Show us your Sealife weekend diving pics!

[jar546]

Received a DC1200 for Christmas from my better half. She treated me well. No strobe, just the camera with the built in flash.

Took lots of pictures on reefs in the 16-42' range with most of the pics in the 20-25' range.

I chose the "snorkeling <25' setting because it applied the best. Vis was only about 25-30' all 3 days. What I found out was:

No matter where I had my white balance set: <25, >25, Land, etc. the pics just simply lacked any true color. I learned my lesson with the flash and that is scatter will be present on 90% of the photos unless you are really close.

ALL of my photos were auto white balanced in Gimp after the pics were downloaded. All of the pics that were printed right out of the SD card were bad. Bad until I adjusted them in Gimp.

A strobe is next on my list but I was hoping to have the other adjustments down before I did that and apparently I do not. Sort of sucks for me because I have a pretty broad background in 35mm and for my job I take pics on land every single day.

This is humbling which makes you want to learn even more.

I will take any advice out there.

 

[jar546]

Anyway, here are some pics I took in Key Largo, FL the 2nd week of January 2011.

Key Largo January 2011 | Facebook

 

[terrylowe]

Nice Shots Terry. You should post them on the SeaLife Facebook page!
What set-up were you using to tkae the pics?

Didn't realize SeaLife HAD a facebook page...I'll check.

I had dual strobes with wide angle lens.

 

[flyingfrawg]

Had not got round to it 'til now - Here are a couple from Costa Rica:

and

Taken with a 1000 with external flash. Can't wait to check out the 1200 with new flood.

-J

 

[nw_diver]

Here's a few taken on the Mahi and at 5 Inch Reef on Oahu over Christmas. DC1200 w/strobe and video light.

 

[jar546]

I can definitely see how the strobe is needed

 

[nw_diver]

Mine came with strobe. I also bought the diffuser. The run off was pretty bad at Christmas on Oahu so I think the pictures would have been worse without the diffuser.

 

[flyingfrawg]

I can definitely see how the strobe is needed

Hey jar-

The strobe is needed but is still not not a perfect solution without some experimenting. I use mine pulled as far out to the side as it can go and I position it in the same plane as the lens port. I have also been pointing it slightly inward toward the subject from there. Although I have been able to reduce the amount of back scatter tremendously, I still get some considerable bleaching of parts of the image. (take a look at the picture of the lobster above)

I heard Ty Sawyer (photographer for major dive publications like Sport Diver) today at the Baltimore/DC Dive Show and he suggested that you can improve that problem some by getting closer, using a diffuser, and not angling the flash in as much. He said his best diffuser is a doubled piece of a white semi-opaque plastic (like from a grocery or trash bag) held over the flash with a rubber band! He also commented that he pulls his flash back behind the plane of the lens port a bit. I am not sure how well that will work with the SeaLife strobe in automatic mode because I think the exposure sensor is part of the faceplate of the flash. I may need to experiment with manual settings to get it right.

I will be experimenting with all of those suggestions as soon as I get the chance. I will let you know what my results are like.

Cooltech, if you are reading this thread, I'd love to hear your comments on this topic.

 

[streetjudge79]

NW Diver, how do you like the video light? I'm thinking of adding one to my DC1000 set up.

 

[streetjudge79]

Here are a few of my pics with the Dc1000 elite. Most are off Miami Beach and some in Key Largo

This is one of my favorite shots.