Warm water photography

[Scubie Doo]

I am heading the West Palm Beach Florida in a couple weeks for business. I am squeezing a day of diving in. Do I need to make any camera adjustments or do I need any filters to shoot in blue tropical waters? I have only shot in our dark green waters :biggrin:

I am shooting most shots in Manual Mode - F8 (ISO 80 to 200) - Shutter 1/125 - Single Strobe.

Thanks for your help!

[Dusty2]

If your using a Canon you can just switch to underwater mode or if you want to stay in manual mode you can play with the white balance. A red filter is supposed to help but I have never had the opportunity to try one in warm water.

If you have a rental car I would suggest you make the run down to Key largo. Much better reefs there.

[dlh]

Filters are really only useful if you are doing natural light photography. If you are using a flash then you don't need a filter.

If you are using a P&S camera and plan to shoot wide angle scenes a filter may be nice to have however.

[elemar]

The only thing that really caught me when I first did warm water photography is that I discovered I'd often been lazy and used too slow of a shutter speed in cold water (ie, basically ignored it). If you're using a strobe and there isn't much ambient light, it doesn't matter (the strobe is faster than the shutter), but a lot of my palau shots had a nice colorful and sharp fish, with a blue blurry fish just in front of it due to the higher ambient light and the overly long shutter speed.

[dphershman]

I am heading the West Palm Beach Florida in a couple weeks for business. I am squeezing a day of diving in. Do I need to make any camera adjustments or do I need any filters to shoot in blue tropical waters? I have only shot in our dark green waters :biggrin:

I am shooting most shots in Manual Mode - F8 (ISO 80 to 200) - Shutter 1/125 - Single Strobe.

Thanks for your help!

just use the same camera techniques that you use here. No filters, no 'underwater mode', just use your strobe/flash like you normally do. Then sit back and admire the color!

[Scubie Doo]

Awesome! Thanks everyone. I will post a couple photos once I return.

[Scubie Doo]

Just got back from West Palm Beach. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from my 2 dives. Thanks again for the advice!

[dphershman]

Just got back from West Palm Beach. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from my 2 dives. Thanks again for the advice!

I love Flamingo Tounges! Great photos!