Any tips for photography using underwater housing?

[Trisha-ifw]

Hello! I am new here and I am really not very knowledgeable with cameras. The camera I have is a Nikon coolpix 5600. Mostly I am interested in taking pictures of butterflies and other wildlife for one of my web sites.

However, I will be vacationing in the caribbean in a few weeks, am planning to do some snorkeling and I would like take some underwater pictures with my camera. I am about to order the Fantasea CP-6 Underwater Camera Housing to use. Does any one have any tips or suggestions? I'm totally clueless about taking pictures underwater, so anything at all would be appreciated!

Thanks!
Trisha

[RexK_Cozumel]

First off where are you going to in the caribbean? I am in Cozumel. Anyways as for your question make sure that you have plenty of light. Depending on the water clarity that day it might be better to use a higher iso rather than flash as the back scatter from the particles in the water will blur out your photo. (Imagine taking a photo in a foggy day) Pay very close attention to your surroundings as a lot of times the wildlife is very small and you can easily miss things. If you are looking to get good fish photos do not swim after the fish let them come to you. If you go tearing after them they will get scared and bolt. Do not wear anything that reflects light such as rings or other jewelery as baracudas are attracted to that and might take a nibble. If you get stung by jelly fish the best thing to do is pee on the area you got stung. (Most people find the idea quite gross but it does work.) You can also use vinegar if you dont mind smelling for the rest of the day.

DO NOT TOUCH THE REEFS!!! I cant put enough emphasis on this point. People think oh well I will just grab onto a piece of the reef. oops broke it..... Reefs grow at a very very slow rate so if you break off a piece it can take hundreds of years to regrow.

[Trisha-ifw]

Thanks Rex! We will be at St. Thomas and will most likely spend a day or two at St. John also.

You're making me nervous with the barracudas and jelly fish! I'll try to remember the peeing thing - although I'm having a hard picturing how I would physically manage that! And don't worry - I won't touch the coral reefs!

As far as the photography stuff - I don't understand iso too well, but it seems I would be using the underwater scene mode. And with that housing, you can't change those setting once it is in the case.

[Trisha-ifw]

It looks like my other thread about equipment for underwater photography was deleted, maybe it seemed too similar to this one.

In it, I was asking if it would be better to try to find a used Ikelite or Nikon brand of housing, since those two give you access to all the controls, while the Fantasea only lets you access some buttons. I haven't yet found any of those 2 used, but its hard to believe there aren't any available.

With the Fantasea, I guess I would set the scene mode to underwater and hope for the best because it doesn't allow you to turn the dial without taking the camera back out of the housing.

Also, I tend to have shaky hand problems - does this tend to be a problem underwater?

[Trisha-ifw]

Sorry - I have another followup question - just how helpful do you think the red filters are?

[RexK_Cozumel]

Really depends on what your camera allows you to do. If you can shoot in raw you can easily adjust the white balance in post. Also if you are using Photoshop then you can open the jpeg file (if you can't shoot raw) in camera raw and still make white balance adjustments. I would not bother with the red filter.

[RosanaE]

Hi
I am very new to DPS and am trying to buy some underwater equipement as a Christmas present for my husband. We are going diving in the Grenidines over New Year and I wanted him to be able to take some photos. He has a Canon SD850 IS and I have puchased a Canon waterproof case for him. Now I understand he also needs a strobe in order to really capture the colors. Can you give me some advice on purchasing a strobe? The prices on the internet are much cheaper than in a camera store (and in Texas they don't have a lot of experience with underwater photography) but I am not sure what to order.
Thanks for any help!