Go pro help: asking for my stepdad

[Genevieve Mahan]

I personally have only been scuba diving once or twice, but me stepdad is an avid diver. I ask him to join this instead of me, but he's an old fashioned guy- doesn't yet know the benefits of forums. He and mom just got back from a scuba trip in Cozumel, Cenote caves. Reviewing their photos they took with a GoPro 5, they found that many of the pictures in the darker parts of the caves were blurry. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to help that for their next cave dive trip? Thanks in advance

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

I'm no expert, but lighting is critical. The newest Go-Pro's will create GREAT video in bright sunny conditions, still pictures are also pretty good. But when the light level drops, then the camera compensates by longer exposures which can result in blurring and less resolution.

Also, the camera sets up an average exposure. If you have a very bright area in the center of the frame and much darker on the edges, those areas will appear too dark. It's been my experience that the human eye has better exposure latitude than the Go-Pro. We can see in the dark a l little better than the camera can. I think you can choose a centrally weighted exposure setting or one for the whole screen, but you would have to check the manual.

Adequate lighting is very important.

 

[Selenium]

So basically if you want great pictures in dark places without a source of light you really need to change exposure times by increasing them... without no source of light I recommend in the 30 seconds area.
This also means that you can only achieve a clear image if you fix your camera in one place.
Avoid using spotlight type of lights when taking photos..use flood light and 1 second exposures...up to 1 second you should be able to stabilise the camera yourself...
make sure you make use of all the features that the camera has... some of them might not work together