12 replies to this topic

[margaret b]

ok, gang, i'm in belize at an internet cafe and i've had my first day of shooting with the sigma 15mm.

geez, no wonder i stayed with macro for so long... it's much easier!

can ya'll pass on some suggestions as far as a midline starting point for my camera settings, and, what the heck should i have my strobes set on?? i've tried a combination of settings, and i finally got a couple of ok shots when i put the s2pro in 'p' mode and the strobes sb105 & ys120 on ttl.

however, that was also a bit limiting. ANY ideas are welcome. I'll come back and check tomorrow am before my first dive.

the basics jim mentioned sound good, but at this point, i just feel i'm floundering, and i'm not so sure what settings to even start working from... too much time with only macro makes have blinders!

a couple of other things to note... belize amber. cay, is not that great of diving... maybe 50 ft of vis, and it's a bit surgy and has some current.

THANKS!

[richorn]

Just remember to set up for the background, say 1/60 and f11 or so, and then either use TTL for the foreground, or manually set the strobes (very wide) to the settings that light the foreground properly.

Once you have THAT worked out, composition becomes the problem... think thirds, and try and keep the foreground highlight out of the center of the frame.

[james]

What Rich says sounds good.

If you put your camera in A mode with TTL strobes attached, the camera will select one of only 3 shutterspeeds: 1/60th, 1/90th, or 1/125th.

For wideangle, set up your camera in spot metering and get ready to take a shot. Select a starting aperture of F8 or F5.6 since you say the viz is low. Point the camera at the middle blue water and see which speed it picks. Take a shot and have a look at it. If the water is too dark, and you took a photo at 1/60th, then select a lower aperture. As you keep lowering the f-stop, you will also want to dial back your strobes a bit. In low light conditions, you will want to dial your strobes back a bit since you will have a fairly "open" aperture.

If you want to experiment with M mode, start at 1/60th and F8. Adjusting the shutterspeed up or down will darken or lighten the blue but it won't change your strobe exposure.. Adjusting the aperture will change the blue, but it will also change your strobe exposure. That's why I recommend you start with A mode. Once you get your strobes right, you won't need to change them much.

Cheers
James

[margaret b]

so, the first two dives i worked with what i THOUGHT i understood the posts to explain, but by dive three, i went back to macro... just so i could have a few shots i wanted to keep!

i will give it another try tomorrow, and then on wed we're going to dive the wall, so perhaps i'll have some clarity by then.

most of the dives are drifts, so i'm not getting alot of chance to try several settings with one scene, but wed we're heading for the wall, so hopefully i'll have a chance to stay put some.

thanks for the help, i'll keep trying.

ALSO, it's really tough to get used to getting so CLOSE!

[thomhard]

Just keep on trying,
Rich and James explained it very nicely now the only thing is you have to look 15mm on your dive and you'll get there!
The most important thing thou, Have fun!
cheers
thomhard :idea:

[margaret b]

ok, so i did pretty ok with a nurse shark swimming around and a black grouper also swimming around, but then i followed a couple of small (~4ft) green moray's who seemed to be in some kind of territory battle - never seen that before, but all of the shots were down into the reef, as opposed to up in to the blue like for the nurse and the grouper.

the moray shots all came out a bit blurry!!! i had the camera set on A with strobes on ttl. i realize i should prob go manual... and aim for maybe 6 or 8 with shutter of 60 and strobes maybe on ttl.

wadda ya think? for some reason, there is a concept here i'm just not getting. tomorrow we're off to turneff's(sp?) so i'll have more opportunity.

i don't understand why if i've got it set on 5.6 or 8.0 and i'm using ttl on my strobes, my shutter is still slow and blurring my shots. what basic concept am i missing? are the strobes not being fired because the system thinks there is enough light? and that is why the shutter goes at 10??

with the few good shots i've gotten, in open water, i understand, but this thing with the blur, well, i'm still not sure what i'm doing wrong.

thanks, and even though the pics are crap, i may still post the two morays, because it was kinda interesting... like a couple of dogs who know each other and play rreally rough, but never break the skin!

dean

[richorn]

Remember that the camera, on any "auto" setting, will adjust as if there is no strobe.

SO, if you set to aperture priority of F5.6 or 8, the system will select a very slow shutter speed and you will get motion blur. If you set shutter priority of 1/60 (or 1/90, or whatever), the camera will select a wide open aperture giving you shallow depth of field.

If you must use one or the other (not comfortable with full manual yet? ;-)) then I would chose Shutter priority (S) set to 1/90, and let the camera chose the aperture. The TTL should take care of the foreground exposure and the focus.

Just remember this solution will give you a very short depth of field in most cases.

[james]

Rich: not quite right. If the system is set up with a TTL flash connected, then the slowest shutter will be 1/60th. That's why I'm confused. Margaret's camera is acting like there is no flash connected.

I would shoot in M mode with 1/60th and F8 and see what happens. You definitely won't get blurry shots at that setting, but you might have to adjust the aperture if the background is too dark.

I would also check your strobe connection tonight Marg. and make sure that they are firing and they TTL. Point the strobes at the camera port and take a shot. You should only get a small blip of light. Put the port cover on and try again - you should get MAJOR full dumps from the strobes.

HTH
James

[richorn]

OOPS! Sorry

Guess I have never tried those modes in the water...

Since you put it that way, it sounds like the hot shoe connector is not "in" all of the way.

That happens to my land strobe a lot... lets me pop right over 1/125 and the strobe doesn't fire.

Worth looking at I guess!

[james]

Hopefully we saved Margaret some frustration. I did one dive with the hot-shoe not connected all the way as well.

Cheers
James

[margaret b]

ok gang, thanks for all of the info. i THINK i've finally got the concept. james, i a have NO idea why the camera was dropping to such a low shutter speed with blurring, but a few pics before and a few after, it was fine. but, it definantly didn't give me a good shutter speed for those few pics. umm, wondering if i 'accidentally did something with one of the settings while under water.

i ended up going to manual f60 and f8, and adjusting the f-stop one way or the other and i'm much happier with my images. although none are really good, i'm much more clear about my problems... strobe placement and distance i am from the subject. it's so odd to me how i seem unable to tell how 'close' i am to something... always much further back than i think i am.

i do now understand why a 'model' is kinda important with uw pics... be it a person, a shark or whatever.
i'm feeling better about the galapagos and the big guys i hope to see down there.

thanks to everyone.

margaret.

[james]

You probably put the camera in rear curtain sync or slow sync by accident Margaret. You can do that on purpose by holding down the flash button and turning the command dial. Watch the top camera LCD as it will say "Slow" or "Slow Rear" etc.

Glad to hear that you are learning.

Cheers
James

[UWphotoNewbie]

Congrats and good luck Margaret! THis is all much harder than it looks. Stick with it!

I'll be in your shoes (fins) next week in Cozumel. On my first trip with the D70 this spring in Florida it was much more difficult than I expected. I'm hoping to do much better this comming week.