Recommendations

[soltari675]

I am very new at trying to use a camera diving. I use a Sealife 1000, however if I win a photo contest this year at my dive shop I get a Sealife 1200!

Anyway, I am looking for suggestions on taking good pictures. I see some here that are just beautiful. Most of mine are dark, grainy, or sometimes washed out with the camera flash, etc. I don't have a strobe yet, as I am still unsure what exactly they do for the picture and if it would help correct my problem, or if I need to fix user errors first. Here are a couple examples:

Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions. If there are any specific settings, please let me know where they are as well. Thanks again.

 

[soltari675]

Guess I should have resized them. Sorry.

 

[under water]

The white spots are called backscatter and are caused by the flash, which is very close to the lens, lighting up the 'stuff' in the water between the lens and the subject. There are 2 ways to minimize it.
1. Get closer = less 'stuff'.
2. Don't use the flash or use a strobe that is separated from the camera so that it's light doesn't bounce back to the lens off of the 'stuff'.

You may also be causing some of it by moving around too much. Slow down and try not to stir up sediment. Perfect your bouyancy.

I'm not sure if your camera has manual exposure. If it does, try practicing with it. Then you can dial in the right exposure. If it doesn't try using tv or av modes.

Check out this site for tons of info..
Underwater Photography Guide

Bottom line.. get closer, experiment, practice, move slower.

 

[vladimir]

however if I win a photo contest this year at my dive shop I get a Sealife 1200! .

I would plan on using the Sealife 1000 for the foreseeable future.

I am not familiar with your camera, or point-and-shoots in general, but I think I might be able to help. If your flash is an inch from your lens, it is difficult to address the backscatter problem. (The usual solution, to angle and distance your strobes, is not available to you.) Can you turn the flash off? Get in shallow water, where there's good ambient light, and shoot some pictures without the flash.

Don't shoot down at your subjects. Get on the same horizontal plane or, better yet, shoot up at them--this will help you capture better light, and the picture will often be better composed too.

Get close to your subjects. There will be less water and floating particles to absorb light and reflect it back at your lens.

Shoot in manual. If manual isn't available, I'd try aperture priority. You have endless shots, so by trial and error you can get your exposures close to perfect. Does your camera have a histogram? That can make getting the right exposure easier.

Don't be too hard on yourself. While there are many great photographers here (Chris Bangs and parabolic are two of my favorites), there are also a lot of mediocre ones (vladimir, etc) who dive in crystal clear water with great equipment and then post the .1% of their photos that actually come out well. Good luck.

 

[soltari675]

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions. They really do help. I do have all these settings and I'm learning to use them. Lots of practice I suppose. I'll get better at my own buoyancy before I get a strobe though. But that will be a future purchase. Thanks again!

 

[vladimir]

I'll get better at my own buoyancy before I get a strobe though. But that will be a future purchase. Thanks again!

I think you're doing yourself a disservice by trying to learn to dive and learn underwater photography at the same time. You will learn both skills faster if they have your undivided attention. Leave the camera at home for the next 25 dives--you will see more, enjoy the dives more because you are less task-loaded, and have more bandwidth to devote buoyancy control.