Qustion about manual settings?

[Spoon]

guys i am attempting to use the full manual settings tom, ive read some books on UW photography so i understand the concepts, putting them to the test is something else. i was wondering if you could help me with some settings for my a95.

first, what do you guys set your flash out put to? half, full or does it depend on what depth you are at?

2nd, do you guys use autofocus or flexizone?


3rd, for the effects, do you use no effect, vivid, low-sharpening etc?

4rth, iso is 50 at the minimum, what is a good iso to start with fro shooting macro and fish?

5th and lastly for Metering Mode do you use evalutative, centerweighted avg or spot?

id appreciate some tips have been experimenting with av and tv modes and now i wanted to do manual for a change. sorry if my questions were so amateurish but hey im an amateur thanks

 

[ChrisM]

first, what do you guys set your flash out put to? half, full or does it depend on what depth you are at?

How many settings do you have? I'd start with half and go from there. Remember that a higher flash setting does not mean it is stronger, only that the flash stays on longer....

do you guys use autofocus or flexizone?

Not sure what flexizone is, but to start out, use auto. You can move to manual at some point, but auto works in most situations

3rd, for the effects, do you use no effect, vivid, low-sharpening etc?

To truly shoot manually, you don't want the camera to do ANY processing, just take the picture, control the processing, if any, in photoshop.

4rth, iso is 50 at the minimum, what is a good iso to start with fro shooting macro and fish?

I am sure you know this, but ISO controls the amount of light allowed to the sensor. However, you pay for this light with noise. Higher ISO, more light, more noise. For UW photography, the rule is the more light the better at the setting with the least noise. I use 100. If I am in cenotes, or shooting ambient light, I go up to 400

5th and lastly for Metering Mode do you use evalutative, centerweighted avg or spot?

Depends on what I am focusing on. Wide angle, I use evaluative. If I am shooting a seahorse through a stand of black coral, as I was last week, I switch to center (or whatever focus spot I want to use)

id appreciate some tips have been experimenting with av and tv modes and now i wanted to do manual for a change. sorry if my questions were so amateurish but hey im an amateur thanks

I shoot manual 99% of the time. When I am shooting something that moves fast, like sea lions, I switch to Tv mode.

You didn't ask about aperture and shutter speed, which are the main considerations in shooting manual. I'll assume you know the interrelationship between them. My suggestion would be to experiment with the camera topside to figure out what happens when you change all these settings.

Good luck

Chris

 

[Spoon]

thanks a million!

 

[RiotNrrd]

I'm not quite sure what was meant here, but unless there is something special about your particular setup, the flash does not "stay on longer." The light burst of a strobe is for all intents and purposes instantaneous. The adjsutment for the intensity changes how much energy is discharged.

Let me preface this by saying I am an above-ground photgrapher that is jsut getting into UW photography. But I beleive all the following below still applies.

The way you determine the right settings to use has to do with something called the "Guide Number." This number is used to figure out, given a certain distance, what f-stop your lens should be set to. For now, as long as your shutter speed is at or slower than the "sync speed," we'll ignore it.

Underwater, the effectiveness of your flash is hindered by the light blocking characteristics of water. So look in your camera manual specifications (or strobe specificaitons) for the guide number. It is basically a "length" measurement, so will be specified as feet or meters at 100ASA. Divide that number by 3 to get your underwater guide number For this example, lets say it is 15 ft @100ASA. Set your "ISO speed" on your camera to 100.

Now, when you are underwater, think about how far your subjects will typically appear. Remember that the water magnifies. Let's assume that things will appear to be 3 feet away.

Divide the Guide number by the distance (15/3) and you get 5. Voila! Your f-stop should be 5. (Actually, 5.6). In reality, you'll have to experiment a little, because the guide number is probably not 100% accurate. But that's the great part about having a digital - instant feedback.

You can then look at compensating with the intensity adjustment if you want. Things are closer, reduce the intensity. Alternately, you can reduce the aperture (f-stop) (in photogaphy parlance, reduce aperture= make the number bigger, so going from 5.6 to 8 is reducing).

Now, getting back to shutter speed - how does that play in?

