E-PL1 Users Group

[Tom Nic]

Trying out Flickr here
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEvjB6S
Some E-PL1 shots from around the Nanoose Bay area on Vancouver Island.
Nano strobe with i-Torch video pro5 for fill/focus light. Lightroom 4.

Camera Settings?

I really appreciate the postings, but they really aquire value for the thread when we post the settings at which they were taken.

Thanks!

[Tom Nic]

OK, I've been busy and procrastinating, but finally carved out a bit of time for this post. I have been SO frustrated shooting this camera, not because of the camera, but because of the learning curve. I went from being a fairly OK photog with my limited equipment to being a blind squirrel searching for a nut and sucking at it with the new gear. The advice on this thread has been wonderful... thanks again to Peter for starting it and to everyone for contributing.

After several frustrating dives I whittled my goals down to very simple - I wanted to shoot subjects from 2-3' away and have them turn out more or less decent. I'll work on macro later... Taking some of the advice here I set the camera on this dive at F5.6, iso 200, and a shutter speed of 1/160. I have a single, older Olympus strobe (UFL-1) - a bit underpowered and not much onboard adjustment. Basically I have manual and TTL, and half power and full power. The strobe has a diffuser on it. Some of the pics I zoomed in some - the idea being to get closer but not over power the subject. These were all shot with the strobe set on manual as I couldn't make the TTL work satisfactorily, and I just wanted to get a picture that didn't make me hit the delete key.

Below are a couple of keepers. All I've done to them is some brightness or contrast adjustment:







It was difficult to find the "sweet spot". My pics were either over or under exposed. I'm sure I would benefit from a more adjustable strobe? I also positioned the strobe above and directly over the subject - not as much sideways shadow (which looked "funny" to me) that way. Having background lowered the backscatter... shots with open water background seemed to have more backscatter.

The above pics have the subject positioned horizontally so the smaller depth of field isn't as noticeable (except in the first Copper Rockfish, which was HUGE). I am assuming that the shallow depth of field is because of the F5.6?

Any and all suggestions, input, criticism are most welcome. I'll try and post a few more.

[cardiver]

Nice job, Tom!
F 5.6 on the Oly has a much more shallow DOF than a p&s does. Maybe try F 8 or F 11 and see what happens.....

[Tom Nic]

Nice job, Tom!
F 5.6 on the Oly has a much more shallow DOF than a p&s does. Maybe try F 8 or F 11 and see what happens.....

Thanks Ron, and I will definitely give that a whirl next time.

Also, I thought I was shooting at "60", but it comes out as "1/160"? What am I missing here on shutter speed?

[cardiver]

IIRC that is the ss that your flash syncs at......

[Tom Nic]

IIRC that is the ss that your flash syncs at......

Hmmm.... doesn't quite sound right. Perhaps if I was shooting TTL? ...but I was shooting manual.

[Peter Guy]

Since your shots are strobe dependant, the shutter speed is moderately irrelevant here. A slower shutter speed lets in more ambient light and thus provides more background while a faster shutter speed lets in less ambient light and thus darkens the background. BUT, in a lot of our waters, there isn't enough ambient light to make a whole lot of difference!

I'll try to remember to put in exposure info when I post shots.

[Tom Nic]

Since your shots are strobe dependant, the shutter speed is moderately irrelevant here. A slower shutter speed lets in more ambient light and thus provides more background while a faster shutter speed lets in less ambient light and thus darkens the background.

Interesting.

So the F Stop has a greater effect on the picture than shutter speed?

Hmmm....

[cardiver]

Anything over 1/60 ( especially with a strobe) will be adequate, Tom.

[Jay H]

Here's my Flickr page with some recent shots with updated camera settings info.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEvjB6S

Cheers
Jay

[Tom Nic]

Thanks, and great pictures - really clear!

I notice that your ISO is steady at 100, and that your shutter speed varies between 1/60 and 1/80, and your F stop between 3.5 and 5.6. Are you manually varying those settings?

The only other variation I see is between 14mm & 42mm, which I am assuming is you zooming all the way in and all the way out.

What kind of strobe set up are you using, and are you shooting manual or TTL?

Any other special gear or lenses?

Thanks!

[Peter Guy]

So the F Stop has a greater effect on the picture than shutter speed?

