Blueing

I finally got to use my new Sea & Sea camera. I was using my duel strobes and wide angle conversion lens. I was shooting in fresh water with good visibility. I was about 5-6 feet away from my subject which was a fairly large subject. I saw both strobes fire, but when I uploaded my images to my computer I noticed the photos still have a blue tint to them. How do I fix this problem?? The camera was set on program.

I would suggest trying to get 3 feet away from your subject. 5 feet is the limit to get any reds in your photo.

Also, Program mode probably gave you a bad shutter speed and aperture combination. Perhaps have a look at what settings the camera set.

Try using A or S priority or even better manual. For 3 feet f 5.6-f8 should be good.

Feel free to post example photos too with the settings used and you may get some more specific advice.

Mikes advice is a great starting point though if you aren't already doing that.

the key concept a lot of people miss when starting UW photography with strobes is the balancing of ambient & strobe exposure.

My GUESS is that using program auto, the camera is exposing at the ambient levels, meaning your background AND subject are being exposed fully with hazy blue ambient light. the strobes fire, but if they're on an auto mode like TTL, the camera realizes that only a tiny amount of strobe light is needed before the subject is fully exposed. one can't fully expose your subject with ambient light then add more light with the strobe.

the idea is to underexpose your subject, so that its dark, almost black, in the ambient exposure. then add strobe to expose it. this usually means underexposing what the camera thinks by 1 to 2 stops and using the strobes to make up the difference. Also like Mike said, 5-6 feet is pushing it for strobe lighting. try to get closer.

next time your UW, find a nice spot to chill for a couple minutes, with a subject about 3 feet away and some open water in teh background, and do this exercise:

1. shoot a shot like you did already for reference.

2. then turn the strobes OFF, set an exposure compensation of -1 to -2 stops on the camera and fire a couple shots, maybe trying different exposures, until your subject is very dark and the background water is a nice deep blue (or maybe green if you're diving in jersey) upon review.

3. keep that exposure setting on the camera (even if it means setting manually, aperture must remain constant here) and turn the strobes back on and fire, trying different strobe powers (1/4, 1/2, full) until the subject is nicely lit with good colour, using the image review to judge.

just tell ur buddy you wanna sit in a spot for 5-10 minutes on the dive and experiment with exposures. if you have a good dive buddy, he/she won't mind. hope that helps. and by all means post soem example photos with exposure stats so we can get a better idea of whats happening. cheers,

chris