Oh Hi Ocean People!
What are the best settings for
underwater photography? What are the best
settings for macro?
What are the best settings for wide
angle? Welcome back to Brent Durand
Underwater.
I'm going to address the best settings
for underwater photography in today's
video.
We're going to talk about the settings
for a number of different cameras
and how you can best use those to
capture great photos.
As you can imagine, camera settings come
with what seems to be
infinite possibilities depending on
anything you're shooting,
and to be honest, most settings are just
a guideline because there are a number
of different ways to
capture a scene. Now different ways to
capture a scene in different settings will
deliver different creative effects,
but generally what we're going to cover
here in this topic are basic swim
settings. I'm going to share the
differences between those settings for
wide angle and also for macro
and why we're using those different
settings groupings for each style of
shot,
and then also dive into the very
specific settings you want to use for
different cameras
whether you're shooting with a 1"
sensor camera, a Micro 4/3
sensor camera, a 1.6s crop camera, or a
full-frame camera - DSLR
or mirrorless. I don't really
differentiate between those anymore.
It's all about the sensor size when
we're talking about camera settings.
So you can check out the video
description. I'll have quick links to
each of those
camera sensor sizes if you just want to
get down and dirty with those settings.
Otherwise, let's keep going.
And of course, since this is the internet
and there's forums and there's comments,
I need to put a couple caveats. The first
one being that these
are meant to be a default setting and a
starting point.
So the way i look at these settings is
they are swim settings. I go back to them as
my default in between photos,
and if i'm ever down down a rabbit hole
where
i'm having trouble lighting the scene:
I've got it underexposed or i have it
overexposed
and i just can't get the right settings
and i'm frustrated... I will pause.
Take a breath. Go back to these default
settings and then start shooting that
scene over again
from my starting point. This way i've got
a nice reset and i can start adjusting
the settings from a nice safe point
where i know generally the conditions
i'm going to have and the lighting will
have
it really helps if you start getting
confused or frustrated with some sort of
problem in your scene
the second caveat is that this video
assumes you already know your exposure
settings and the relationship between
them
this is the iso the aperture the shutter
speed
and even your strobes so i've got a
quick diagram right here which shows the
exposure triangle
and i'm going to be publishing a video
in the next couple weeks on that
which will be linked here so if it's a
couple weeks from now in the future when
you're watching this which is actually
right now
just click over here and you will see
that exposure video
until then hit that subscribe button
because you will know when i do post it
either way you're going to see that
video it's full of a lot of good
graphics and a lot of good explanations
for
exposure the third caveat is that i'm
assuming we are shooting with a flash or
strobe
one or even two if you're shooting with
a video light or
a dive light a dive torch as your source
of light or if you're shooting ambient
light only
those settings are a little bit
different because there's different
shooting situations and different things
you can do with those
so check out the article linked below
i've got all those settings linked in
that article that i'm not going to cover
here
because in this video we're assuming you
have a flash or a strobe
okay disclaimers claimers all that stuff
covered
so what is the difference between
wide-angle settings and macro settings
starting with macro basically what we're
going to do is assume
that your strobe or your flash light is
going to light the entire scene
so we're going to cancel out all the
unnecessary ambient light
which gives us that that blue tint or
that green tint
oftentimes coming from the sunlight
because that that strobe and that flash
source is going to light our full scene
when we're shooting underwater wide
angle photos we have two things to
account for
we want that blue or that green ambient
light color so we're going to
use these settings to expose for that
ambient light and then we will also fill
in the foreground of a wide-angle scene
or the primary subject
with that strobe or that flashlight so
this is why we've got two distinct
settings groups one for macro
which is that flash artificial light
only and then one for wide angle which
is that combination of ambient light
and artificial light
and one-inch sensor cameras these are
generally your compact cameras
that have full manual settings
capabilities so for shooting wide angle
we want to use iso 200
and that is a good compromise between
allowing light into the camera with more
sensitive iso
while not increasing the iso too much to
where you get noise and grain
into the scene next we'll set an
aperture of f5
which is also a good compromise between
creating depth of field in the scene so
you can see everything in focus
while also allowing enough light to come
into the camera when you're shooting
those wide-angle scenes that require
some nice ambient light
that blue water or that green light last
we want to use a shutter speed of 1
125th of a second which is a nice blend
of letting ambient light into the camera
while also helping freeze some of the
motion in the scene
and any sort of camera shake you have in
the scene on top of that you'll have
your strobes fill in the foreground
generally i will keep that on one half
to three quarters power
now for shooting macro with a one inch
sensor we're going to use an iso of 100.
