Underwater Photography Tips with Cayman Jason -Photographing Grand Cayman's Stingray City

[@lichtfang-photography]

The video's great. Thanks. Very interesting place. I'd like to work there sometime. Your photos of the rays are amazing!

[@CaymanJason]

Thank you very much!

[@la5150hi-lophoto]

Thanks for this excellent tutorial...really helpful.

[@MichelleCoxPhotography]

Wow I would love to try underwater photography. Thanks for the tips - Maybe I will try it on my next vacation!

[@DavidLeeUnderWater]

If you shoot in raw and can fix in post with one click, do you really need to be chasing white balance?

[@CaymanJason]

Good question, I get this alot. The reality is, if the color is not represented in the image, it can not be fixed in post, even if you're shooting a raw file. A custom white balance is key. This insures all colors present are represented in the image file. I would also never recomend letting Photoshop or any other editor auto correct your images.

[@DavidLeeUnderWater]

@@CaymanJason thanks, Jason! I usually do it with video as I don't have a raw video underwater camera but never bothered to with my photos. I've seen where 90% of my images will get correct colors. Well, at least what I consider correct. But then there are a few I really have trouble with. Will play with it. Thanks much.

[@victortierradentro9652]

hello i see that you are setting the custom wb in the water what would happen if its set outside the water

[@CaymanJason]

The purpose of the coustom white balance is to tell the camera what is white at a specific depth. It's can't be done out of the water with any degree of accuracy...

[@AMGOSUK]

Hi -- I understand you shoot in RAW (which is good), but use auto white balance -- I may have mis heard you. Why not shoot with a fixed white balance and adjust the colours it later in LR. Yes taking a custom white balance a couple of times during your shoot for the record is good so you can see what the camera believe the correct colour temp is, but you get to pick in LR later if you shoot, say with a fixed cloudy setting (typically 6000k on a Canon or Nikon DSLR).

[@CaymanJason]

Hi Andy, thanks for watching the video. Indeed, you misheard me. I always shoot in custom white balance with ambient light.

[@qlogic74]

I have been taking underwater photos for about 7 years just with a sealife dc1400. I have graduated to Dslr and was wondering if just using a custom white balance would be better at deeper depths vs strobes. What are your thoughts? I know if you change more than 10ft in the water column you should reshoot the white card which could be bothersome. Just looking for an easy way to go from point and shoot to Dslr, as I have done a ton of reading but still havent wrapped my head around depth of field and the other things you have to factor in when shooting a Dslr. Any info is greatly appreciated!!

[@CaymanJason]

Thanks for your question, I know that many struggle with this same problem. Let me start off by saying that one option is no better than the other. It really depends on the look you're trying to achieve. For example, more depth equals less light. All cameras will struggle getting a perfect white balance past 70 feet, most won't get a good balance past 40 feet. My canon 5D Mark4 has the best ability to capture an accurate wb at depth that I've personally experienced but it has it's limits. If I'm diving past 70 feet, I will simply use the last good white balance achieved, and clean the images up in post. This will also apply to strobe photography if you shot them like I do, using a custom ambient light white balance in conjunction with the flash. IF however, you choose to shoot in your cameras flash mode, you will get plenty of color no matter how deep you go. It all boils down to personal preference. The other thing to consider is, if your subject is more than a few feet away, you should ALMOST NEVER shoot your strobes at it. Strobe light falls off quickly underwater and in this situation will cause more harm than good by illuminating unwanted turbidity in the image. Strobes are a great tool to have as an underwater photographer but remember this, they are a tool. Not every tool is required for a job. Most divers I see today insist on shooting their strobes all the time because they were expensive, and they're attached to the rig...But hey, I'm an ambient light kinda guy:-)

[@qlogic74]

Ok sounds good thanks for the info. Since im just getting into DSLR photography im trying to keep it as simple as possible all while taking as many pictures on top of land as possible. Trying to keep it a little on the cheaper side so I had a thought. I have 2 sealife sl96101. I had these with my sealife dc1400 i have been using and it worked great. Obviously since it was so close to the camera housing it had no issues throwing enough light around to take good pics. My question for you is in your opinion do you think it will throw enough light on a dslr rig? I have a Nikon 3400 and looking to get the Nimar underwater housing that it fits in. I have a Nikon Nikkor 12-24mm F/4 G Aspherical ED IF D lense for it. Im looking to get the 8”dome port and extension tube for it. I have no idea about the arms yet, but i figured i would give you all this other data so you can give a best case guess on if you think the 2 strobes i have will work, at least in the meantime as strobes are really $$$$. And before you comment that i have a $1200 lens, so why am i talking about how pricey strobes are.... i got it used :) thx man your info is very appreciated!!