What's the strobe's roll in UW Photography?

[Kim]

fdog-
Yes I agree with you - which is why I suggested 3-6ft as the main useful range (6-12ft total light path)
I was simply curious about HID lights though as they can actually throw light quite a bit further and you can get them much further away from the camera. I don't know which kelvin temperatures HID's are but I doubt if they are all the same. In any event it was purely a theoretical question - I'm not planning on replacing my strobe!!

 

[Chris Bangs]

When I shoot wide angle of someone that isn't familiar with it, they invariably think I'm waaayyy too close.

All the best, James[/QUOTE]

Right on James! Years ago, I use to shoot vacationing divers using nikonos the 15 mm! always chuckled at their comments regarding how close I would get.

anyway, closer is better! period! less water between you and the subject not only will produce better color but also will produce sharper images!

 

[fdog]

Kim, my bad...I read the opening to the thread and scrolled down too fast...

...Should have addressed it to 2 Bar.

How dare I impune your talents? Shame on me! I beg your forgiveness.

All the best, James

 

[Peter McGuinness]

fdog-
Yes I agree with you - which is why I suggested 3-6ft as the main useful range (6-12ft total light path)
I was simply curious about HID lights though as they can actually throw light quite a bit further and you can get them much further away from the camera. I don't know which kelvin temperatures HID's are but I doubt if they are all the same. In any event it was purely a theoretical question - I'm not planning on replacing my strobe!!

Hi, Kim
I don't know much about photography (but I'm learning!) - physics is a different matter!
HID lights would be useful for movies but they take such a long time to start up (you have to vapourise all that heavy metal) that strobe use is not practical. I recently found a type of high brightness LED which the manufacturer promises can be used as a strobe for mobile phone cameras. I plan to make a strobe out of a few of those, since it is easy to drive them either pulsed at very high intensity/short duration, or turn them on at lower intensity for a movie light.
I'll let you know how I get on.

Peter

 

[2 Bar]

Thanks all. I guess I will plan and research strobed as part of my rig. I don't plan on dominantly macro shooting.

New question: During a dive can you alternate between regular shooting and macro by simply turning off the strobes? I would need to switch to my internal flash, but would that be blocked?

Does all your shooting need to be established before the dive? Or can you decide according to what scene presents itself?

 

[lukeROB]

Thanks all. I guess I will plan and research strobed as part of my rig. I don't plan on dominantly macro shooting.

New question: During a dive can you alternate between regular shooting and macro by simply turning off the strobes? I would need to switch to my internal flash, but would that be blocked?

Does all your shooting need to be established before the dive? Or can you decide according to what scene presents itself?

No it does not all need to be established before the dive with the compact digicams. IMHO one of the advantages over an SLR (dont get me wrong I would still rather a DSLR).
For macro use your external strobe, for regular shooting use your external strobe and for wide angle use your external strobe. Basically once you have an external flash you don't need to worry about using the internal one anymore.

 

[Scubatooth]

fdog

i know what you mean on the stobe to flash weights as i say that in my last trip to cayman when one guy had a nikonos V with 2 massive S&S YS350's on some arms but he got some great shots of the walls from about 10 feet away