The flash will expose what is in the foreground, but the flash may not reach all the way into the background. When you see shots that are light up front but dark the further away you get, the photographer just set the camera to the max sync speed and left it there. In actuality, you probably want it slower than the max. For example, my camera syncs at 1/250th of a second. But if I do that, chances are my background will be dark. So I'll shoot with the shutter slower, so that more natural light from the background will get into my camera (thus brigtening the areas my flash couldn't reach). In general, you can shoot as slow as the inverse of your focal length without having to worry too much about blur due to camera shake. So if you're shooting with a 28mm lens, you should be able to shoot around a 30th of a second - maybe shoot at 1/60th to be safe.

This is why I said above that the strobe is for all intents an purposes instantaneous. The way a good photographer gets an action shot in low light conditions is to use the strobe to "freeze" the action (since it is instantaneous) and then they expose the background with the shutter speed. Ever notice how those shots of nightime football games are really sharp in the foreground, but kind of ghosty and darker in the background? It's becasue of this - the foreground got nailed with the strobe, but the background was exposed for a longer time period.

Hope that helps - and hopefully, all these rules really still apply underwater.


RiotNrrd

 

[bobf]

Shooting through water is slightly different than shooting through air. Very challenging, very exciting. If it were easy, I'd have moved on a long time ago........

imho I believe ChrisM is correct that strobes may indeed be able to "stay on longer".

Underwater strobes with manual settings (such as YS 90 DX, Epoque ES 150 DS, Ikelite DS series in conjunction with a 10 step manual controller, Inon D 2000, 220, Hartenberger, Subtronic, etc) do indeed control their output by duration. Sometimes you may see the term "power levels", but indeed the "power level" knob is acting like a timer. The strobe has but one intensity. It's control is not to be confused with a rheostat similar to that found on a typical lamp found in a house.

Even when a strobe is controlled by ttl metering, a quench signal is sent from the camera's brain to the strobe telling it when to shut off. Again, it is indeed a timing issue.

Not sure where the "divide by 3" rule came from to determine underwater guide numbers. For instance, Ikelite strobe Gn's tend to be half the top side air number. Depends sometime on the dome shape of the lens. Hartenberger states there is no loss of intensity underwater due to dome shape and water refraction. You can determine your own strobe's underwater Gn by following a simple formula, the same one you suggested:

GN=A*D

Know the distance you are from strobe to subject, choose various apertures and take several images when strobe is set to full dump. Whichever aperture yields the best exposure, multiply by the distance, and the result is the true underwater guide number (although I've read that when the distance is under one foot, the GN formula underwater may break down). Due to the many unknown variables, including water clarity, some strobe manufacturers refrain from publishing uw gn's.

Topside techniques you suggest with respect to shutter speed do not take into consideration that the underwater photographer does not have two feet on the ground. Chances are one is attempting to float motionless, inches away from a sensitive reef, possibly in current. To avoid motion blur, possibly a speed faster than the wide angle focal length of the lens may be prudent.

 

[RiotNrrd]

Hmmm. Well, after looking over some of my old photog. textbooks, I have come to the conclusion that I was talking out of my butt. D0h! Thanks for the correction.

Re: the divide by 3, I had a couple other folks tell me that, and it sounded good, so I regurgitated. But the best way is, as you suggest, to do it by measurement.

 

[Spoon]

I'm not quite sure what was meant here, but unless there is something special about your particular setup, the flash does not "stay on longer." The light burst of a strobe is for all intents and purposes instantaneous. The adjsutment for the intensity changes how much energy is discharged.


Hope that helps - and hopefully, all these rules really still apply underwater.


RiotNrrd

i meant the strobe has a setting for intensity low mid and full flash. when do we use a stronger out put vs. a lower one? i notice that on full the strobe brightens up the subject too much with white light.

btw youve been extremely helpful. thanks!

 

[RonFrank]

To truly shoot manually, you don't want the camera to do ANY processing, just take the picture, control the processing, if any, in photoshop.

Not sure what you ment by this, but controlling the exposure in PS is not wise. Better to get the BEST exposure in camera possible, and do as LITTLE in PS as possible.

I am sure you know this, but ISO controls the amount of light allowed to the sensor.

The ISO has nothing to do with how much light is allowed to enter the sensor. That would be exposure. ISO is how sensitive the sensor (or film) is to light.

