D-70 Settings

Has anyone info on best settings in camera to use, e.g. white balance, auto or flash, or has anyone measured white balance? What is effect on quality of photos?

I have very limited experience in underwater digital photography.

Go to Peter's site.....very detailed

Splashdown Divers

Karl

I've been using a D70 in a Nexus housing with 2 Inon strobes, concentrating on wide-angle images and working in the UK (cold! poor viz!! green!!!).

I shoot using manual exposure, usually working as near to f8 as possible, and sticking to 200ASA, spot metering off the mid-level background water. I find that I rarely go above 1/2-power on the strobes.

I always shoot RAW, but with 512 MB or 1GB compact-flash cards, this isn't a problem.

I leave the colour balance to Auto, but often use the Channel Mixer function in Adobe Photoshop to convert about 10-15% of the green channel to red. An alternative is to use the Levels eyedroppers (Alex and others discussed this last month).

All the functions controlled in the Custom Options menu are set to "off" or to neutral settings.

This maximises the information collected into each image file, and lets me generate vibrant images later, working on the files at home.

When I tried to work with jpeg files, I also used Auto colour balance and mid-range settings: sharpening +1; tone comp. +1; color mode II (Adobe RGB); saturation 0 and hue adjustment 0. This was faster, in that the files didn't have to go through so much post-processing, but didn't work for every image (better for tropical, blue-water images). Setting colour balance to "cloudy" or "shade" can work for ambient-light images, but not for strobe-lit colours. It's not anything like as useful as post-processing.

Tim Priest

What is the difference between color mode II and III? They are both Adobe RGB.

It seems that the contrast and saturation in III is higher, that should be better for UW.

Kees

Tim has the right idea!

Shoot manually to have full control of all the elements in your images whether a cold green water column or a rich deep blue...you can control it manually then balance the exposure to your foreground subject to match or exceed the background...your choice as you are in full control.

With Raw the minute adjustments in color, or strobe temperatures are easily taken care off.

It isnt the "zone system" but you can defenitely use Raw to expose for the most deails, knowing that when you get to your digital lab you can adjust in the processing for your original exposure, keeping in mind as well what paper you will end up printing on.

Like a master once told me...

Underwater photography is like brain surgery. Its easy. You open the head, fix the head and close it. Easy.

Make images that transcend time. Shoot manually for full control.

Mauricio Handler

Make images that transcend time. Shoot manually for full control.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...or use a long exposure! :D

Sorry couldn't resist juvenile humour!

New in the DSLR game I am still confuse about many Settings

I read the manual but - like you know- is not writen for underwater scenarios

I try to find how i use the nikon to fit my set to take pictures

Normaly I have

AF_S

AF-Area Dynamic

Focus area Center wtb 8mm

But all of this are not trsted underwater.I must wait 3 more weeks.

But in general i like to know some tips for combination av WA & "Burn th BLUE"

Alex's Freediver Photos are the perfect example for what like ...

What will be u advice for settings for the camera for this kind of photos (i available light). For the blue is beter to go with metering the midelwater and have shutter 1/80 - 1/125?

Everybody says "shoot manual mode". Why not A mode?

I've been using F80 with TTL strobes so far and my D70 housing has not arrived yet, so this is strictly theoretical.

I'm going to use D70 with Ikelite 100A strobes (full and 1/2 power settings only).

I thought that A mode would be most convenient:

1) change aperture to control flash exposure - background exposure stays the same since A mode would adjust shutter accordingly,

2) use exposure compensation to get correct background exposure - it does not impact flash exposure since in A mode compensation changes shutter only aperture stays the same.

In manual, every time I change aperture to control flash I need to re-adjust shutter to keep background unchanged.

Why would manual be better?

Andrzej

Everybody says "shoot manual mode".  Why not A mode?

Why would manual be better?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A - Aperture priority AUTO - works fine. Your pictures will come out if you use it. And yes it can be the best choice in certain situations.

But A does not give you the photographic control of M.

Just as an example - if you want a black background for a macro shot then with M you can set a small aperture and the fastest shutter speed you camera will synch to - to eliminate the effect of ambient light. On A the shutter speed will stick at 1/60th in this situation and you may get some natural light.

A - can be useful for fast moving subjects - like a shark feed - where the subjects are all around you and you are shooting off frames at different angles.

Alex

Another altenativ is the P mode.

It is also an automatic program but you can tweak the settings.

It is like you have Aperture Priority & Shutter Priority in the same time.

Is a good way to learn & experiment with Aperture & Shutter.

Lambis

Why we shoot in M or Manual Exposure Mode with a DSLR:

A or Aperture Priority Exposure Mode was more useful with TTL based systems where there was communication between the camera and the strobe and the shutter speed lower limit was around 1/60th or so. With the lack of communication between camera and strobe with most DSLR's there is no limit on how slow the shutter speed can go in A mode, the same is true for P or Program Mode.

In A mode the camera will meter on the ambient light based on the ISO and Aperture settings and set the shutter speed accordingly. Because the camera has no idea that a strobe is being fired this shutter speed may be very, very slow. The end result will be images that are not sharp due to the slow shutter speed or you may get a ghost image effect with exposures from the ambient light and the strobe being captured on the same image.

S Mode or shutter priority make no sense to me for underwater applications. You choose the shutter speed and the camera will choose the aperture based on the ambient light level and the ISO setting. Who would want their aperture (which should be used as a depth of field control tool) changing based on the ambient light.

[[[ 1) change aperture to control flash exposure - background exposure stays the same since A mode would adjust shutter accordingly,

 

2) use exposure compensation to get correct background exposure - it does not impact flash exposure since in A mode compensation changes shutter only aperture stays the same.

 

In manual, every time I change aperture to control flash I need to re-adjust shutter to keep background unchanged]]]

 

 

I must say that I agree with this approach. This is what I use for wide angle where there is a significant amount of background water in the frame. It works for me as I have greater sucess this way rather than having to constantly change the shutter speed to get the correct background exposure for nice deep blue water colour.

What works for me is AV mode with -2 exposure compensation. I lock exposure by metering in CWA exposure mode ( Canon system) by pointing the center of the viewfinder to an area which is about midway between the darkest and lightest (sun ) of the background ( real easy once you have done it a few times and only takes a second ) Then with the exposure locked I take the shot and can be confident that the exposure is going to be OK for the background.

 

Of course there are manyways of skinning a cat and you can get the same results in Manual exposure mode - I just find it a bit simpler this way. Having said that I shoot every other situation in manual exposure mode.

...but if you dont use strobes and take photos with available light?

Are the technics the same?

Lambis

Yes it would be the same for the background water exposure. The foreground subject, however, will be underexposed and have no colour due to lack of strobe exposure. It works fine for silouettes without flash.

So if I metering the background water exposure my foreground subject may will be underexposed. So the way to do this with available light is to metering the subject and adjust shutter so that you get the BLUE in the background.

Maybe pattern metering mode works better that spot metering mode

There must be a good way to set up the camera so that you have a good exposure balance in the picture. No subject is underexposed and the background is beaytiful BLUE

Lambis