CharlieDontDive
Contributor
I have no formal UW photography training and have been essentially learning it by trial and error over the past few years. I've gotten frustrated, however, so I'm looking for some wisdom from experienced UW photography folks.
I realize that I'm working with fairly amateur equipment (SeaLife DC2000 & SeaLife Sea Dragon external flash) in a low-viz environment (off the New Jersey coast). I 100% realize that, for these reasons, my photos will never be great…I just want them to be a little better. You can see my best underwater photos here. The most recent pics are from NC, so scan a little farther back for NJ & Dutch Springs ones. I started using Lightroom last year and maaann is that a great program.
How do I improve these? Everything I've read recommends using manual settings but my guesstimates for aperture & shutter speeds have consistently been way off, usually leaving the entire dive's photos unsalvageable. I've been using manual settings for macro shots using the external flash, and the "underwater scene" mode + mostly auto settings for my farther-away shots of wrecks.
My overall questions: to improve my photography, where should I start?
Specific questions:
I realize that I'm working with fairly amateur equipment (SeaLife DC2000 & SeaLife Sea Dragon external flash) in a low-viz environment (off the New Jersey coast). I 100% realize that, for these reasons, my photos will never be great…I just want them to be a little better. You can see my best underwater photos here. The most recent pics are from NC, so scan a little farther back for NJ & Dutch Springs ones. I started using Lightroom last year and maaann is that a great program.
How do I improve these? Everything I've read recommends using manual settings but my guesstimates for aperture & shutter speeds have consistently been way off, usually leaving the entire dive's photos unsalvageable. I've been using manual settings for macro shots using the external flash, and the "underwater scene" mode + mostly auto settings for my farther-away shots of wrecks.
My overall questions: to improve my photography, where should I start?
Specific questions:
- For taking pics of wrecks in low-viz water, what's a good starting point for aperture & shutter speed?
- How can I better estimate what the ideal ISO setting is? Every time I try something other than Auto, I end up way too washed out or way too dark.
- Should I only be using the external flash for close-up/macro shots? From everything I've read, and experienced firsthand, using a flash in low viz water for anything other than a macro shot is a self-defeating effort due to backscatter- is this the case?
- Should I keep using the flash diffuser?
- Should I consider using EV Compensation? I've always set it to 0.
- For external strobe thoughts, where should I be in terms of Flash White Balance? I usually set it to the default of 5500, but I'm not really sure what this means.
- Any specific advice for dealing with low-viz, green water conditions?