Turtle Picture from Belize

[mtiffee]

This was taken at 55 feet at Tacklebox Canyon off Ambergris Caye in Belize. This turtle swam right to me then circled me once, said goodbye, and swam off. The vis that day was around 50-60 feet, which is poor for Ambergris in May.

Depth 55 feet
Canon s50 with Canon housing
Manual White Balance
No Strobe
F/2.8
1/160sec

 

[Dee]

Very nice!

 

[justleesa]

Very nice the shadows make it very dramatic

 

[ChrisM]

I like what you've done with it. Agree that the shadows work very well

Pardon if this is presumptious, but I would think at 55 fsw and no strobe the original would be pretty blue? I like that the turtle is still very sharp, and almost doesn't look like it's in water.

Also looks to be a little vignetting on the top corners. Were you using/is there a WA lens on that Canon?

I like the shot. Printable and frameable for sure
Chris

 

[mtiffee]

Pardon if this is presumptious, but I would think at 55 fsw and no strobe the original would be pretty blue?

It would be blue if you didn't manually white balance the camera at depth. At :41 minutes into the dive, which is where I saw the turtle, I was at 55 feet, according to my dive profile downloaded to my laptop from my Atmos 2 computer.

Here is an ugly photo taken with auto white balance:

Here is roughly the same photo with manual white balance:

Not the best photos by any means but shows the difference.

Here is the turtle picture uncorrected:

In photoshop I ran auto levels (shift+ctrl+L)
Then adjusted the contrast for feel.

I shoot almost all of my photos at full wide, which is why you see the vignetting.. it's just a simple basic camera housing, no WA lens or any way to attach them.

Mike

 

[mtiffee]

Here are a few other pictures taken with manual white balance at depths greater than 40 feet and no strobe.

Yes it really was that red! (well almost)

Different turtle:

 

[alijtaylor]

Great shots. I just bought my Canon S50 yesterday so these images are a special treat particularly as they were taken without wide angle lens. I have asked for prices on the Sea and Sea wide angles that fit the canon housing, but maybe there is not so much hurry to get them.
Alison

 

[justleesa]

Great photos!

 

[mtiffee]

Great shots. I just bought my Canon S50 yesterday so these images are a special treat particularly as they were taken without wide angle lens. I have asked for prices on the Sea and Sea wide angles that fit the canon housing, but maybe there is not so much hurry to get them.
Alison

Didn't know they made those.. I would like to get wider, especially when around wrecks. A good macro lens would be good too, the s50 doesn't seem to want to focus close enough.

A tip, I usually leave my macro mode "on" when shooting with the s50, it seems to be sharper and focus better. When i shoot, I go down to about 45 feet, manually white balance, then shot away in "P" mode with the flash turned off.. when I want a strobe shot, or the blue look, I switch over to full auto. Going back and forth between these modes switches on and off the manual white balance. Once I set my white balance once on my first dive, the camera remembers it for the rest of my trip. It even works good at 10-15 feet, your photos will come out red, but when you run auto levels in photoshop, they will look great!! At shallow depths, it removes the extra red, and at deep depths it removes the haze. ALSO, important!! Your LCD will look very red when you shoot with manual white balance, but will look fine when the photos are viewed.. strange.

Mike

 

[alijtaylor]

Mike
Thanks for those tips, can't wait to try it all out.

I am told that Sea and Sea lenses for MMII and MX 10 with a bayonet fitting, will fit front of Canon housing, presumably by way of an adaptor that changes the screw fitting to a bayonet. I will get confirmation from Sea and Sea distributor before actually spending money but I like the look of the 16mm lens which I have used on a borrowed Sea and Sea camera.

Do you use an external strobe or jsut the camerta flash?

Alison