Local quarry - Newb with first real camera

I haven't been diving that long. I have been using a GoPro Hero 3 Black and mostly shooting video with it. I attended the Wreck Shark Shootout down in North Carolina last month. When I saw the pictures my friends were getting with relatively modest cameras, I became compelled to step up my own game.

I scored a good deal on CL for a used Olympus E-M10 and I ordered a Meikon housing*. I took the new rig out to Millbrook Quarry (Haymarket, VA) on Saturday. The first dive, I just took the housing, to make sure it didn't leak. I shot these pics on the 2nd dive. The viz in the quarry was about 5 feet. I don't have a strobe. I was shooting in iAuto mode with the built-in flash popped up and shooting through the Meikon-supplied diffuser. I edited the RAW files in Photo Mate R3 on my Android tablet.

It's too bad the fish pics didn't get the eyes and mouth in good focus. But, that's why I was out there. To try it out and learn. Next time, I will try shooting with Aperture priority and stopping down to f/8 or maybe f/11. These pics were both using f/5.6. Hopefully, that will give me enough increase in depth of field to have clear focus on the whole fish. The fish pics and the rock were shot with the lens zoom at 14mm. The snap link pic was with the lens at 42mm. And, on the snap link pic, I had an Archon D11V video light mounted on top that was turned on and pointing at the snap link (and not doing much, I don't think).

I'm including an unedited version of the snap link photo just to give an idea of what I was working with before editing. The water was very green. That picture is of a snap link on a training platform at about 30 feet depth.

Like I said, I already have some ideas about what to try next time out (besides the obvious of getting a strobe). But, if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears! I am currently reading The Underwater Photographer, by Martin Edge, and I feel like I am getting a lot out of that.

*Incidentally, if you have an E-M10 and are thinking about getting a Meikon housing, know this: I emailed customer service at Meikon.com.hk because the housing says it is for the "14-42mm lens". I wanted to know whether that meant the 14-42mm EZ (aka pancake) or the slightly older 14-42mm II R. They emailed me back and told me it was for the EZ. That's good as that's what the camera I was looking at and ended up buying came with. I waited 2 weeks (hoping for a coupon on July 4th) and then ordered the housing. Hours after I ordered the housing, I got an email from Meikon saying "we're sorry, we gave you the wrong info before. We just learned from the factory that the housing is actually for the 14-42mm II R lens." Well, isn't that just great?

I received the housing and sure enough the EZ lens is too fat to fit in - unless you want to remove the wheel that is intended to operate the manual zoom ring on the II R lens ... and have no way to operate the power zoom on the EZ lens. So, I ordered the II R lens. $99, brand new. The II R does indeed fit and work just fine.

Fish portraits are tough, if the subject is moving (as it usually is!). I've found that it really helps to use the single extra-small focus point. You can enable this through the super control panel, select focus mode, then use the info button to cycle through the options.

A smaller aperture is almost always better in these cases, at least until you can ensure focus on the eyes. But if the vis is poor and you don't have a strobe, you'll want to set ISO to automatic so that the shutter doesn't drop too slow. Don't let the ISO get too high though, there's too much noise beyond 800.

By the way, if you're shooting without a strobe, don't try to use the pop-up flash in iAuto mode. The camera isn't smart enough to know you're in murky water and that flash won't illuminate anything more than a foot away, if that. Turn off the flash and use Program mode, then experiment with Aperture priority also if you get the chance. But as you already know, you won't be happy without real light.