Advice needed

I am new to uw photography, my camera is an Olympus C750 with strobe.

My first pictures turned out too blue as you can see:

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgall...00/ppuser/27219

I assume it could be because:

Exposure too short

f stop too high

too far away

If i'ts one of the first two is it better to increase shutter time or widen the apeture?

Thanks for any help.

Looks like a distance problem to me.......maybe a little strobe aiming also

There is no substitute for getting close.......don't use the zoom as much, this will force you to get close instead of relying on the zoom....you can out zoom your strobe

Don't aim your strobe directly at your subject.....I set mine square with the camera....almost dead ahead, unless I'm doing macro

The first picture got good light on it.....too much backscatter, but that can be fixed with strobe aim next time

Karl

A few other thoughts, but you are off the a great start:

when you shoot the fish from above over sand, the bright sand tells your flash there is too much light, and the strobe does not illuminate the scene to its full potential. Try shooting the fish from below - the blue water will not fool your flash as easily as bright sand. it also makes for a more attractive composition, since the fish jumps out agaisnt the plane blue (rather than belnding into the details of a reef)

One other trick - remember there are two light sources - your strobe and the sun. shoot the water collumm with no fish, to get a good idea what f/stop and shutter speed make the water the blue you like. play around all you like without the pressure of getting a moving target - then let your strobe illuminate just the fish.

hope this helps!

Kalliff,

Not bad at all for a first timer. Just a few comments: the internal strobe on the 750UZ is not very powerfull u/w, if you can't reach out and touch your subject (2') you are too far away. External strobes (Ikelite, Inon etc) will give you a pinch more distance (3' max) before you start to loose your color, but closer is always better. For non strobe photography, use a UR-pro filter and then fine tune your color with the manual white balance controls. Your color should be great, but you may have to increase the ISO (light sensitivity) from auto or ISO 50 to ISO 100 or ISO 200 in order to get a not too slow shutter speed, as the filter absorbes 2 stops of light.

The other comments above from kdietz are important too. Try to shoot fish at eye level, not from above or below, and wait for them to turn 20-40 degrees inward towards the camera so that they are not alligned perpendicular to the camera. This gives them a 3d profile, hense more personality in their faces.

Good Luck,

Doug

Thanks for the tips.

I will try to get lower down and look up at the fishies next time btw I was using an external flash the Epoque ES-150DS.