 

[RonFrank]

first, what do you guys set your flash out put to? half, full or does it depend on what depth you are at?

The flash is so small that unless you are shooting from inches away, it does not matter what you set it at. Full power is NOT going to blow away any but very close images. As to how to set it, start on full, and if it's too much based on the histrogram, reduce it.

3rd, for the effects, do you use no effect, vivid, low-sharpening etc?

I shoot RAW, so don't bother with these types of settings, however my cuz likes the Vivid setting UW for what that is worth...

4rth, iso is 50 at the minimum, what is a good iso to start with fro shooting macro and fish?

A good ISO is the one that allows you to get shots!!! Rather than just asking, and then taking the advice of people, maybe a better approach is to learn more about digital sensors, and why one would choose to up the ISO. A big hint, lower ISO=better images. However blurred results, or underexposed results does NOT=Better images just to maintain a low ISO.

5th and lastly for Metering Mode do you use evalutative, centerweighted avg or spot?

This is largely determined by the subject at hand.. Again, buy a few basic books on photography, and learn more about how meters work and when it's appropriate to use the different meter settings. Here's a hint, digital is very different from film, but when it comes to basic camera controls (like the METER) it's NOT different at all. So any basic book on photography is going to discuss meters, and how center/spot and other metering systems work.

Another thought, have you READ the manual??? I'm sure at the very least the maunal gives some sort of indication on why one would use spot vs. center weighted for example?

Enjoy!

 

[bobf]

RiotNrrd,

Looking forward to you sharing your experience with the Sunpak. Please be careful with the battery door compartment. I know there may have been a design update, but still, if water gets by the door, the whole strobe will flood, not just the battery compartment as with other strobe designs.

Other than that, my dive buddy has owned an Epoque ES 150 DS ( some say it's the same strobe if not first cousins...)for several years now. Except for an occasional problem with the way the door closes (his hasn't flooded), he's content. The strobe is plenty bright for macro work, just limited by beam angle and recycle time imho.......

i meant the strobe has a setting for intensity low mid and full flash. when do we use a stronger out put vs. a lower one? i notice that on full the strobe brightens up the subject too much with white light.

btw you've been extremely helpful. thanks!

Spoon,

I'll try to offer some advise, but to be honest, I'm not familiar with a Canon A95. If I understand you correctly, you are discussing settings available that control the duration (intensity) of the onboard flash that are most likely found in the flash sub menu. If so, that's pretty neat.

Here's what I'd do if I were you.

Set your camera to manual mode. Set your ISO to 100 (or 50, your choice, experiment, but definitely not set to auto). Force the flash. Keep that flexizone (AiAF) thing that averages focus off. You want spot focus. That way when you place the most important feature of your composition in the center of your LCD, that is the only area your camera will consider when locking focus when the shutter is half pressed. While maintaining the half press, you can then recompose the image to fit in the screen as you wish......

Once you get to a diving depth that you feel you may be capturing images at, set your aperture to around f/5 (f/4-f/8....doesn't matter at this point)

Next aim your lens at open water. Now choose a shutter speed that translates to an EV reading of -1 (upper left corner of LCD screen when in manual mode?) when your shutter is half pressed. I'm guessing this may happen around 1/125 sec, but it depends on water clarity and the aperture you chose. Remember, I'm guessing here!!!

That said, what I hope you will get if you follow this guideline is a pleasing blue background in your images. If you wish for that background to be darker, choose a faster shutter speed. By doing so, less ambient light will be captured by the sensor. A slower shutter speed (not too slow!) will lighten up the background. BTW, when I say background, I'm referring to any part of the composition that will not be illuminated by your onboard flash.

As far as the flash goes, I would start with the middle power level. Make sure you stay very close to your target if you wish to take advantage of any artificial light emanating from the onboard flash. imho, I would not venture further away than arms length from anything I wished to capture with the A95's onboard flash offering illumination.

Take the image. Review the LCD playback. If the image is dark, increase the strobe's influence by increasing the amount of time it stays on to Full. Too bright? Decrease to Low. The technique of Shoot, Review, Adjust, Shoot Again. Taught to me by Jeff Farris........Taught to him by James Watt.....

hth,
b