Digicams - The basics.

[TimIngmire]

This thread is for users to post useful info for new photographers or those looking into this area for the first time. Feel free to add any relevant information, tips, links that you feel would of help.

Tim

[Mark]

I remember the first time I spoke to an underwater photographer,
1) I was told the first rule of underwater photography was to bring your own light if you want to bring out the natural colours. In shallow water if your camera has a custom white balance setting this can give you excellent results for some wide angle shots, rather than using a colour filter. Otherwise a strobe is a must, remember the internal strobe can cause a lot of backscatter (particles in the water which get lit up by the strobe) which you can get away with on very close macro shots, sometimes. An external strobe will light these particles from a different angle which the camera will not be able to see as well or even not at all.
2) The second thing I was told was to get as close as you can. Don't use the zoom, get yourself as close to the subject as possible. If you are taking wide angle shots, a wide angle lens will get you closer, helping with lighting and camera shake/movement.
3) Buoyancy, if you can't hold still neither will your camera. A camera is another distraction underwater if you are not confident in the water a camera won't help you.

And use the right equipment for the right job.


p.s. Is this the sort of thing you want Tim or more specific to actual digicams/particular cameras.

[TimIngmire]

Thanks for that Mark. I guess I might have to do a general tips elsewhere but don't worry about it. Any tips you have on digicams as a digicam user would be great - in this part anyway.

[Mark]

Most people I see on a boat with compact cameras use them in point and shoot mode, which is great, I did for a long time. Then I realised that there may be more to all those buttons and menus.

Looking back over some of my favourite macro shots, when I zoomed in they seemed grainy! Looking at the exif information, I found that the macro strobe shots, the ISO was set to 800. I tried forcing it too ISO 100 but the internal flash wasn't bright enough, so it went back to auto.

When I eventually purchased a decent external strobe I decided to try the ISO 100 setting again, WOW! Zooming into the photo to 250% it now gets as grainy as previously at 120%, that's double the picture quality. I will now try using ISO 80 to see if I can get even better results.

(this more like it Tim?)

[TimIngmire]

Perfick!

[Mark]

I always hated the totally green ambient shots that I used to get. I played with some filters, but the colour never seemed right, it was impossible to get a photo at the correct depth for the filter colour. Thats when I stimbled across 'manual white balance', I didn't even realise that my camera had one. It only really works well on shallow dives, down to 15m depending on the ambient light, but it can give impressive results. By changing the white balance to an ambient light setting it changes the white reference point (there's probably someone here could explain it far more technical than me) to the ambient light. I have found it easier to just point it at the surface and set it there, some people carry a white slate to point the camera at. As you swim up and down you will need to keep setting the white balance before you shoot, otherwise the colour balance will not be so accurate.

Try playing with it on your next shore dive, manual white balance is on most cameras not just compacts. I found it after getting lost in my menus.

[Mattdiver]

I would add that the new "Green Magic" from magic filters seems to help much in achieving pleasant subject colours too, even though it does cut a bit of light, and tends to change the colour of the background water noticeably.