33 replies to this topic

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

It's all semantics. In the underwater dive light industry, the strobe is the attached light to an underwater camera....regardless of when it lights up.

[DriftWood]

I recently went on a trip and used a strobe for the first time. I am sold on it. I don't think I would take a camera down with out one now that I see the difference in my pics. I take mostly macro shots so I am very close to the subject. You can see my most recent attempts here.

https://picasaweb.go...CLLnv5f2kZDpxwE

You can see in a couple of the pics where I had the strobe set to high. The sea horse, the sexy shrimp and the porceline crab are a bit over exposed but other wise I am happy with the results. I have a single strobe. The camera is set on auto focus, 100iso and force flash so that he strobe goes off every time. I also have a small focus light mounted on the housing and I found this very useful for night dives.

Jim

I have to agree with the others that those are some pretty good photos.
Jeff

[Parrotman]

I recently went on a trip and used a strobe for the first time. I am sold on it. I don't think I would take a camera down with out one now that I see the difference in my pics. I take mostly macro shots so I am very close to the subject. You can see my most recent attempts here.

https://picasaweb.go...CLLnv5f2kZDpxwE

You can see in a couple of the pics where I had the strobe set to high. The sea horse, the sexy shrimp and the porceline crab are a bit over exposed but other wise I am happy with the results. I have a single strobe. The camera is set on auto focus, 100iso and force flash so that he strobe goes off every time. I also have a small focus light mounted on the housing and I found this very useful for night dives.

Jim

I have to agree with the others that those are some pretty good photos.
Jeff

Thanks Jeff! I think with some work I can turn out some pretty good stuff. I did learn from this trip however why it is that photographers seem to hog a subject. It takes some time to really get the right shot and get the right focus.

Jim

[finGrabber]

would it help if I said I use my strobe to hit the offending photohog in the head???

[Dave L]

would it help if I said I use my strobe to hit the offending photohog in the head???

Love it. That's why I have dual strobes. LOL.

Dave

[uwfan]

Which begs another question, single strobe or double strobes? Is a single strobe effective?

[Parrotman]

I use a single strobe. I think a lot of it depends on what you plan on shooting. For macro, where you have the strobe close to the port you probably don't need two as much as you would if you were shooting wide angle and needed to light up a bigger area. The angle at which you are shooting is also going to make a difference. For now I am happy with what I get with one strobe. For me, I would like to have a longer arm. I would like to be able to move my strobe into more positions than I can with the arm that I currently have. Easy fix. I just need to buy and extension.

Jim

[Parrotman]

Strobes are used in high speed photography to capture very fast images like balloons busting and bullets hitting targets. These are true strobes with a high frequency of pulses like you describe. The hardware is exactly the same as used in underwater photography but the trigger (which is in the camera) has been designed to provide only a single pulse. If desired these strobes could be used as true strobes as well however there is no application for that underwater so the cameras hardcode a single pulse for the trigger. The value of the strobe is in the energy density and the high speed in which discharges the light. With a fast enough camera you can catch the fish before it swims away as a blur. Since its synchronized with the camera and everything underwater is low speed, you only need one pulse from the strobe. Using it for a high speed event would require many pulses and many shots to record the event. It would be the same hardware but a different utilization of it. So that is why it is called a strobe. Its usage for low speed events is the same as a flash but flashes cannot be put into a strobe mode so it is a different animal.

Thank you Scott! That was a great explanation.

Jim

[finGrabber]

would it help if I said I use my strobe to hit the offending photohog in the head???

Love it. That's why I have dual strobes. LOL.

Dave

a great argument for using dual strobes - if you break one on the photo hog's head, you still have another one!

[finGrabber]

Heidi,

you can get good results using a single strobe or dual strobes. Dual strobes are nice because you can adjust them so that you either have shadows or don't have shadows depending on what you are shooting. I used a single strobe on the Dominica trip but was starting to get frustrated because I couldn't get the lighting just the way I wanted it. Next trip, I'll be using dual strobes

[peterbj7]

I suggest you try dual flashes (I won't call them strobes) on land and see what results you get. Underwater will be similar. Equal illumination from each side will result in a flattened image, whereas a strong flash from one side with a weak fill-in flash from the other can be made to work well. A flash just on one side will probably work better underwater than on land, where you'll tend to get high contrast. You also need to decide whether you'll just rely on the artificial illumination or whether ambient light will form a significant proportion of the total. Remember that at depth there will be no red in the ambient light. Correct illumination is a complex subject and you should read up on the theory and get fully familiar with it on land before you venture underwater. The cost of taking photos underwater is (for most people) very high compared with on land. Experiment with high intensity LED lamps handheld and see what effects you get.

[libra89]

Which begs another question, single strobe or double strobes? Is a single strobe effective?

I have a single strobe, for two reasons, both of which get progressively diminished....

1) Strobes are expensive. I could only afford one at the time.
2) 2 strobes are more complex than one.

I know that's oversimplifying it, especially on point 2. But adding a single strobe introduced a fairly steep learning curve, and I've been into photography topside for a long time. Maybe if you start off with two maybe it's not so bad, but you have to learn why you have/want/need two, and I think starting with one will help you with that. I get good results with my single, but sometimes I'm irritated by the shadows my single strobe casts on some subjects, depending on how I aim the strobe. There are some cases where if I had two strobes, the second one would come from the angle necessary to fill in those shadow areas and get me what I'm looking for. But then in post-shot review, there is something to be learned from that....ie, maybe I just didn't position the one I have quite right. Too high, too far to the side, etc.

The advantage with two strobes with long enough arms is that you should be able to point light into any configuration you want. One for fill, one for subject, or maybe a wider cast of light for reef scenes. There are reasons why you might use one, and reasons why two would be good. I don't think it's a matter of which is better, or more effective, because I feel its highly situational. I would like to add a second strobe, but I'm going to wait until I fully understand what I'm doing with one

Tina

[georoc01]

Having multiple strobes also increases the size of your photo rig which can make it more challenging for both travel and can work like a sail in current like you have in Cozumel.

[Dave L]

Having multiple strobes also increases the size of your photo rig which can make it more challenging for both travel and can work like a sail in current like you have in Cozumel.

Amen to this. Both issues are something to consider.

Dave