UNDERWATER SHOTS - check'em out

[Tomzinho]

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water and post-processing techniques.







The place, Fernando do Noronha off the north-east coast of Brazil, was an absolute paridise. Check out the other photos:

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/fernando_do_noronha

Cheers, Tom
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

 

[morris]

Nice job Tom. I’ve taken photos inside a sub and they came about the same as yours. I have the advantage of easily adjusting the camera. You are probably stuck with the settings you go down with. As you probably know light goes fast when you are underwater and all red is absorbed by the time you are 10 feet down. I’d suggest shooting at ISO 100 or faster and set the camera for program mode. If you are not using a flash everything will have the cyan cast that the turtle has. If you do an autolevels you will bring back a lot of the red, but it will not look natural. A flash will give better color, but will not go far. Please keep sharing with us, these are nice photos.

Morris

Ps. A sample of what I’ve taken:



The above photo is near the surface on a bright sunny day off of St. Thomas. It was taken with my G1 at ISO 50, 1/500, f 4.0

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out
of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If
anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much
appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water
and post-processing techniques.







The place, Fernando do Noronha off the north-east coast of Brazil,
was an absolute paridise. Check out the other photos:

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/fernando_do_noronha

Cheers, Tom
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

 

[Tomzinho]

Morris,

Thanks for your comments (and nice photo!). I did have to pre-set the camera, which I generally did before even getting on the boat to avoid any potential contact with water.

In general, I was using the "P" mode and set the ISO at 200 as a balance between quality and speed. With my housing I was able to turn the flash on or off depending on what I needed. Also I could turn on or off macro mode and switch from P to any other mode - my housing gave me full control over all of my Powershot S30 functions (which was one of the reasons I bought the S30 - the Canon underwater housing for the S30/40 is several hundred$ less than for other cameras). The only thing I could not change underwater was the ISO speed and the drive mode.

In general I found that the closer I was to the subject the better the photo came out (and close up I would almost always use a flash, set at -2 on my S30). Hence the lobsters and shrip came out well. From further back, I suffered from the washing out of the light spectrum.

I understand that there are programs you can buy to use with photoshop that 'restore' underwater shots with some color that doesn't look too fake. I plan to look into those (Digital ROC and Digital SHO) but for the time being I just use the simle tools breezebrowser provides me. If (when) I try these out I'll post another note.

Cheers, Tomzinho

Morris

Ps. A sample of what I’ve taken:



The above photo is near the surface on a bright sunny day off of
St. Thomas. It was taken with my G1 at ISO 50, 1/500, f 4.0

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out
of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If
anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much
appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water
and post-processing techniques.







The place, Fernando do Noronha off the north-east coast of Brazil,
was an absolute paridise. Check out the other photos:

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/fernando_do_noronha

Cheers, Tom
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

 

[sp107222]

what kind of underwater case did you use?

thanks!
SP

Morris

Ps. A sample of what I’ve taken:



The above photo is near the surface on a bright sunny day off of
St. Thomas. It was taken with my G1 at ISO 50, 1/500, f 4.0

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out
of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If
anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much
appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water
and post-processing techniques.







The place, Fernando do Noronha off the north-east coast of Brazil,
was an absolute paridise. Check out the other photos:

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/fernando_do_noronha

Cheers, Tom
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

 

[Tomzinho]

Canon WP-DC300. Worked very well (although it fogged a little at times)

thanks!
SP

Morris

Ps. A sample of what I’ve taken:



The above photo is near the surface on a bright sunny day off of
St. Thomas. It was taken with my G1 at ISO 50, 1/500, f 4.0

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out
of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If
anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much
appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water
and post-processing techniques.







The place, Fernando do Noronha off the north-east coast of Brazil,
was an absolute paridise. Check out the other photos:

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/fernando_do_noronha

Cheers, Tom
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

 

[Slap Shot]

What kind of problems did you encounter underwater with the auto focus. I know my S40 has problems with focus indoors in lower light especially when using the zoom. Is there enough contrast as well to get good focus under water? How much is the S30/S40 underwater housing. I currently shoot underwater with a Sea Life camera with very poor results and would like to try the S40. How do you set the white balance for underwater?

thanks!
SP

Morris

Ps. A sample of what I’ve taken:



The above photo is near the surface on a bright sunny day off of
St. Thomas. It was taken with my G1 at ISO 50, 1/500, f 4.0

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out
of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If
anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much
appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water
and post-processing techniques.







