First, did you get an optical cable?
Flash Link | Sealife Cameras
Did it come with any little rubber plugs that fit over the ends of the cable and can be inserted into the little ports on the camera housing and the strobe?
If the optical cable did not come with those mounting plugs, either contact Sealife about getting some or use the plugs which came with your camera housing. You can drill a small hole through those plugs and insert the fiber optic cable into them, then into the housing and strobe.
So far as photography is concerned, the fewer changes you need to make in order to obtain the best exposure, the better.
Cathy Church's method helped me a lot.
Use manual settings for your camera; set your aperture between ƒ5.6 to ƒ11; keep the ISO low around 100-200; without using your strobe, set your shutter speed to obtain a pleasing background hue and brightness; use your strobe setting to adjust the illumination on your subject.
I practiced this by photographing a object on a table in a darkened room, but with a well lighted room in the background.
Taking photos this way you will make most of your exposure adjustments with your strobe and not change much else.
If you can set your camera image review to show a histogram, this will help make sure your exposures are right.
Use a RAW image mode. This permits you to make the widest range of adjustments to your photos, using all the data.
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An addendum, to check your strobe for synchronization, take photos with your strobe in a mirror. This will demonstrate if the strobe is going off at the same time the shutter is open. There are several synch settings available on the Sea Life strobe. You may have to test a few before you get the right setting.
To save battery life you can set the camera strobe to a low power setting like 1/2 or 1/8th power. However, if the strobe is reading the camera's strobe power you need to use the auto setting (I think).
