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To Strobe or Not to Strobe


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33 replies to this topic

#31 uwfan

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Posted 27 June 2011 - 09:38 PM

Sounds like I may go for just a camera without strobe to start and try to play with shooting in RAW. Thanks everyone, your answers have really helped.

#32 libra89

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Posted 28 June 2011 - 08:48 AM

Sounds like I may go for just a camera without strobe to start and try to play with shooting in RAW. Thanks everyone, your answers have really helped.


If you go this route, I highly recommend that you add the Blue Water Magic filter to the front of the lens, inside your housing. I buy the generic sheets and cut just a small rectangle big enough to go over the lens, held in place with tiny pieces of scotch tape. It will challenge your camera slightly in terms of cutting down your available light a bit, but you will end up with much better colors. Only caveat is that you can't use flash at all when you have this filter in place, else things will come out all red :) Also, since it's inside the housing, you can't get rid of it mid-dive of course.

This is how all my non-strobe photos were taken, and in my experience, Magic Filters produce good results. If you have a camera that allows manual white balance then you want to get the regular Magic Filter for blue water. If you can't (or don't want to have to) manually white balance when your depth changes by 10 ft or so, then get the AutoMagic Filter. I have no idea how they are different, but supposedly the Auto one lets you leave your camera in auto white balance mode and gets you good results. I have not tried those...I prefer the manual white balance method. In either case, as long as you shoot RAW, any further touch ups to the colors or exposure can easily be done in post processing. But the Magic Filter will save you time in that you won't have to white balance ALL your photos in post processing.

Good luck and happy shooting!

Tina

#33 peterbj7

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Posted 28 June 2011 - 11:12 AM

I don't use mechanical filters, nor do I set white balance. Both are invaluable if you shoot JPEGs as your scope for adjustment afterwards is limited, but if you shoot in RAW you can leave it all to post-processing and get better results. All filters do is cut down on received light frequencies and hence overall light levels - they can't and don't add back light frequencies that simply aren't there (principally reds). A lot depends on whether you want quite good results straight from the camera but which you can't do much with afterwards, or poor results straight from camera that you can readily (given the right software, skill and time) convert to very good results. What I might term the "Nikon methodology" vs the "Canon" one. I prefer the latter route.

#34 Scubatooth

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Posted 28 June 2011 - 06:23 PM

Heidi

sorry for being MIA for the longest time, between work and not being able to dive i have been off SD for a while

I will second the use of Magic filters. I used the first generation of them in 2007 in Puerto Rico and alot of my images came from me using For natural light images are great and really help to balance the color. Mainly i have used them shallower then 30 feet. You can use them with strobes but you have to filter the strobes with a filter opposite color of the magic filter, but magic filters weren't designed for that use.


I will also second shooting in RAW format, but be warned that RAW files need a raw convertor(from the cameras manufacture or 3rd party) so you can work on them (Lightroom, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements). If you dont have a RAW convertor or dont want to shoot raw because of the file size then Jpeg is fine as long as its the largest file the camera can produce with the least amount of compression. This is so you have the most overhead to edit down the road.

Even though i shoot everything in raw (natural light, studio, underwater, etc)I still do manual white balances on everything especially underwater about every 10m by using the sand on the bottom, or now i have a custom white balance card. I do this as yes RAW gives me the flexibility(and editing overhead) but the closer to what was captured the less editing is required and less extreme techniques or software(some of which is very $$$$) is needed.

I like my editing/retouching to take <5mins per photo on average, as i like to perfect the image in camera unless its a image i know has potential but needs a little help for me to realize the artistic vision i have in my mind.

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