?? camera settings for our green water

[freedivernd]

Tomorrow I'm giving the canon and housing a try in the river and although because I'm "just snorkeling" I'll be able to make adjustments easily I'm wondering what's the best to do with the flash... and the mode setting.. I'd like to leave it on auto to start with.. but am wondering if I should disable the flash or use the diffuser, also I'm wondering about the "underwater" mode.. that's supposed to limit the flash and take out the blue.. and that sounds like something for bonaire not for the ottertail.  Just wondering what the best setting to start with might be.  I don't know what we'll have for vis or sunlight tomorrow either.  I'm planning on using mostly the video mode anyway.. and using that at the lowest setting.. but there I have the option to use the "underwater" mode also.
I explained all this and more in an earlier post that disappeared..... shucks.
Fred

[Roger Southwick]

Fred,

Depending on what you're trying to photograph, here are some suggestions.

Small objects shot from close range:

Use the strobe with diffuser if possible.  An on-camera flash can give lots of backscatter though; an off-camera strobe would be better.

Try to get close; zoom in only if you really need to.  Use the macro setting for really close focusing.

For the white-balance setting, use daylight or flash since most of the light will come from the flash (the daylight and flash settings are almost the same anyway).  Using automatic white-balance could give widely varying results depending on what's in the frame.  Don't use the "underwater" setting with flash, or things lighted by the strobe will probably look very yellow / red.

Big-picture scenics or divers:

If you want the scene to look like what it really is, set white balance to daylight.  The resulting photo will probably look more green than they appear to your eye while diving, so you might try automatic white balance too -- but AWB can over-do it.  (The nice thing about digital is that you can try them all while underwater and see the results.)  The "underwater" setting might help, but I think it's made for removing the blues from tropical-water shots, and we're diving in green muck.

Flash won't be helpful at more than 3' away, so turn off the strobe and use ambient light for those shots.  Otherwise you'll probably just get bright backscatter and a dark subject.

Try to use the widest zoom setting possible, and get close.

Think about doing silhouettes of divers, boats, and other objects that can be recognized by their outline.  Don't use the strobe, and shoot upward so the background water is bright.

Try to avoid shooting downward; shoot horizontally or upward so there's a nice plain background of water on which the subject can stand out.

Ambient-light shots work well when converted to black & white.

Most of all, have fun with your new camera and post some results when you get back!
-- Roger

[freedivernd]

Thanks for all the advice!  I got some pretty good shots today... no comparison to the throw away kodaks that I've used for sure.  I wasn't in the water a whole lot but I learned a few things.  1st off, you can't run a camera housing very well with 3 finger mits on.. so I switched to the 5 finger glove for the right hand.  Also, taking video of a school of small fast moving fish, don't "flock" shoot, pick out a single fish and follow that one, you'll get video of all the rest of them.
I adjusted all the pictures for size and did a few auto adjust with software on some but most didn't change much even with the auto adjust..
I'm really looking forward to more pics.. and getting something to enter in that contest!

(edit).. I had links to pics and vids here.. but have deleted them.. sorry) 

[Roger Southwick]

Good work, Fred.  I especially like the school-of-fish photo; must have been challenging to follow them, given the high level of activity shown in the video.  Nice work on bare-handed fishing, too.