confused about settings!!!

[mrs b]

Hi all, this is my first post though I have been lurking!

I am due to go on red sea liveaboard soon and am taking my fuji f31 but have totally confused myself and people keep telling me different things!! even went on a course and thought I had it straight but now unsure again.

first question- should I take my strobe? some say yes others say you dont need flash at all? confusuin number one!

second question- for general non macro type photos is there a general settting? should I use manual white balance? set ISo etc. bearing in mind I have not a great deal of photographic knowledge?

third question- have never used the underwater setting but others with same camera have. is it yes or no?

fourth question- I am taking my wide angle lens as well and think I am ok with this as I understand its best to use this without flash?

sorry for all the questions but i keep getting conflicting advice and can see me coming back with heaps of bad shots!

[DDT uk]

Originally Posted by mrs b

first question- should I take my strobe? some say yes others say you dont need flash at all? confusuin number one!

second question- for general non macro type photos is there a general settting? should I use manual white balance? set ISo etc. bearing in mind I have not a great deal of photographic knowledge?

third question- have never used the underwater setting but others with same camera have. is it yes or no?

fourth question- I am taking my wide angle lens as well and think I am ok with this as I understand its best to use this without flash?

Welcome Mrs B.

Question 1: I would always take the flash. If we want decent colour in your shots then you are far better off with strobe than without. Whilst you can use the white balance to try to get around the lack of a strobe it is not as good.

Question 2: You should only need to use manual white balance if you are not using the strobe [I think, although I am sure that I will be corrected if wrong]. Alway use the lowest ISO that you can get away with. Higher the ISO the greater the noise in the picture.

Question 3: don't know. I don't have it.

Question 4: What you need to remember is that the flash light will only go so far. The beauty of the wide angle lens is that it allows you to get closer to the subject and to bring it within the range of the strobe. If you want colour in the foreground that take the strobe.

Anybody that tells you that you do not need a strobe is either shooting in the first few feet of water the whole time, only shooting wrecks or caves, or just not taking very good pictures.

Daniel

[mrs b]

Originally Posted by DDT uk

Welcome Mrs B.

Question 1: I would always take the flash. If we want decent colour in your shots then you are far better off with strobe than without. Whilst you can use the white balance to try to get around the lack of a strobe it is not as good.

Question 2: You should only need to use manual white balance if you are not using the strobe [I think, although I am sure that I will be corrected if wrong]. Alway use the lowest ISO that you can get away with. Higher the ISO the greater the noise in the picture.

Daniel

Thanks for the reply! can I just ask something else though about the points you have made?

from what you said-but I may be wring here- is that I def SHOULD use either strobe or flash (guess the strobe is better) would this be in dmidday as well? guess the max would be 30 m so can I use no flash in this condition or is it best to use flash/strobe ALL the time?

as for ISO settings- am I best on an automatic setting or should I be bold and have a play with the manual settings or aperture priorty bits? technical speak here you see!

many thanks

[DDT uk]

Originally Posted by mrs b

Thanks for the reply! can I just ask something else though about the points you have made?

from what you said-but I may be wring here- is that I def SHOULD use either strobe or flash (guess the strobe is better) would this be in dmidday as well? guess the max would be 30 m so can I use no flash in this condition or is it best to use flash/strobe ALL the time?

as for ISO settings- am I best on an automatic setting or should I be bold and have a play with the manual settings or aperture priorty bits? technical speak here you see!

many thanks

What you have to remember is that water very quickly filters out light. Initially it is at the red end of the spectrum and what you end up with is an all blue picture [and then all black!]. If you end to have these colours in your shots then you need to add the light back in. There are time when you may not want the colour (e.g. for black and white) or when you cannot light all of the subject (e.g. wrecks) but otherwise I would always use the strobe.

If you are using a strobe then I would manually set it to an ISO of 100 or 200.

It terms of exposure settings, Rob or Simon are likely to be better placed to discuss these in terms of compact cameras.

[mrs b]

thanks for the advice. I know what you mean about blue shots- I had a few of those last year!!!

[simonmort]

Evening mrs B, you didnt say which strobe you have with the camera, or how this is fired.

Just looking up your camera on the web.
simon.

[simonmort]

Remind me not to buy a Fuji! want £8.99 to download the manual, bloody ch!!k.

simon.

[mrs b]

Originally Posted by simonmort

Evening mrs B, you didnt say which strobe you have with the camera, or how this is fired.

Just looking up your camera on the web.
simon.

without looking at it I recall the strobe is an epoque wide angle one. Bought it second hand but not sure of model number . It has a switch to change the settings from higher to lower I recall but havenot played about with it that much.

talking about the camera manual- I am sure I pulled off a copy from somewhere to take on holiday with me and I wouldnt have paid for it for sure being the tight git I am! will see if I can find out where. I believe the settings are almost identical to the F30 apart from here or there

[mrs b]

Originally Posted by simonmort

Remind me not to buy a Fuji! want £8.99 to download the manual, bloody ch!!k.

simon.

for some reason you dont have to pay on the us site! here's a link
http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/...1fd_manual.pdf

[Jules]

Originally Posted by simonmort

Remind me not to buy a Fuji! want £8.99 to download the manual, bloody ch!!k.

simon.

That's outragious!