What's wrong with this picture?

[DiveLvr]

Okay folks I am trying to gt my "natural light" techiniques honed. I have a DC 800. Any pointers on what I am doing wrong? The pictures "Morrisons" were taken in a spring about 15-20 ft deep. They seem to have too much blue.

The others ("Panama City") are in saltwater about 65 ft deep.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks,

DiveLvr

 

[Scuba_Dad]

Does the Dc800 have a manual white balance setting? If so, adjust your white balance at the depth you're going to take the pictures. If you don't have a slate, you can use the sand (if it's close to white) or your hand.... If you don't have manual white balance, set your camera to Cloudy Day.

 

[PatW]

If you have the option with your camera, shoot in RAW. Using RAW files allows you to adjust the white balance without penalty in post processing. RAW also gives you far more leeway in adjusting exposure, shadows and highlights. I suspect that you are stuck with JPEGS.

Even with shooting RAW or adjusting white balance under water in JPEG, it can only do so much. Water absorbs light of the longer wavelengths first. So all of the red light is gone below 15'. Orange and yellow go next. At 65', you are in a green and blue world, as you have noticed.

The only way you can get around the color problem is bring your own light along with you. That is why most people use strobes. Water absorbs the light from a strobe really fast, so the closer you are to your subject, the better. That is also why underwater photographers love very wide angle lenses. That way they can get nice shots of other divers and large subjects like sharks, rays, turtles, grouper, coral heads and so on and still be really close to them.

 

[Coop42]

Sealife cameras (so far) don't have the option of saving files in RAW mode, however you can set the white balance or use the "Sea Mode".

Check Page 23 of the DC800 manual. It's available at this link:
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/assets/pdf/manuals/sl980/Sealife.pdf

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

Most of the photos look very over-exposued, try using some negative exposure compensation. Like the other posters, mentioned, use a custom white balance with a dive slate.

Natural light photos are best shot in clear, sunny water, in 25ft depth or less, with as wide a lens as possible. There's some more tips here. Good luck!

Scott

 

[DiveLvr]

Thanks to everyone for replying. Coop How do I decide between Ocean Blue and Ocean Green? None of the pictures I attached were taken with a strobe. Some were in shallow spring water (12'-16') and some were in about 65' ocean.

 

[Coop42]

It's a bit of a crap shoot, because it depends on the local conditions, but in general:

Blue Ocean - warm clear water
Green Ocean - cold water with lots of algae
Rivers/Lakes - cold water with brown(ish) particulate matter.

In a cold green spring, I'd choose the Green Ocean setting.

At 65' down there's just no red light left, so your options are limited.
You can add some red in the camera (that's what changing the camera to Sea Mode and then setting the white balance does), or add it in post production, on the computer.
But really to get good colour you pretty much have to bring your own light at that point.

 

[DiveLvr]

Coop42,
well as it turns out there is two ways to set Ocean Blue adn one of those ways does not require me to set Sea Mode. Guess which way I chose? I always bypassed the Sea Mode step and went right to White Balance and select Ocen BlueThis past weekend, after reading the manual, I followed the steps Scene Mode (Select Sea) then go to White Balance (Select Ocen Blue). I now see on the screen the Ocen Blue icon AND the Sea icon (the divers head and mask). The result of following the directions was clear properly color adjusted pictures. Whodah thuink it? Thank you for your help, your previous email lead in me down the right path.

Doug

 

[Coop42]

I'm glad I could help. Enjoy the diving (and the camera)!

coop