Best settings for TG6 Shooting skittish fish?

I’ve been shooting skittish little fish underwater freediving with the TG6. I’m wondering which settings you recommend for best results?

So far I’ve been using the UW macro mode and UW regular subject mode in sequential low with flash enabled. The flash really seems to help a lot. But the burst is a little slow for my liking, often makingme miss the perfect moment. Also the “viewfinder” screen is difficult to see underwater, lots of reflections/glare. I’m not sure if it is because im using a screen protector? So far ive had to mostly shoot without using the screen at all, just eyeballing it, leading to many missed shots

What tips do you have for getting more keepers with this camera while shooting fish etc underwater?

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

Camrarat wrote:

I’ve been shooting skittish little fish underwater freediving with the TG6. I’m wondering which settings you recommend for best results?

Start with shutter priority at 1/160th. That should give you at least a good chance at freezing a moving fish.

So far I’ve been using the UW macro mode and UW regular subject mode in sequential low with flash enabled.

You will not (ever) get satisfaction trying to shoot multiple frames with flash. Not with the tiny built-in.

Underwater strobe photography tends to be 'one shot at a time'.

The flash really seems to help a lot. But the burst is a little slow for my liking, often makingme miss the perfect moment.

Yeah, don't have anything to add here.

Also the “viewfinder” screen is difficult to see underwater, lots of reflections/glare.

Well, if you are freediving and near the surface, you'll have a lot of sun and high contrast on your eyes to deal with. You can try cranking up the monitor brightness, but you then really need to watch your histograms. Your subjects will look overexposed with the monitor cranked up, and that can lead you to underexposing your images. Also, it takes more battery power.

I’m not sure if it is because im using a screen protector? So far ive had to mostly shoot without using the screen at all, just eyeballing it, leading to many missed shots

Welcome to the challenges of underwater photography!

What tips do you have for getting more keepers with this camera while shooting fish etc underwater?

Your own buoyancy skill is key. Deliberate, off-camera flash is necessary in many situations too.

Yeah its funny but the thing i think that will help most with this sort of photography is learning to scuba dive, as it will give me more time to compose the shots and allow me to just sit on the bottom and let the fish come out lol. Forget aperture, etc…i need an o2 tank!

freediving photography has inherent challenges unless you're able to get down and stay there long enough for the fish to relax.   But if you're swimming right at them and flashing, they are going to see that as danger and turn tail, so multiple shots is not going to be easy to get.

How close are you getting, how big are the fish?   Are you having to zoom on the lens?    With wide angle shooting on a fisheye, you can readily shoot blind.   But a normal focal length or extended, that would be much tougher.

If the camera allows you to detune the flash power, you can cycle much quicker.  But this is a less common feature on compact cameras.   Setting manual focus eliminates that delay, though this was more valuable long ago when compacts were notoriously slow at focusing on fish.

If you can get close enough, constant LED ring lighting (Weefine 3000) can do alright, but the effective range is less than a body length.   It would give you ability to shoot as fast as the camera allows

If you have a buddy, can use that person to 'herd' the fish in your direction.   But much easier to do on a tank than a single breath.

mayhap wrote:

Camrarat wrote:

Start with shutter priority at 1/160th. That should give you at least a good chance at freezing a moving fish.

Does the TG6 have shutter priority? I'm looking for buy a waterproof camera and am considering the TG6, but all the specs I've found says it only has aperture priority. Thanks

I would expect it to only offer aperture priority mode because such cameras typically only have one or two aperture settings (often a single aperture setting, with or without an ND filter, which simulates the exposure impact of a smaller aperture without inducing further diffraction).

As a result, you can't have shutter priority mode, because the camera doesn't have enough aperture control to be able to deliver a balanced exposure.

ie: the shutter speed is variable enough to deliver a simplistic aperture priority mode but the aperture isn't variable enough to deliver a shutter priority mode.

Does that make sense?

Richard - DPReview.com