Do we have any fishy photographers here? I need a bit of help!

So I'm going to Hawaii :dnc1: and I'm wanting to do some reef photography. Here's a list of the kit that I have -

Nikon D7000

105mm 2.8 Macro

An external flash gun

I've been recommended the DiCAPac for housing my camera, now I've just gotta find one that fits.

I'm thinking that without any light I'm going to have trouble getting photos without them being super blue and needing higher ISOs. I'm only planning on being in shallow reefs - so there should be plenty of natural lighting too.

Should I house my external flash gun and use that? If so, what the heck do I put it in?

Of course I'm going to have to carry this all and coordinate everything unless I can find a family member to be a slave for me :nilly: so any tips appreciated.

What kind of settings do you have your camera on? Recommended Kelvin scale? Or do you stick most things on auto when under water?

Anyone got any gear I can borrow :thup: haha, I can afford some stuff, but the nice $2000 housing is so not within my budget.

As far as your color temp and settings you should be shooting in raw. Then you have a lot more freedom in post processing. Doesn't matter what the actal color temps are you can tweak them, brighten dim pics etc.

+1 for that

If you have to shoot in jpeg, or want the previews to look ok get yourself a sheet of 50% grey plastic and set the white ballance off that at the depth you are diving at

I just did some snorkeling on the great barrier reef and used a DiCAPac case. Worked well. Wasn't on a DSLR though, I couldn't find one that would fit my gear and didn't want to order it online without being able to try it. There was enough light for me, but the water was a bit murky which didn't help much. I don't know how a flash would disperse in water, can't imagine it would be great.

Absolutely agree about shooting in raw though. I never take mine off raw for anything.

I don't usually shoot in RAW (seriously, I don't have any proper justification - I usually try to get the best photo on camera and I think I'll get a bit lazy if I start using RAW lol) - but I will definitely do so for this. Hmm, I wonder whether expodiscs are waterproof lol.

I don't know whether the DiCAPac will fit my kit either - the S10 seems to fit my lens but the S5 fits my camera. The S10 looks like it fits larger cameras, so mine should be okay, it's just not listed.

I'll try without flash first, but if anyone's got any suggestions as to what I should put one in (I assume any clear plastic waterproof bag will do?) let me know. I can't really afford a nice strobe, unless anyone's got any suggestions for that (if I find I need one, I'll probably buy it over there).

Sorry I can't really help you with the photography side but heres a pretty cool facbook page with some nice shots. https://www.facebook.com/UnderwaterMacroPhotographers

I think there is a group associated with it and it might be worth a shot to join and ask some people there?