To Flash Or Not To Flash???

[monkeebiz]

Ha, knew the headline would get a few people's attention:rolleyes:

I'm off to Sharm in the morning and have my newly aquired housing for my Fuji F700 camera packed and raring to get some pics of my dives.
My question is do I use my flash??
Brain says yes obviously for light but also says no so as to not disturb what I'm taking the pics of.
Any advice would be great.

Cheers

Chris

[David Walker]

Depends what you're taking a picture of.

Close up things in clear water, you can if you like, and its useful deeper to get the colour... but you might find you get a bright spot if you're too close to the subject.

For anything at any kind of distance (more than a foot) then I found it better not to use the flash, although again obviously if you need the light then you'll have to use it. My camera (Fuji F30) is good in low light though so doesn't necessarily *need* the flash so much, not sure if yours will or not.

Best thing of course is that you can look back at your pictures straight away - if they didn't come out how you like, try another. Not familiar with your model of camera, but mine's got a mode where it'll take one photo without the flash, and then immediately will take another with the flash - might be worth using that for the first dive, to get a feel for which is best in different circumstances.

David

[Rod Bateman]

Not sure if you can do it with your camera but try and set the white balance at the depth you want to take the photo and then turn off the flash.