Novice, needs help

I have just started taking photo's underwater and need as much help as possible. This picture was taken in Feb this year in Mozambique.

Why are you shooting black and white?

Shortfin Lionfish:

The composition is excellent... just needs cropping slightly.

What camera were you using? Were you intentionally Taking/presenting this in BW.

Post settings etc as this helps us to help you.

The viz was not great on the original as seen below and I thought it looked better in B/W, what do you guys think? I'm using a Sony DSC-P5 with the marine pack as yet with no strobe. I used mostly the auto settings on the camers.

Focal Length 8mm

F-Number F/2.8

Exposure Time 1/200 sec

ISO Speed 100

Hope this helps

Paul

A bit of work and it can look better.

Definitely invest in a strobe. The difference will be amazing. Also try playing with the manual settings. The problem with auto in low light situations is that the camera will almost always try to open the aperture right up to get more light in, hence the F2.8.

Mark

The P5 has no manual settings - just full auto. The ambient light must have been pretty good for this shot - I'm surprised that Paul got 1/200 shutter speed. You might be better off running with a continuous source of light - like a good quality video light rather than a strobe. It may not be as ideal as a strobe but it will bring back the colour in your pics and give you better shutter speeds and apertures.