@Issue,
From my personal experience, I've found SOLA lights to be far superior in every way when compared to BigBlue. They used to be expensive, but prices have come down significantly and they are easy to find.
I have a question for you. What type of water are you diving? Is it blue water like we would expect to find in Florida marine environments and across the Caribbean? If so, blue water absorbs "red light" rapidly. The spectrum of "red light" fades away the deeper we go. Other spectrums of color that make up natural light travel further and deeper... essentially blues and some darker greens.
Considering this is the environment where lots of critters live, they don't need nor have had the need to possess an enhanced perception of the color red. I've noticed critter that live in shallower environments like a red lip blennie or Hawkfish will see red light.
1. To get the colors to pop, you need a strobe or an underwater flash. I personally like INON strobes; however, there are several other good manufacturers out there that do a good job producing good quality strobes.
2. The light comes out of the strobe, hits the subject, then travels back to your camera's sensor. The more the light has to travel, the more loss of color occurs. Shorter distance is always better. Remember that ocean water loves to eat color, so the less amount of distance any spectrum of light travels, the more your camera will be able to see, and your photos will turn out much better.
4. When shooting macro, you don't need a lot of light, but you do need a good balanced light with all natural color spectrums so that the subject is illuminated and the camera sensor can capture true color as fatefully as possible. The shorter the distance light travels, the better.
You want to get rid of the water, so get close, very close, as close as possible.
Some rules of thumb:
A. Get close
B. Shoot up
C. Zoom with your fins
When taking photos of subjects that live in blue water, you want to be as stealth as possible. You want them to continue with their regular behavior or to not be disturbed by your presence. If they notice you are there, they are likely to flee, stop doing whatever they are doing and simply go away.
One proven technique is to approach them stealthily and to shine a red focusing light on them, so your camera can focus. It's just for your camera to be able to see. You can see whatever you are shooting too, but not it it's full glorious colors, just enough to lock focus or help the system attain focus.
When you press the shutter release, the strobes fire a flash or light that carries all natural light spectrums, including the precious red light we all want to preserve. The amount coming out of the focusing light is so mild.... assuming you are using a SOLA 600, that it won't affect the finished photo. The sole purpose of the focusing light, of a red focusing light that is... is to let you camera see and enhance its focusing capabilities. You can see as well, enough to adjust or assist your camera if it focuses on the wrong body part, or the wrong spot.
5. Any critter with eyes, or wherever eyes would be expected, focus on that. If the eyes are out of focus, the picture is not going work. Your image viewers won't connect with your subject if the eyes are not in focus. Nudibranchs... focus on the guills- horns or whatever seems to be it's head.
So, the strobe fills and adds all colors back to the shot.
When using a BigBlue light, my personal experience is that it's too bright and it affects the finished product. It also has some harmonic oscillating waves that ruin the shot; therefore, SOLA is the way to go.
The INON z240 strobes also have a focusing light, but it's easer to just use the SOLA or something equivalent.
I'm uploading a photo of both the SOLA 600 and one of my BigBlue lights... side by side and set to red. You can see the output and get a better feel for what I'm talking about.
Take care and talk to you soon,
Ricardo