usvi-on-line
Question 4 LiamsAunt
Question 4 LiamsAunt
Hi, I've always admired the underwater photos you've posted and was wondering what camera you used to get those beautiful shots? My 24th anniversary is just prior to our next trip to STJ in June and I'd like to surprise my better half with a new underwater camera. He currently uses an underwater casing surrounding our existing camera, but it's kind of a pain what with rinsing, etc. Thanks for your help.
Thanks you for the nice compliment!
I just have a canon powershot with its matching underwater housing. You do need to rinse the housing and lube the o-ring.
The reality is that in order to get the best results with underwater photos, you are going to have to do some sort of post-processing about 90% of the time. Unless you are shooting in really shallow water (under four feet or so) the pictures are going to be too blue with a point and shoot camera. I have photoshop now but I used to use picasa which is free and that worked well too. Here is an example. This is an old random photo of a turtle that I still had on my hard drive for some reason, straight out of the camera:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/4440036342/" title="980 by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/444 ... 61c18e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="980"></a>
And here is the same photo cleaned up a little. All I did was select "auto levels" from the format menu. You could do a lot more with sharpening and cropping, etc.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/4440036460/" title="turtle for viol by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2698/444 ... b96d7f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle for viol"></a>
I just have a canon powershot with its matching underwater housing. You do need to rinse the housing and lube the o-ring.
The reality is that in order to get the best results with underwater photos, you are going to have to do some sort of post-processing about 90% of the time. Unless you are shooting in really shallow water (under four feet or so) the pictures are going to be too blue with a point and shoot camera. I have photoshop now but I used to use picasa which is free and that worked well too. Here is an example. This is an old random photo of a turtle that I still had on my hard drive for some reason, straight out of the camera:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/4440036342/" title="980 by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/444 ... 61c18e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="980"></a>
And here is the same photo cleaned up a little. All I did was select "auto levels" from the format menu. You could do a lot more with sharpening and cropping, etc.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/4440036460/" title="turtle for viol by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2698/444 ... b96d7f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle for viol"></a>
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
Here are a couple of good free options for image editing.
Picnik.com is an online editor that integrates with Flickr. It has an auto-fix button. Works for me about 90% of the time. You don't have to use Flickr. You can also upload from your hard-drive. There will probably be changes coming to this program soon because Google just bought them.
Google's Picasa program has an I'm feeling lucky button. I don't think it works as well as Picnik, but Picasa has many additional options that Picnik doesn't have.
Hope this helps.
Picnik.com is an online editor that integrates with Flickr. It has an auto-fix button. Works for me about 90% of the time. You don't have to use Flickr. You can also upload from your hard-drive. There will probably be changes coming to this program soon because Google just bought them.
Google's Picasa program has an I'm feeling lucky button. I don't think it works as well as Picnik, but Picasa has many additional options that Picnik doesn't have.
Hope this helps.
Leap, and the net will appear.
- John Burroughs
- John Burroughs