Shooting towards the sun

Hi Folks,

I am an above water nature photography hobbyist, new to UW photography - just getting my bearings and thoroughly enjoying the challenge.

The attached image was a "grab shot" taken (while shooting smaller critters at my level), when I noticed the Ray gliding into the scene above me. My camera (Canon S95 P&S ISO 400 F8.0 1/200) was set for good exposure of blue water background, but not while shooting towards the sun.

I liked the composition except for the blown out area, and the image does include a relatively unsuccessful attempt to do a selective exposure reduction in PS.

Do y'all avoid such shots or do you have a strategy for shooting towards the sun ?

I thank you for any ideas you may have for improving the image.

Same as shooting into the sun on land .. you will ideally need some fill flash (or even full strobe power) while you shut down the exposure to get the blue you want and the subject lit how you'd like.

Although I am wondering if you could achieve a better result here with a bit of colour alteration post process white balancing type thing.

Especially with small sensors, you must keep the ISO as low as possible. Turning it up, dramatically drops the dynamic range, basically 1EV for every 100 iso.

Especially with small sensors, you must keep the ISO as low as possible. Turning it up, dramatically drops the dynamic range, basically 1EV for every 100 iso.

Thanks for the information. I wondered why ISO 200 is recommended for UW shots with this camera.

(I had thought I would get more aperture flexibility at ISO 400, but I will divest of this notion.)

With regards to white balance, above water I usually use automatic white balance setting, in camera, and eyeball the white balance adjustment in Lightroom. I am, however, so new to underground scenery that I have a lot of trouble with identifying appropriate white balance adjustment. Any tips ??

get this book, all you want to know you can found here (From PnS to DSLR):

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/review-the-...by-martin-edge/

Thanks. I actually have the book, and on rereading an early section on white balance last night, I noticed the author recommends taking a (depth dependent) initial shot of the palm of the hand to assist in white balance adjustment of RAW files in Lightroom. Great idea.

I also noticed a section on applying HDR software to UW images, and I shall try that on this image to see if I can get some more detail in the darkened reef areas.

Thanks. I actually have the book, and on rereading an early section on white balance last night, I noticed the author recommends taking a (depth dependent) initial shot of the palm of the hand to assist in white balance adjustment of RAW files in Lightroom. Great idea.

 

I also noticed a section on applying HDR software to UW images, and I shall try that on this image to see if I can get some more detail in the darkened reef areas.

I dont think your photo that you have uploaded here will benefit from any HDR processing. If you took this photo in RAW then I would suggest that you re enter it into your RAW conversion program and re white balance. This will give you a much better image than any HDR processing.

Stew