For the most part, yes. Why? Well, the dominate light source is the strobe, correct? And how long is a strobe flash? In the neighborhood of 1/2000th to 1/5000th of a second -- so what light is coming into the sensor the rest of the time the shutter is open -- the ambient light. But, for the most part, there just isn't that much ambient light in Puget Sound thus the fact that the shutter is open, but without much of a light source, isn't that important.

OTOH, the aperature will affect the amount of strobe light that gets to the sensor. All other things being equal, a wide ap will allow the most strobe light in while a closed down ap will minimize the strobe light (of course changing the strobe power has an effect too).

[enchantmentdivi]

I notice that your ISO is steady at 100, and that your shutter speed varies between 1/60 and 1/80, and your F stop between 3.5 and 5.6. Are you manually varying those settings?

The only other variation I see is between 14mm & 42mm, which I am assuming is you zooming all the way in and all the way out.

The change in f-stop is due to the change in focal length. At 14mm, the f-stop will be 3.5 at its most open setting. When zoomed to 42mm, the f-stop automatically changes to 5.6 which is its most open setting at that focal length. In other words, to vary between those two f-stops, all you have to do is zoom the lens in/out. Set your camera at a different f-stop like f7, and then zoom in/out and see what happens. It will also change.

[Tom Nic]

Great replies, and very interesting!

[Jay H]

I notice that your ISO is steady at 100, and that your shutter speed varies between 1/60 and 1/80, and your F stop between 3.5 and 5.6. Are you manually varying those settings?

The only other variation I see is between 14mm & 42mm, which I am assuming is you zooming all the way in and all the way out.

What kind of strobe set up are you using, and are you shooting manual or TTL?

I always use the lowest ISO I can get that will allow a shutter speed of 1/60 - 1/80. With my set up it's usually ISO 100. I will do post process with LR if I need to adjust. I try not to fuss with the settings too much during a dive. I don't think I've ever manually adjusted for f stop while diving. At 14mm the lens opens to f 3.5 and at 42mm it closes up to 5.6 unless you manually adjust f stop higher. Yes, I'm either zoomed full in or full out.
I'm really liking this camera for the ability to blur the background. It really makes the subject stand out. So I almost always have the lens open as wide as possible. Plus this lets more light in from my weak Nano strobe which is manual only. High, med or low.
My next dive I'm going to be primarily shooting video. It may be advantageous to close the lens up to try and get more in focus so the auto focus isn't over worked during video recording. I think this why my little P&S camera shoots great video because the small sensor keeps the lens hyper-focused sorta like a stepped down f stop would on the E-PL1.

Looks like your getting some good shots!

Cheers

Cheers

[cardiver]

It's back....
http://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/olym ... ing-bundle

[Tom Nic]

Nice....

[Peter Guy]

Actually, the Blue Water package, just like Optical Ocean's, is the E-PM1 not the E-PL1 -- but I can't remember what the difference between the two are! The PM is a new version and may have a bell or whistle the PL doesn't have.

In any event, this is still a fabulous deal on a very good UW setup.

[cardiver]

It comes with the zoom gear, too.....

[Jay H]

Just noticed that Flickr automatically grabs camera settings and displays them on the right side under additional info.

Cheers

[Tom Nic]

Just noticed that Flickr automatically grabs camera settings and displays them on the right side under additional info.

Cheers

Yes, noticed that myself - very helpful!

[enchantmentdivi]

This thread hasn't seen any action in awhile, so I thought I'd give it a bump. Still loving my camera/housing! This was taken back in April in Maui. How's everyone doing with their kits?

[fmerkel]

Going to Kona in Sept. Did you use the macro a lot?
What kind of settings did you switch to there? I find clear blue water is a whole lot different than local soup.

[enchantmentdivi]

Honestly, my settings didn't change much. I used aperture mode with ISO set at 200. For most shots, I stayed at f11--even for wide angle. In aperture mode, shutter speed didn't fluctuate and was at 1/60. Yes, I did use the macro lens quite a bit.

The only thing that I'm really doing differently here is using f11 for more close-up macro shots and opening it up to f3.5-5.6, depending on focal length, for more wide angle stuff.

[fmerkel]

That should be interesting. Last trip I was using the G9 which I flooded after I got home. I was kind of disappointed in it except for some wonderful video it took of a a bottlenose dolphin encounter. The E-PL1 replaced it.
While I was figuring that purchase out I went back to the Casio I got from you, then again when the PEN went back to Olympus because it had some kind of battery parasite. I'd charge a battery in the evening and it would be dead on the dive the next day from simply sitting. That Casio has been a great little camera.