Using a Camera Underwater
This is an effort to help people just starting out with the underwater photography. By some standards I'm fairly new to it myself but I feel that I've blundered through the manuals and made most of the mistakes already so I might as well try to help. I know full well (and I hope you do too) that I can't simply tell you how to use your camera underwater and expect you to go out and produce great shots. Getting good at any type of photography, especially underwater photography, takes some study, effort, practice, and honest assessment of your own work. There are many free online resource for learning about underwater photography. Use them and learn everything you can.
The Basics
If you're new to underwater photography, click here now to see the basic rules for underwater photography. No camera will get good photos if you don't follow the basic rules.
Important Words for the Beginning Underwater Photographer.
This hobby can be alot of fun. It can also be very frustrating and distracting. Don't get into underwater photography until you're very comfortable diving. Diving itself can be very task loading and adding a fairly complex piece of electronics will increase the loading. Also, don't let it take the fun out of diving. Some people come away enjoying the dive less if they are distracted by the camera. In my opinion, it would be outright silly to carry a camera in this case. Go enjoy the dive.
Also don't forget that the reef isn't yours and it's very fragile. If you can't take a photo without fucking something up then leave the camera at the house! Underwater photographers have a terrible reputation for parking themselves and their equipment on the coral, pulling their subjects out of holes and 'hogging' a subject when other divers are around. Please help eliminate that stereotype.
First Things First
The first thing you'll want to know is how to set the camera up. Become very familair with the parts and pieces that make up your system and how to assemble them. Don't guess if it's not obvious. For example, various types of orings require specific lubricant and risk failure otherwise. Read what the manufacturer has to say about these details.
Next, you'll want to get really familiar with your camera. Take about a thousand photos before you ever put it in the housing. Take macro shots, take low-light shots, take shots of shaded things with a bright background and brightly lit things with a shady background. Play with different exposure and flash modes and anything else that you can think of. Any thing you learn on the surface may very well help you when you get in the water. I like to tell people to expect a loss of about 20 IQ points when you get in the water. This probably doesn't apply to everyone but I've done some seriously stupid things during a dive that I really don't think I would have done on the surface.
Now put the camera in the housing, add the strobe if you have one and lug the thing around (I know, it's really heavy) and take about a thousand more photos. Again, this is just for familiarity with the controls, etc. If anything doesn't make sense, study, play, ask, etc. until it does.
Ok, now you should be ready to get wet. Take your dive gear and camera to the pool. Try to do this with minimal sunlight since lots of sunlight makes photography deceptively easy at these shallow depths. This will let you to test your strobe aiming skills and get used to diving with the system in your hands, etc. Like any other piece of gear, you should be comfortable with it before you hit the open water. I've known more than one diver that has lost a camera on their first dive with it due purely, in my opinion, to task loading (see the IQ loss theory above).
A Few Side Notes and Observations
When you set up your system before a dive, pay attention! Most floods are caused by user error, not by equipment failure. Read the manuals that came with the housing and strobe and follow the rules. I try to have the camera set up and ready to go in the water before I start puting on my dive gear. If you find yourself hurrying to get the camera ready then leave the camera behind. Spend the time on the more important things...like remembering to turn your air on. Don't get hurt over a camera.
Insure your equipment! In the event of a real emergency you should be able and willing to lose the camera. Able means that it's not strapped to your body in a way that you can't get free from it, and willing means that you won't hold it as a priority over helping or saving yourself or someone else. Think about it.
General info About Using an External Strobe
I've read other users suggest using the camera without the strobe for some time at first. I now tend to agree, especially if you're new to using an external strobe. External strobes are not plug-and-play. If used right, they offer a big improvement in the quality of your photos but they also add a level of complexity to using the system as well as figuring out what is wrong if your shots don't come out right. Simply aiming a strobe is more challenging than one might think when you're underwater, let alone issues of power and desired angles of light source.
Many underwater strobes have both TTL and manual modes. Obviously you'll have to learn what to use when. It's tempting to simply put it in TTL mode and leave it...but TTL will not work on some shots. The quick summary is this: Use TTL only when shooting macro or other shots that are fully lit by the strobe. If you have much natural light, as when the blue surface is in the background, use manual strobe settings. I personally use manual strobe mode at all times.
