How to take underwater digital photos?

Hello Buddies!!

I have a canon A80 a shiny new canon housing and two weeks liveaboard starting sunday

I'm a fairly acomplished air photographer but I don't know where to start when taking my camera underwater.

Can anybody point out some good articles or tutorials or have any tips for my setup?

I've been looking around this site for a couple of hours now and so far I have found out :

I should be setting my camera to iso 100 or slower.

I should always use the difusser with the built in flash

Try to get within a couple of feet from the target.

Here's what I would like to know more about

General base settings for 1st dive. I was thinking of using TV to select a shutter speed of around 1/250 and turning the flash on to prevent shake.

Natural light vs Flash

Shutter Speeds how fast to prevent shake? I dont have an underwater tripod!!! (yet)

Can you take seascapes of corals or do you always need to be close?

Is the camea's "visibility" the same as mine?

Again, if anybody can point me at a good article / tutorial / quickstart or share some tips I would be grateful and post some of the results when I get back.

Thanks!

~Brett

I don't know squat about your camera, but in some respects that is unimportant.

My experience has been that 1/60 is about as slow as you want for a shutter speed, and in a lot of cases 1/125 would be better for most close shots.

On shots where the background water is visible you want to set the camera to expose the background and the strobe to expose the foreground (the subject). In these cases, you will find that a bit of trial and error is best. Start at 1/125 and f8, and take a look at the color of the water you end up with. Try and shoot horizontally for this test. I am not sure how you will adjust your strobe intensity (as I said, I do not know your camera). I am sure there are a few folks here shooting your setup that can chime in...

The most important things to remember as you begin your underwater photo education are these simple rules: (they are only simple when you are sitting above water, easy to forget under!)

1. Get close and shoot UP!

2. Get closer!!

3. When you think you are close enough, get a little closer!

4. Shoot till your fingers bleed! (this line stolen from a good friend)

5. Have fun with it!

All in all, as you are already an experienced photographer, you will find the instant review in the camera, as well as your existing understanding of photography, will combine to make the learning curve very short. Make sure you take a laptop so you can review your shots each day. This will allow you to see the "problems" right away, and you can work on the solution the following day.

rinse and repeat... You will not believe how much you can improve using this methodology while on a live-aboard dive trip.

Have fun and make sure you show us some pictures when you return!

Hi Brett,

I'm using a similar system a Canon A70 with the Canon case. Here are some pointers.

I've been looking around this site for a couple of hours now and so far I have found out :

 

I should be setting my camera to iso 100 or slower.

 

I should always use the difusser with the built in flash

 

Try to get within a couple of feet from the target.

 

Here's what I would like to know more about

You should use ISO 50 when shooting with flash, you will get less noise.

It's true it's best to use the diffuser when shooting with the internal flash but you can take good pictures when you're in shallow water without the flash. When you're are deeper you can do interesting thing without the flash but you have to think that your camera is loaded with B&W film.

When you are within two feet remember to use the macro mode

Can anybody point out some good articles or tutorials or have any tips for my setup?

This Canon site is very good for people who are beginning

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/uwphoto/index-e.html

You can also pay a visit to my site where you will a few tips for a Powershot setup.

General base settings for 1st dive. I was thinking of using TV to select a shutter speed of around 1/250 and turning the flash on to prevent shake.

When using Tv with the flash the A80 will default aperture to f/2.8 if it reacts like my A70. It's OK if it works with the ambient light. If you have too much ambient light the best approach would be to go manual with 1/250th (1/500th is supposed to work too) and reduce the aperture.

Tv is preferable to Av when shooting with flash because the A80 will default to 1/60th in Av with flash and you will (or may) get some movement blurring depending on water movement and your bouyancy expertise.

When you shoot macro try to find a busy background so that the diffusion specks will blend with the background. The internal flash is really close from the lens!

Use the sunlight settting when shooting flash and the custom white balance when shooting ambient light. If you're too lazy to use the custom white balance, at least use the AWB so that reds won't be eliminated from the JPEG.

Set the "Effects" to OFF, use the largest resolution with least compression.

You were asking about "Natural light vs Flash", my advice would be "try both!" If you're shooting macro try to use the flash but sometimes it doesn't work properly and dumps too much light.

Shutter Speeds how fast to prevent shake? I dont have an underwater tripod!!! (yet)

1/125th may work if you're not using the zoom. BTW try not using it and get closer instead. By all means shut out the numerical zoom. 1/250th is almost always OK. If you want to avoid the shake and get a shorter shutter delay try depressing the shutter halfway to force the camera to find it's focus and fine tune the framing afterwards. It's tougher on moving subject but if you anticipate the distance at which you will shoot the subject and prefocus on a static object at a similar distance it works. This helps me to reduce the shake because I have a tendancy to press harder on the shutter when I sense the camera is not taking the picture.

Can you take seascapes of corals or do you always need to be close?

Of course but be sure to custom white balance. Look at the POTW Winners #31 for an example taken at some distance of the subject with a Canon A70.

Is the camea's "visibility" the same as mine?

I'm not 100% sure about what you mean but if you're talking about the optical viewfinder, you will soon find that you're framing with the LCD.

