Washed Out Photos

[Jesper64 1]

Hi,

 

I've just taken my DSLR underwater setup on its maiden dive trip.

 

Close-up macro shots are working nicely and happy with my first attempts. However, when backing away and taking a wider shot with the macro configuration, I'm getting very washed out pictures.

 

For example the picture below of the turtle:

 

The front of my lens was probably about a meter (3 ft) or so away from the turtle. It was taken with a Nikon D80, 60mm lens, f8.0, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, centre weighted metering and 1 x Inon Z240 using TTL.

 

Is the washed out nature of the picture due to the TTL not coping well with the slightly wider field of view? The Z240 should have enough power, I'm assuming, to light a subject at this distance.

 

Any suggestions for improvements?

 

Thanks

[chrispak1962 0]

H

Edited June 18, 2011 by chrispak1962

[DuncanS 0]

Hi,

 

I've just taken my DSLR underwater setup on its maiden dive trip.

 

Close-up macro shots are working nicely and happy with my first attempts. However, when backing away and taking a wider shot with the macro configuration, I'm getting very washed out pictures.

 

For example the picture below of the turtle:

 

The front of my lens was probably about a meter (3 ft) or so away from the turtle. It was taken with a Nikon D80, 60mm lens, f8.0, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, centre weighted metering and 1 x Inon Z240 using TTL.

 

Is the washed out nature of the picture due to the TTL not coping well with the slightly wider field of view? The Z240 should have enough power, I'm assuming, to light a subject at this distance.

 

Any suggestions for improvements?

 

Thanks

 

As you back away you are shooting through more water which sucks out contract, saturation and sharpness, hence why we tend to use wide lenses so we can minimise the water column but still fit the subject in. Remember that the strobe light has to travel twice the distance (from strobe to subject and back) Take a look at the histogram of the image you posted. You will notice it is bunched towards the middle. In this situation be a bit more aggressive in post processing / raw development. (i assume you are shooting raw?). I took your jpeg into lightroom, added a little contrast, shifted the black point and boosted the exposure a touch. Total time 10 sec. You will have a lot more room to play with using the raw file.

 

Edited June 18, 2011 by DuncanS

[davephdv 0]

TTL can work, as long as your subject fills a significant percentage of your image.

 

You do have to use your EV control though. Look at your image on your LCD and then adjust your EV setting accordingly.

 

Alternative is to shoot manual and then look at your image and adjust your settings. Either can work.

[Jesper64 1]

Cheers for the tips. I am shooting in raw and can get a more pleasing image by tweaking it as you suggested. I'll keep trying out different EV settings and see how we go. Thanks again.

[Panda 3]

It's just that you're too far away from the subject. You are photographing (and lighting) all that water in front of the turtle.

 

Stick to macro subjects with the macro setup and get closer, like 30cm or less.

 

With a wide angle or fisheye you could be 30cm away and still capture the whole turtle.

[stevehookem 0]

If you've already converted to jpg, use "Curves" to bring it back. Looks good when fixed!

[abc123 0]

i love the turtle

[wildviolet78 0]

Hi,

 

I've just taken my DSLR underwater setup on its maiden dive trip.

 

Close-up macro shots are working nicely and happy with my first attempts. However, when backing away and taking a wider shot with the macro configuration, I'm getting very washed out pictures.

 

For example the picture below of the turtle:

 

The front of my lens was probably about a meter (3 ft) or so away from the turtle. It was taken with a Nikon D80, 60mm lens, f8.0, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, centre weighted metering and 1 x Inon Z240 using TTL.

 

Is the washed out nature of the picture due to the TTL not coping well with the slightly wider field of view? The Z240 should have enough power, I'm assuming, to light a subject at this distance.

 

Any suggestions for improvements?

 

Thanks

 

 

You can try playing with the exposure and white balance settings in lightroom

[tdpriest 115]

The strobes will pump out too much light at a dark subject or dark water in TTL-mode. This gets more likely as you pull back. There's also more backscatter, which you can see as the pale circles in front of the turtle.

 

Water itself blurs and softens the image (the late Jim Church called this the "Blahs"): your turtle has the blahs, I'm afraid. Turtles demand wide-angle lenses; now!!

 

Tim

 

Edited July 16, 2011 by tdpriest

[Jesper64 1]

Turtles demand wide-angle lenses; now!!

 

Tim

 

 

Done! Wide angle lens worked wonders but damn you have to get close.

 

[derway 2]

Yes, get close, and then get closer. nice!

Edited August 1, 2011 by derway

[richard.berry58 0]

Use photoshop to get colours back!