If you have a point-and-shoot digital camera, the camera's flash should be in "forced flash" mode (often a lightning icon) so the flash always fires. The only exception is when you want no flash as with a silhouette type shot, in which case you need to force it "off". In short, never let your camera decide if the flash should be used.
Macro Photography
If there is anything that digital cameras exceed at, it's macro. If you're completely new to underwater photography you should shoot at least some macro shots since the success rate is usually pretty high. This is because you are, by definition, close to the subject, the framing and lighting are easy and you can select subjects that stay in one place long enough to get set up. Macro can be successful using the built-in lens and flash on most digital cameras though I still suggest an external strobe if available.
Like any other photo, you must first select a subject. Find something that will fill the frame from about 12 inches away. Make sure the camera is in macro mode (usually a flower icon) and fill/forced flash (lightning bolt icon). For macro, I have found that the camera does fairly well if I leave it in auto exposure mode and the strobe in TTL. When the camera is in macro mode, the P (program) mode will select a higher aperture than it would otherwise, giving good depth of field. You certainly can use manual aperture and speed, that's up to you. If you do, select a high aperture for good depth of field. I'd start with something like 1/200s and f1/8. With those things set (by you or the camera), you can put your faith in TTL and play with strobe distance and position. I personally like to put the strobe out in front of the lens, above and to the left of the subject and 10" or less from the subject (using the diffuser). This position gives nice shadows and the short distance offers plenty of light for the small apertures.
Macro photography can be practiced at home as well. There's no reason not to drag your camera around the house and yard and take photos of things. This will give you a good feel for what types of subjects work and what focus range you can work in.
Fish Photography and other 'medium lens' shots
This is basically covers anything between wide angle and macro. Fish photography per se is definitely not what point-and-shoot digital cameras do well. The shutter lag that most suffer from seriously inhibits your ability to capture the composition you want. It can be done however, with a little luck and good timing. In general, these are taken with the macro mode on (remember the 'get close' rule). TTL may or may not be useable depending on how bright the background is. If the strobe lights a large part of the frame, then TTL will likely work. If there is a sun-lit surface in the frame (when shooting up), then TTL will likely have problems deciding what to do with the strobe. You'll just have to figure this out as you go.
Wide Angle and Close Focus Wide Angle
For the most part, these are my favorite type of underwater photos to take. They are challenging and if done right, can produce some striking results. Many of the housings for point-and-shoot digital cameras accept add-on wide angle lenses. These produce a very wide field of view and allow very close focus. With this type of adapter lens, you would generally want to have the zoom all the way to the widest setting. This lens isn't required for this type of shot but it really helps get you in close to the subject. Contrary to some belief, wide angle photography underwater is taken from the same distance a other photography if a strobe is used. The wide lens simply lets you get more in the frame from that distance.
Wide Angle and CFWA Photos
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Use macro mode if your camera has one, unless you're taking a silhouette shot like the one on the right above. Even with wide angle photography you need to be close to your subject so the strobe can do some good.
Getting expsure right on a shot like this is tricky. For the shots with the blue in the background. (I personally think all wide angle shots should have blue in the background, but that's just me) I let the camera's meter help me decide on a shutter and aperture setting. Adjust these settings until your camera's meter says about -1 when pointed to the background. If you're using any type of auto exposure mode, lock the exposure (see your camera's manual for instructions on this). After you do this, re-compose your shot and fire. If the foreground is dark, you'll have to increase your strobe power or select a wider aperture. I find that this almost always requires 1/2 power or more with my particular strobes.
As a general note, I don't think you can take this type of photo well using the internal flash. Once you get the sunlit background dark enough to be a nice blue, it takes lots of strobe power to light the foreground (subject) correctly. Also, TTL strobe control does not work with this type of shot. If you simply use "all auto" mode for flash and camera, I can almost guarantee it won't work with the bright blue in the background. This is because the camera "averages" the exposure of the foreground and background making the blue background too light and the foreground too dark (the TTL sensor senses light from the blue and turns the flash off too soon).
When setting the background exposure using the camera's auto exposure, I've found that using a -.7 to -1.0 exposure compensation will get a richer blue. The camera will usually select something around 1/400s shutter speed, and f/4 - f/7 aperture. There is no reason you can't set speed and aperture manually if you want to. If you're not familiar with manual control of a camera, I strongly suggest you try to become familiar with it.