Oh! and one final word of advice...get closer!

So where are you going diving?

Depends what you want to do.

If macro (close up..small animals, eyeballs, nudibranchs, etc): Normally, when you get close with a macro lens, your depth of field is compromised. Thus, shoot about 1/60th shutter and f-22 if you can swing it, higher if you need more DOF and camera can handle it, although f22 seems to produce the best results.

If wide angle, shoot some trial shots, maybe at f8 @ 1/60th (a famous camera book of a bygone era) and adjust your settings accordingly. If fast moving wide angle subjects are at hand, use higher shutter speeds. If DOF is critical, larger f-stop and less shutter speed.

There are a lot of light variations underwater, so be sure to error on the darker side of exposure so you can correct in PS or some other software.

Those are the basics. You normally don't need a tripod unless you are doing some specialty work. Are you using an external strobe?

Joe

Wow! Well Joe, looks like you and I dropped the ball. The specs on the A80 that I have been able to find both list the lens aperture at 2.8 - 4.9 only...

looks like DOF is going to be very limited on this camera, and shutter speed is going to be the only available tool in most cases.

BTW, does anyone know firsthand if this is correct??

That spec is the lens' MAXIMUM aperture. This is similar to your 24-85, which has a smaller max aperture when you zoom towards telephoto.

I seem to remember this camera stopping down to f11, possibly just f8.

Since Canon cameras don't meter the flash output in manual mode, I would suggest a Tv setting, and 1/250th shutter speed as well. I'd also dial in as much negative EXPOSURE compensation, not Flash EV, as I could to darken the backgrounds. Remember to get close!!!

Guys, Thanks for the great tips.

To answer your questions first

I'm off to maldives, I cannot wait and I'll post some pics.

I don't have an external strobe. Can you get one for the canon housing?

F8 seems to be the max apperture. I was sure that I've had it to 11 before but it doesnt seem to want to do that tonight.

I was joking about the tripod. Can you really get them??

You do seem to be able to adjust the flash output (is this the same as metering ryan?)

So to summerise so far:

For close up work I want to have a shutter speed of 60, get up close, open the apperture up to 8 Get closer, set to macro mode, get closer, try and position the camera upwards to get some extra light. get in a bit closer and snap!

If I'm going for the blue background effect its a simiar principle as above but I want a longer exposure - try and get to 30.

Thanks for that great link wet70. I searched the canon sites looking for info on housings before I bought it and came up empty.

A couple more questions.

Lighting. I dont have an external strobe, will getting my buddy to shine a torch help? has anybody tried those mask mounted pen lights??

What sort of setting do I need for natural light shots?

Ryan what do you mean by dailing in negative exposure??

cheers guys

When your camera is set to manual mode, it does not quench its flash exposure. In other words, when you take a picture in P, A, or Tv, the camera is turning off the internal flash when it sees proper exposure (using sensors inside the camera). When you are farther away, the camera will emit more flash, and when you are close emit less.

In Manual mode, the camera emits a small, set output meant only to trigger external slave strobes. This, by accident, will yield proper exposure from a set distance, but will overexpose when you are closer than that distance, and underexpose when you are farther away.

I like strobe light, and your camera's interna flash is better than nothing, except for when you run across mantas and whale sharks in the Maldives.

It is my $.02 that you want metered flash, and suggest getting that by shooting in Tv. Your camera will use an open aperture by default, since it doesn't see very much light at depth. That is ok, your digicam will still likely have enough depth of field for closeup fish portraits.

What your camera sees as properly exposed underwater scenes have a very cyan-green hue across them. Underexposing the same scene slightly will shift that color from green to a very nice, deep blue. For that reason, you want to tell your camera to slightly underexpose its pictures. Your users manual will call this exposure compensation, measured in f-stops, and you want some of it in a negative direction This should only affect background exposure, and shouldn't change foreground exposure (controlled by the flash).

You'll want to choose the forced flash setting on your camera for everyting you'll photograph within 5 feet (indicated by a lightning bolt).

You'll want to utilize macro mode and take lots of close up pictures, your camera will excel at these.

You can add external strobes, but that is something to look into for your next trip.

Great answers. Just what I was looking for. I own an A70, and will be purchasing the underwater housing soon. I am going on a cruise in March and plan to do some snorkelling. I will never be more than 10-15 ft deep. Is there anything special I should know about shooting that close to the surface? BTW, I will not have a strobe or anything else external. Just the A70 and the Canon underwater housing.

...  I will never be more than 10-15 ft deep.  Is there anything special I should know about shooting that close to the surface?  BTW, I will not have a strobe or anything else external.  Just the A70 and the Canon underwater housing.

Hi,

Shooing that close to the surface is not a problem, it's a bonus. So try to use the lowest ISO that makes sense. Try to get close instead of zooming. A depth of 10 to 15 feet may induce a blue cast that you can remove with Photoshop but if you want to get results out of the bat you could use the AWB setting or make a manual balance at 15 feet once in a while. Be sure you're using the macro setting when you are in the proper range. Also be sure to select a shutter speed that's fast enough ( 1/125th or 1/250th).

Taking pictures while snorkeling is a good challenge, remember to shoot up.