Underwater pictures

[tink2007]

Anyone taken underwater pictures at Castaway Cay? I just bought a new waterproof camera and can't wait to use it on our upcoming cruise.

 

[n8nally]

Scanning the board quickly and read this as: "Underwear Pictures"!!! And I'm thinking "Why would somebody post those???"

 

[tink2007]

Scanning the board quickly and read this as: "Underwear Pictures"!!! And I'm thinking "Why would somebody post those???"

OMG you scared me at first. It wouldn't be the first stupid thing I've put on these boards.

 

[cpc430]

My husband did! The water in the beginning is less clear, probably because its not as deep and more sand gets kicked up. He and DS9 went out further than we went as a family (w DD7) and those pictures were much clearer. We bought the camera for the trip and we were glad we did!

 

[lundve]

We did and our pics turned out great. I posted a review of my camera too with pictures on this post.

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=48858667&postcount=13

 

[tink2007]

We did and our pics turned out great. I posted a review of my camera too with pictures on this post.

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=48858667&postcount=13

Thanks for sharing your pics.

 

[jrabbit]

I got a new camera - with underwater capabilities for our last cruise too.

Here is a sampling of my Underwater Pictures - But NOT from Castaway Cay - the Camera stayed "high and dry" on our last visit!

First - Not So Good

Second - Pretty Good

Third - Fish are Fast!! NO Zoom - and Click Away!!

Fourth - Some fisheys are colorful

 

[mordecai]

Yes I purchased a cheap little Kodax Zx5 refurb before our last trip and got some great pictures. I agree with PP, the water gets stirred up a lot towards shore with people playing just off the beach, so don't get discouraged by the clarity there, swim out further!

 

[NurseDave]

If you have access to photo editing software with some type of colour level correction it also makes the world of difference. My pics were like those above, pretty much just shades of blues and pretty flat looking. One button push and browns and greens just pop out of the picture where you never knew they were.

 

[Capt_BJ]

hint

get close and then a little closer

and stay shallow as the deeper you go the more the colors wash out unless you have flash and filters or add them back later via software





dd in Roatan last month

 

[jrabbit]

If you have access to photo editing software with some type of colour level correction it also makes the world of difference. My pics were like those above, pretty much just shades of blues and pretty flat looking. One button push and browns and greens just pop out of the picture where you never knew they were.

So what software do you use to get the colors to POP!? Photoshop, windows live photo gallery, something else?

 

[NurseDave]

I use photoshop, but just because that's what I happen to have.

 

[com_op_2000]

Checkout this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2371788
It is originally from 2010 but has pictures of sharks and other sea life taken at CC.

 

[trickiwoo]

Here's some I took last October:

 

[labdogs42]

What underwater camera do you use, trickiwoo? Those are awesome!

 

[truck1]

For good underwater quality pictures, to a certain extent, you get what you pay for. With that said, price isnt always everything. If you buy a $30 underwater camera, from a big box store, quality probably isnt going to be that great.

There are some relatively in expensive underwater cameras out there. There are also filters, like mentioned before that can be added to cameras, to help the pictures "pop".

Depending on what a person looks for in a camera, and how often and what they are going to use it for, I would suggest theses cameras:

The Olympus TG-320. Its a point and shoot camera, with digital zoom and waterproof up to 10 feet on its own. Olympus does make a housing for it, should you want to go deeper. It also has 720 video capabilities.

The Olympus TG-630. Basically the same as the 320, only has a better sensor, 1080 video and water proof to 15 feet on its own. It also has a waterproof housing for deeper depths.

Both the 320 and the 630 can be had for less then $200.

If you plan on diving, The Sealife DC 1400 camera is one of the simplest cameras out on the market. Its a little more expensive at just under 500, but is very user friendly. It has 2 underwater modes, which automatically correct the color based on your depth, and multiple land modes. The accesories by comparison, are less expensive then some of the other cameras out there today. Moving the camera setting from 1 mode to the next takes about 30 seconds at the most. To go from still pictures to movies takes about 1 second.

 

[ludari]

Anyone taken underwater pictures at Castaway Cay? I just bought a new waterproof camera and can't wait to use it on our upcoming cruise.

I have taken a few pictures while snorkeling at Castaway Cay.

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

We did snorkeling and took photos in March 2012. We went later in the day, and it was kind of cloudy. On our September cruise, I'm hoping to head out there early.
We never did find Minnie! We WILL this time!

 

[NurseDave]

Here is a good explaination I got from a review on amazon:

"But, make sure you know what you're getting into when you start underwater photgraphy. It's not like land photography, where the image that comes out of the camera is probably perfect and doesn't need much if any touch up. My experience with underwater photography is that every single image requires manual processing on my part. For every image, I need to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, and red/green/blue balance. You don't need to be a photoshop pro...I use ThumbsPlus for my editting. Every one of these adjustments is trivial with ThumbsPlus.

This need to adjust every image isn't the fault of the camera; there are just too many variables underwater. The red "dive" filter for example, is good from 25 feet to 50 feet. In reality, it's only good for exactly one depth. Say it's perfect at 40 feet...then at 30 feet the image is going to be too red, and at 50 feet the image is going to be too blue. You are going to have to adjust the balance. Same with visibility; the camera doesn't know (and you can't tell it) how much sand is suspended in the water. Lots of sand in the water scatters more blue so you need to block more blue; exceptionally clear water let's more red through, so you need less blue filtering. So even if you are at the exact depth where the filter is perfect, transparency will still require that you manually adjust every image. All the data is in the image; you just need to massage it to bring it out."