Some advice please on underwater photography

[Unframed Dave]

I will soon be in Indonesia and amongst other things will have the opportunity to snorkel with Manta rays.

I've done a bit of underwater before with point and shoot, but never influenced the camera myself. I know that once in the water, I won't be able to do much more than press the shutter, being short sighted I can see very little close up in the water. I want the settings to be right on the deck before I head in.

So, I'll have a seafrogs housing, an alpha 6000, a choice of small apsc lenses.

Can anyone advise me on settings? WB, aperture, iso, etc?

Also, within the physical constraints of the housing, should I be going for the widest field of view possible?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Unframed Dave]

No idea about the camera, but why can't you get corrective lenses in your diving mask? My daughter dove in the Bahamas and Mexico, and our local dive shop had the proper lenses for her in stock. I believe you can even get progressive too.

You can, but I'm a very occasional visitor to the water these days. My last two forays into the deep were Galapagos in 18 (nurse sharks, fur seals and iguanas) and Mauritius (pod of 300 ish dolphins with my kids) in 15. This will possibly be my last plunge, hopefully not, but like my dad started saying 30 years ago, "I won't be buying any green bananas". He turned 90 this year.

 

[Slug]

I'm assuming that no external flash will be used.
My advice would be to use the widest lens you have and work as close as you can get to the subjects. (That reduces the filtering effect of the water and particulate matter between the camera and subject).
I would use auto white balance and auto ISO and correct the colour cast in processing. I've found with underwater ambient light shots that using the auto levels or auto colour feature available in most photo editing programs get the image to very close to what you would like it to be.
As far as other settings go, there's too many variables to give a definite answer. Best practice it to shoot up towards the surface where-ever possible. and use zone focus and center metering particularly if you can't see exactly what you have on the screen.
Don't go slower than 1/250 and try to work within the 'sweet spot' of the lens you use with aperture settings. A wide lens should give you quite a bit of latitude even wide open.

 

[Unframed Dave]

Thanks for that. The housing came with a yellow / orange coloured filter without any markings. Do you happen to know what that would be for?

 

[Slug]

Filters used to be used to correct the colour cast produced by the water. You could try it to see what difference it makes but I’d recommend to leave it off and do your colour correction with your processing. Remember that anything you put in front of the lens reduces the amount of light available to the sensor and underwater without a flash you need as much light as you can get.

 

[etiennescamera]

I'm assuming that no external flash will be used.
My advice would be to use the widest lens you have and work as close as you can get to the subjects. (That reduces the filtering effect of the water and particulate matter between the camera and subject).
I would use auto white balance and auto ISO and correct the colour cast in processing. I've found with underwater ambient light shots that using the auto levels or auto colour feature available in most photo editing programs get the image to very close to what you would like it to be.
As far as other settings go, there's too many variables to give a definite answer. Best practice it to shoot up towards the surface where-ever possible. and use zone focus and center metering particularly if you can't see exactly what you have on the screen.
Don't go slower than 1/250 and try to work within the 'sweet spot' of the lens you use with aperture settings. A wide lens should give you quite a bit of latitude even wide open.

Mostly agree with this advice, but not too sure about shooting up towards the surface? In my (admittedly very limited) experience this leads to silhouettes with little detail, especially relatively close to the surface as one would be when snorkelling. Shooting very slightly upwards or downwards and with the sun from behind may give best results in this situation?

 

[Slug]

Again, it’s those variables which require a bit of common sense to sort out. I don’t mean directly up towards the surface unless you want a silhouette (which can work well with some subjects), but yes, slightly up to fill the background with colour instead of the flat dark background you get when pointed down. A subject with a bit of shade can easily be brought up in processing and the water works well as a light diffuser anyway.

 

[Unframed Dave]

So,

Dave's goes in the water without his corrective lenses.
Dave cannot see up close without his corrective lenses.
The recommendation is to use a wide-angle lens and get as close to the subject as possible.



Reminds me of a scene from Jaws:

Hooper gets in the cage,
Cage goes in the water,
Shark's in the water. Our Shark.
"Farewell and adieu to ye fair Spanish Ladies..."

It'll make a good story for my yet to be conceived grandchildren. I've never wanted to go out with a whimper!

 

[Slug]

So,

Dave's goes in the water without his corrective lenses.
Dave cannot see up close without his corrective lenses.
The recommendation is to use a wide-angle lens and get as close to the subject as possible.



Reminds me of a scene from Jaws:

Hooper gets in the cage,
Cage goes in the water,
Shark's in the water. Our Shark.
"Farewell and adieu to ye fair Spanish Ladies..."

I'm not sure what your point is but remember, regardless how far away the subject is, Dave gets his framing and focus from the back of the camera and if he can't see that well, he needs as much latitude as he can get from the lens.
If there's a moral to the story, then don't go in with a camera without corrective lenses.
Cheap stick on (the inside of the mask) corrective lenses are readily available.
Yes, I'm trying to be of assistance from my experience.

 

[Ian S]

Don't know if you've already been to Indonesia. It's difficult to set your camera up on the boat and then not make adjustments. the light changes so much in different conditions and at different depths. This said I always start at F8 ISO 100 shutter speed around 1/100 adjust ISO upward as it gets darker and open up the aperture. the red lens will help if you are shooting without a strobe. as they come in different shades it should have a depth rating lighter ones for shallow depth etc. I would think that you might get some nice reef shots at shallow depths with this set up ma ybe down to about 5 to 10 metres. as you get deeper anything at distance is just going to look blue. if you can find some stationary critters at the shallower depths you might do ok. I have prescription lenses in my mask, but they are expensive particularly if you're not using them a lot. You can get stick on lenses now I've read good and bad reviews about them but they may be worth a try. Let us know how it works out. PS where about in Indonesia I've spent a lot of time out there.

 

[Ian S]

Here are a couple of shots from Bali end of last year

• ILCE-6500
• E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 50.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/100 sec
• ISO 100

• ILCE-6500
• E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 46.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/100 sec
• ISO 100

 

[Unframed Dave]

Thanks for that, we go in May.

I don't have itinerary with me, but I'll pop it up when we get back. Hopefully some snaps too.

Nice shots.

 

[Gaz]

I frequent the South east Asia region for work. The thought of going underwater with $7k of camera terrifies me. THey do have glass bottom boats don’t they?

I also worry about the longevity of the seals in the underwater camera housings. My old dive watches didnt stand a chance once the seals packed it in.

Then there is teh question of familiarity. Id practice in teh pool, but likely be arrested.

 

[Ian S]

I frequent the South east Asia region for work. The thought of going underwater with $7k of camera terrifies me. THey do have glass bottom boats don’t they?

I also worry about the longevity of the seals in the underwater camera housings. My old dive watches didnt stand a chance once the seals packed it in.

Then there is teh question of familiarity. Id practice in teh pool, but likely be arrested.

It's always a worry. A number of years ago with my then new canon compact G15, first dive in the Philippines the housing flooded and destroyed everything. Now always take the housing down empty on first dive and my current set up has a vacuum system that lets you test for leaks before you dive.

 

[Unframed Dave]

A secondhand a6000 is less of a worry.