tips for first time photo :D

[RedSea Dude]

hi guys,
hows summer till now
well i wanted some tips on my first underwater photo journey
what kind of cam should i use as a beginner? any tips about photoing still things??? moving things ???? color changes ???? what should expect ????
anything special to take care of ???
thanx guys and have a nice day

 

[alcina]

Check out the tips in the Getting Started Thread...

Then do a search on the different cameras you are interested in & post any questions you can't find the answers to. Only you can decide which camera/type is right for you, but there is a lot of real world info out there to help you get going in the right direction!

As for shooting tips:
Get close
get closer
get low and shoot up
shoot in manual mode
know your camera & housing before you get in the water
pan with moving subjects
a good start place with many digital cameras about 5.6 & 1/125 or so...fiddle around to see what works where you are.
And, of course, if digital...shoot 'til your fingers bleed.

Good luck!

 

[SeaYoda]

The only other thing that helped me was reading all the posts on white balance. It makes a world of difference!

 

[alcina]

white balance

This is a good skill to have and make sure the camera you look at has this available in the housing - some will allow access on the camera itself, but once you stick it in a housing you can't change it so add it to your check-list.

AND/OR pick a camera that allows you to shoot in RAW format. Then you can forget about having to fiddle with your white balance under water and concentrate on the million other things!

After changing to RAW recently I can't say enough about it and think that new users should definitely use it from the beginning...I sure wish I had.

 

[MVillanueva]

....

After changing to RAW recently I can't say enough about it and think that new users should definitely use it from the beginning...I sure wish I had.

Yeah:But....

RAW takes mine about 8-9 seconds to write.

 

[alcina]

RAW takes mine about 8-9 seconds to write.

Yup, I can get up to 13 seconds of write time. I am getting a new card as mine is a dog, obviously. Others with the 5050 have write times of about 4 seconds in RAW.

The added write time for most subjects I deal with, even moving fish etc, just makes me try to get the first shot right more! You can use burst to get a few frames in before writing - longer wait at once when it does write, but for action stuff it works. TNSTAAFL

RAW may not be for everyone or for all the time, but it is an incredibly useful tool that no one should be afraid of at least trying..that's what kept me out of it for so long - I thought the learning curve would be too great on top of everything else I was trying to learn. It is definitely on my list of must haves for any new camera I would purchase.

 

[lukeROB]

A write time of 8 seconds shouldn't be that much of a problem. Aim to make the first shot the one you keep. Most skittish fish only allow one shot anyway. Once a big strobe light flashes in your face you usually don't hang around to have it happen again straight away.

It is also nicer to marine life to not flash is constantly. See my post above on Bali. The pigmy seahorse picture was taken with only two shots.