newbie needs help

Hello All, I am definitely a newcomer to underwater photography. I have an Olympus C5050 with Ikelite housing and 1 DS125 strobe. The photos from my first underwater outing were terrible at best. The color of everything was really blue. Would any of you have suggestions for setting up the camera and/or flash? For example, do you usually use manual mode when photographing underwater? Have you found the need to set the camera's white balance. Have you found the need to use flash compensation? Do you set the camera to always flash? Any words of wisdom would be GREATLY appreciated!

Hi Scubadobie, welcome to Wetpixel!

It looks like this post got missed, so I am going to move it to the consumer digicam forum where it will get more attention.

Some quick answers:

Most of your shots will appear blue without flash. Make sure to always use flash if you can.

You will need a "slave" strobe for your Olympus - one that 'watches' the camera's flash, and then goes off at the same time. Have a look through the lighting forum and you will find MUCH discussion about this.

Since most consumer digicams are designed for topside shooting, the "Automatic" modes don't work too well. Most folks I know shoot manual or A or M.

HTH

James

For lots of useful information on settings for your camera, see the following URL.

http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gall...up_settings.htm

Also check out the sections on photo editing software and technique. Sometimes some pretty bad looking photos can be saved with a little editing.

Edited 8/30/03 to provide more appropriate URL.

Thank you all very much for you replies!!! I will definitely take your suggestions and run with them.