The place, Fernando do Noronha off the north-east coast of Brazil,
was an absolute paridise. Check out the other photos:

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/fernando_do_noronha

Cheers, Tom
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

 

[Tomzinho]

I was actually surprised by the lack of autofocus problems - most pictures that don't come out it is because of lighting and/or debris issues, or because the fish moves too damn fast to stay in the frame or for the setting to capture (fast speed in low light). I used the macro mode for several photos also with no problem, and I think with some others I used the manual focus (set to infinity) and they came out fine as well (I'll have to double check that)

I paid around US$150 for the housing over the internet.

thanks!
SP

Morris

Ps. A sample of what I’ve taken:



The above photo is near the surface on a bright sunny day off of
St. Thomas. It was taken with my G1 at ISO 50, 1/500, f 4.0

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out
of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If
anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much
appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water
and post-processing techniques.







The place, Fernando do Noronha off the north-east coast of Brazil,
was an absolute paridise. Check out the other photos:

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/fernando_do_noronha

Cheers, Tom
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho

 

[Walter001]

http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho/diving

The photos below and on the site were the ones that came out (out
of many more). Taking photos underwater is very difficult. If
anyone has any experience here and has some tips I would very much
appreciate it, both regarding optimal settings entering the water
and post-processing techniques.

I've never done any digital photography underwater, but I have done a bit with convenional 35mm cameras.

First thing to consider is that water absorbs colors. As you descend, red disappears at around 30 feet. From there other colors follow in the order they appear in a rainbow: orange, yellow, green, blue... At 50 feet blue and green are all that's left.

So unless you take your pictures in extremely shallow and clear water, or use an underwater light source, your pictures will have a strong bluish tint. Anything red, yellow, or orange will simply appear in various shades of blue.

There are special filters available to make the colors appear somewhat better, but their effect is limited.

Also, even the clearest water degrades the image somewhat, so you want to get as close to your subject as possible. The best underwater shots are taken with very expensive ultra-wide angle lenses which also provide a large depth of field, which makes focusing much easier.

But remember that water refracts light, essentially acting as a lens that makes things appear larger. This means that your camera lens' effective focal length is increased underwater, and its depth of field is reduced. Add to that the very limited wide angle focal lengths available on most digital cameras and you soon realize that most digital cameras are ill-suited for underwater photography. except for snapshots.

Best thing you can do is get as close as possible to your subject and use a light or strobe.

 

[DrewG]

Hey, cool pics!

The only thing I could not change underwater was

the ISO speed and the drive mode.

I have this case too, you can change both the ISO and drive mode underwater. Press the menu button, the press and hold the MF button. Holding the MF button converts left and right to up and down on the controller. This lets you select ISO or drive mode from the menu. Then let go of MF and use left and right to select the desired mode.

The only time this trick does not work is in setting the apature in manual mode, otherwise every function seems to be available using the underwater case.

 

[Tomzinho]

I've never done any digital photography underwater, but I have done
a bit with convenional 35mm cameras.

First thing to consider is that water absorbs colors. As you
descend, red disappears at around 30 feet. From there other colors
follow in the order they appear in a rainbow: orange, yellow,
green, blue... At 50 feet blue and green are all that's left.

So unless you take your pictures in extremely shallow and clear
water, or use an underwater light source, your pictures will have a
strong bluish tint. Anything red, yellow, or orange will simply
appear in various shades of blue.
There are special filters available to make the colors appear
somewhat better, but their effect is limited.

Also, even the clearest water degrades the image somewhat, so you
want to get as close to your subject as possible. The best
underwater shots are taken with very expensive ultra-wide angle
lenses which also provide a large depth of field, which makes
focusing much easier.

But remember that water refracts light, essentially acting as a
lens that makes things appear larger. This means that your camera
lens' effective focal length is increased underwater, and its depth
of field is reduced. Add to that the very limited wide angle focal
lengths available on most digital cameras and you soon realize that
most digital cameras are ill-suited for underwater photography.
except for snapshots.

Best thing you can do is get as close as possible to your subject
and use a light or strobe.

Great tips. Thanks a lot! The only problem with this hobby is finding the time to take vacations to sunny tropical locations to test and improve our skills
--
Tomzinho
http://www.pbase.com/tomzinho