now that's a low iso because we don't
need to worry about any ambient light
our strobe or our flash is lighting the
full scene we're going to use an
aperture of
f11 because that stops down a lot as we
get closer to our subject with the
camera
we need to stop down the aperture we
need to move it to a higher number
in order to create enough depth of field
that we can see a lot more of our
subject in focus
lastly we'll shoot at 1 200th of a
second
you could go all the way up to 1 to 50th
1 500th of a second
even on most compact cameras but for
simplicity
just 1 200th of a second for your macro
photo shutter speed
that will cancel out a lot of that
ambient light and even help you get
creative
with things like black backgrounds
underwater settings for micro four
thirds camera sensors these are
generally olympic and panasonic cameras
you're going to notice there's going to
be a lot of similarities carrying over
from the one-inch sensors we just
discussed
but let's dive in so wide-angle settings
we're going to set an iso of 200 because
that blends
letting enough light into the camera
having a sensitive enough
iso to capture more light in that
ambient light while also keeping the iso
low enough to avoid noise and grain in
the photo
we're going to use an aperture of f8
which gives us enough
depth of field with that sensor size and
wide-angle lens combo
whether it's a fisheye lens or a
rectilinear wide angle lens
and also will allow enough ambient light
in so it's that compromise again
in terms of shutter speed we'll go to 1
125th of a second
because freezes motion helps eliminate
camera shake while letting enough light
into the camera now if you go deeper you
might start seeing that you can adjust
this slightly
maybe you go to 1 100 of a second maybe
you go to 1 160 of a second if you're
very shallow shooting a fast subject
so you'll adjust but basically that
starting point is 1 125th of a second
now the best settings for micro four
thirds cameras for macro
that's going to be an iso of 100 we want
to keep that as low as possible
because we are canceling out all ambient
light and we're really only shooting
with
the the light from the strobe or the
flash we will use an aperture of
f18 now we're stopping down a lot more
because we now have interchangeable
lenses
on the micro four thirds cameras so f18
will give us a nice depth of field at
least as a starting point
for most macro subjects if you add a
diopter you may need to
to stop down a little more maybe to f
22. for shutter speed we're going to use
1 200 of a second
because that will cancel out the ambient
light allow you to fill in with nice
crisp bold vivid color from your flash
or your strobe
and create great images
and now the best underwater settings for
crop sensor cameras with 1.6 crop
or even if you're using a digital crop
like 1.5 on some nikons
for wide angle we want to start with an
iso of 1 250th
and i bumped this iso up a little bit
from the micro four thirds cameras
because generally these sensors do well
handling a little more
noise at higher isos so basically
the iso of 250 will allow you to
make the camera more sensitive to some
of that ambient light while also not
going too high where you'll introduce
noise and grain into the scene
for an aperture we want to shoot at f8
because that's going to
provide the compromise like i've said
before you'll see some trends here
between creating enough depth of field
in that wide-angle scene
and also for letting ambient light into
the camera
now that can fluctuate a little bit
let's say you're shooting sharks in open
blue water
you might not need to be at f 8 you can
maybe go down towards f5 or f 6.3
but then maybe you're going to be in a
smaller dome port where you want to stop
down a little more
and you may want to really push towards
f11 just because you'll have better
optics
these are all compromises you'll have to
make and adjust the parallel settings
to compensate for those settings you're
making based on that shooting situation
and the gear but like i said earlier in
the video these are our starting points
so for wide angle with crop sensor
cameras that f8 is going to be a great
starting point
in terms of shutter speed 1 125th of a
second like we said for the other types
of camera sensors
because that's going to be a good blend
between letting the light into the
camera
while also freezing motion and any sort
of camera shake
for shooting underwater macro with a
crop sensor camera the best settings are
going to be iso 100
like i mentioned before we're keeping
that very low because the light is
coming only from our flash or our strobe
