Strobe and no strobe

I have taken some photos with and without the strobe. The ones with strobe, when it fires off, have too much concentrated light - what am I doing wrong? Is it pointing at the wrong angle or do I have the setting on incorrectly? I am using sea life DC300 with a setting on Flash and have a cover over the internal flash. Visibility is not great here in NY.

Did you have the same settings as the pictures that you took w/o the strobe? If so you might either want to choose a faster shutter speed or a smaller f-stop, smaller f-stop= better depth of field. Check this site out on aiming your strobe..

It looks to me like your strobe is not aimed correctly (too far to the left...). Practice on land to see where the angle of light for your strobe is and then try to get your subject "painted" with it. That strobe is not particularly powerful and you are going to have to get close. To reduce backscatter you need to light with the edge of your strobe's output (easier said than done, I know!) and reduce the amount of water between you and the subject - get close. Practice moving your strobe head a bit, too.

Your subject doesn't look to be in focus really, either.

In getting close, remember your minimum focus distance of the camera/lens you are using or even if the lighting is right, the subject will be out of focus.

With your internal flash covered, you won't get any light (or at least enough to matter) if you don't use your external strobe. Can you adjust settings on that model - I don't see any controls from the web page??

I know they are trying to sell cameras, but that photo on their website is an unreasonable expectation, I think.

HTH

Unfortunately I don't have the ability to change many of the settings on this camera. I guess I rushed into buying a digital camera with housing before I purchased any "proper" diving equipment. I have played with the position of the strobe but as it is triggered by the internal flash discharging, I don't have much room for manoeuvering the strobe. This is why I am considering housing for the EOS Digital Rebel. I love my Minolta X-300 (old I know) but can't take that under the water. I will check out your recommendations and see what happens.

Welll if you don't have much control, this might not work?? I don't know the camera, but for "Natural Light" shots, lower the speed to 1/30th (hold steady) and open the lens up as much as possible.. oly 5050 goes to f-1.8 so I'm guess you might have \
a f-2.4?? and then see how it comes out... I'm surprised that they do and 1/30th on a still subject doesn't blur... well not tooooooooooo bad anyway...
give it a try...