouettes and the openings of the cenote from inside.

David

 

[cavew0man]

Looking at what my friends and I have been able to do, and what my husband can do with a point and shoot AND a strobe, I'd say you really need a strobe to get good cavern pictures. You can get some great shots of the sunlight coming down into the cavern with a P&S, but portraits of people really need more light.

I suspected that might be the case.

You will need good lighting which is difficult in a cavern environment. I would recommend a good strobe if your camera system accepts it. If not try lighting your subject with a couple of dive lights using the "edges" of the beam so you don't get "hot spots". As far as camera settings go, dial up your ISO to around 400 if possible (a lot of point & shoots can get grainy at much higher ISO settings). Your shutter speed can be relatively slow if your subjects aren't moving, say 1/30, or so. If you get a lot of blurring go to faster shutter speeds even though this will limit your light. Finally, open your f stop way up, realizing that you will lose depth of field with this.

Setting (Pros & Cons)

Pros to each setting is more light

Cons:

Higher ISO -- "Grainy" photos if too high
Longer shutter speed -- Prone to blurring of your images
Larger aperture -- Loss of depth of field

Thanks much for the detailed list - I will mess around with these and see if can't get some improvement.

I think that you might have fun using the movie setting on your camera. You won't realistically be able to take decent wide angle photos, but the movies might look nice with the flashlights illuminating the cavern and divers backlit by the surface light. The movie mode might do better with less light than the photo mode.

You might get some decent strobeless wide angle shots of diver silhouettes and the openings of the cenote from inside.

David

That is a great idea - so often I like what I see in the viewfinder, but the photo doesn't come out that way. Of course it will also illustrate just exactly where my buoyancy control skills are at while focusing on another task....

Thanks all.

 

[hammerhead man]

When I began getting into underwater photography I quicly realized that my pics were not where I wanted them to be. I believe there is no substitute for training and I took the PADI underwater photography course as well as a couple of online courses. I found the online courses to be more helpful than the PADI course. Here is a link to the courses I took: The Underwater Photographer, Underwater Digital Photography Classes: Improve your underwater photos. I took the "Introduction to Digital Underwater Photography" and the "Digital Workflow & Image Manipulation for Underwater Photography" courses and found them to be excellent. They also did not cost a lot of money. Whenever I had a question, I would email Marty or Bonnie and they would immediately reply. If you have any questions, email me at jamescrew6@verizon.net

Regards,

Bill

 

[mikerault]

Actually the movie setting doesn't work very well and usually comes out dark in the cenote situation. You can get strobes that will key off of the onboard flash (Sea and Sea units come to mind as well as Ikelite slave units) Like was said, go with manual settings, 400 ISO may be too grainey but it will depend on how much light you can get. about an f8 to f12 and a shutter speed to sync with the flash (somewhere between 1/60 and 1/90 but maybe as hig as 1/250 depending on the strobe.