Sea Lion

Related question - does one need full Photoshop to do the basic manipulations to photos that I'm most likely to do, like WB adjustment, or does something like Photoshop Elements or Lightroom have enough capabilities? From what I've read, Lightroom is more for photo organizing.

Yes guys, I did shoot RAW (Actually, RAW + JPG). So I bet you figure I can bring a RAW photo into Photoshop or Lightroom and use the WB picker tool to gen a photo that looks better. Will it be 100% effective - i.e., be able to guess which colors should be red if red is totally lost at the depth I shot the photo? I guess the same thing applies when you shoot a supposedly white balanced photo at depth.

I just got back from 1 week in Cabo Pulmo, Baja CA. It was my first full trip with my E-M1 in the Aquatica housing. I had a hell of a time setting white balance underwater for available light shots at any appreciable depth. In manual mode, I'd get the ISO, Shutter, and Aperture all set to give me a good exposure, but when I tried to set white balance shooting my hand, a sandy bottom, or a white slate, I'd always get a NG/Retry error, which required me to trip the shutter lever to get out of. Has anyone else had this problem? At 40-50 feet, the only way I was able to get any available light shots was to use the preset underwater (fish icon) option in the E-M1 white balance menu. I did try using the set white balance in shallow water (~10-15 feet) where the light is better and it worked there, but in deeper water I had no success. An idea that I came up with once I got home was to try using the temperature option in the white balance menu, and use the viewfinder to see if the resulting image looks realistic. However, I'm not sure if white balance is just a matter of having the right temperature setting, or is there something more to it? Shots with strobe and the AWB setting came out fine, but my available light shots weren't as good as I had hoped.

Jean - could you please send me the procedure for the flash too? I'm still waiting for my dealer to send me the housing, but I want to be ready when it arrives!

Thanks - do I have the connections right in this graphic? I'm trying to figure out where the 1/4-20 hole is located

Thanks - makes sense. So I guess if you wanted to attach a focusing light, that would have to go elsewhere like a strobe arm.

Thanks Jean. I'm trying to figure out from the photos in the press release where the optical sync cords will plug into the housing. I see two knobs on the top center with holes in them, but I assumed they were threaded sockets.

Question for more knowledgeable u/w photographers - Nauticam has a 4" curved port for the Olympus 9-18 mm lens, but Aquatica just announced their port for this lens, which is a much larger 8" dome port. In their press release (http://aquatica.ca/en/press_releases/sw8_press_release.pdf), Aquatica states: "Using an 8’’ dome wraps the projected virtual image at +/- 12’’ (30cm) from the external surface of the dome lens, while a smaller dome port, such as one with a 6’’ diameter, will force this virtual image to be wrapped a mere +/- 9” (23 cm) away. This might be a relatively innocuous difference of distance in normal situations, but it is also common knowledge that the closer the focusing distance, the harder it will be to get adequate depth of field. At these close distances, such small difference does have a huge impact on the success of the images taken." Does this give the Aquatica port a significant advantage, say, when photographing a large school of fish?

Anybody know what kind of strobe connections the Aquatica housing will have for the E-M1?

Hi all - this is my first real question on Wetpixel, and it probably seems pretty dumb to experienced u/w photographers. It's been knocking around in my head for a few years since I started thinking about getting a u/w still rig. Let's say I'm shooting aperture priority at a given ISO. What I'm wondering is, given that my camera determines a proper shutter speed based on that aperture and the available light, why does an u/w photo still come out when a bright strobe flashes - i.e., contributes a sudden burst of light far greater than the available light? It seems like if a shutter speed was determined based on available light, wouldn't the photo be overexposed due to additional light contributed by the strobe flash? Or, does something occur within the camera/strobe system to make an instantaneous adjustment to compensate for the flash? A related question has to do with white balanance. If I've determined a proper white balance based on available light, why doesn't a strobe flash totally mess that up and ruin the color in a photo? Thanks in advance for any expertise you all have on this. I'm hoping the answer will help me understand the internal workings of a camera/strobe system better.

I just tried again and it worked this time. Thanks to whoever fixed this.

Hi - this is my first post. What is the matter with the profile photo uploading software here? I try to upload a profile photo straight from my computer and the Wetpixel uploading software does nothing. I put the photo on my Flickr photostream, then enter the URL, and the Wetpixel uploading software says it's not a valid URL. The URL works on Facebook - I tried it there, so it must be a valid URL. Also, I attach it here and it seems to be o.k.

Hi All - Tim Helble from Maryland USA here. I'm brand new to Wetpixel. I decided to make the shift form video to stills - too much work to edit video! I'm building a rig around my new Olympus OM-D E-M1. I tried to upload a photo of myself to replace this generic icon, but I got a warning message "member_profile_disabled." Also, I looked for a way to start a new thread, but it says I cannot start a new thread. Do I get full posting capabilites after my initial profile info has been reviewed?