source
then we're going to stop down to f18
it's a good balance
of aperture for the lens and sensor
combo we're looking at
and then also use 1 200th of a second
and
1 200th of a second is general that will
block the ambient light
while allowing you to to capture a nice
crisp crisp
scene lit exclusively by the strobe or
the flash for bold vivid colors
one note here per usual is that 1 200th
of a second is a guideline
so if you're shooting a camera that has
a higher maximum sync speed
you'll have to look in your manual for
that which might be 1 250th of a second
even 1 320th of a second you could shoot
at that shutter speed with no real
changes
do you need to do that not really you
can get a black background with 1 200th
of a second
no problem so be sure to check your
specific camera manual on this one thing
which is macro shutter speed you do not
want to exceed the maximum sync speed
and now the best underwater settings for
full frame cameras for wide angle we are
going to set an iso
of 320 now this is a very personal thing
and what are my secrets shh don't tell
everybody
so that's a good point because as i said
with the other camera sensor sizes
you want to balance the sensitivity to
light letting light into the camera
while also keeping the iso low enough
that you don't introduce too much grain
and noise into the scene in terms of
aperture
we're going to shoot an aperture of f11
now a full frame camera has a larger
sensor than a crop sensor camera
which is why i say f11 instead of
something like f8 for the aperture
now that's a product of the the lens and
the larger sensor
so something like f11 is a great
starting point for wide angle
if you're shooting certain lenses and
dome ports you may find you need to
shoot at f13
even f-14 to get the best optics out of
your equipment
or maybe you're shooting a very close
focus wide angle scene you may need to
stop down go towards that f14 direction
to get that scene in sharp focus or to
keep the foreground and the background
in focus
because you've got enough depth of field
if you're shooting something like sharks
in blue water my previous example
then you might be able to go down
towards f 6.3 with no problem because if
the edges are a little blurry
you've got blue water no one's going to
see anything as long as you avoid that
backscatter
in terms of shutter speed 1 125th of a
second all four camera sensor sizes
that's the default it's a great blend
between letting the light into the
camera
and stopping any sort of motion in the
background
while also avoiding camera shake now if
you're in dark shooting conditions
go to 1 100th 180th of a second no
problem
i'll shoot that way all the time in deep
dark
northern california water if you're
shooting something fast in bright
surface water
1 160th 1 200th of a second make sure
not to exceed that maximum sync speed
but in general you want to start at 1
125th of a second for those wide angle
full frame scenes
and the best underwater macro settings
for full frame cameras
so iso 100 again like before we want to
keep that iso low because all the light
is coming from our strobes or our
flashes
in terms of aperture we want to shoot at
an aperture of f 22
now with the full frame larger sensor
and macro lens combo
oftentimes we're using the same lenses
as we'll use on a crop sensor camera
we want to stop down a little bit more
to create that similar depth of field
it just requires a deeper aperture so
that's why we're going to start at f 22
if you slap a diopter on the front
you're gonna go more towards that f32
direction
if you're shooting something with a lot
of bulky and you want to do a creative
lighting effect with very shallow depth
of field
go down to f14 no problem in terms of
your
shutter speed we want to shoot at a
shutter speed of 1 200
of a second similar to the other cameras
this
blocks out the ambient light allows us
to capture a great scene with only that
strobe and that flash
light which produces vibrant colors and
contrasts
and eliminates any of that ambient light
creating any blue green haze in the
scene
now those are general guidelines but
that's really it for shooting your
underwater macro photos
so that's pretty much it guys those are
all the four sensor sizes
those are the settings again you can
check out the full article below with a
few extra tips including settings for
autofocus and different stuff like that
so be sure to check it hit that
subscribe button if you like this if you
want to see more videos
i'm brent durand this channel is brent
durand underwater and i'll catch you in
the next video
