Why use a strobe - DC600?

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If it is over exposed or you want softer shadows! Sometimes it helps in making the beam a little wider!
 
If it is over exposed or you want softer shadows! Sometimes it helps in making the beam a little wider!
What I've tried is...
  1. if the subject area is dark, take the diffuser off;
  2. if the instant review is too light, try again with the diffuser on;
  3. but if the area is bright, leave it on; and
  4. in some cases of shooting into bright sand, pull the Flash cable off to allow the camera flash only to work.

Any suggestions on that...?
 
#4 is not a good way, just turn the flash off, or better yet miss aim it beyond the subject in the sand! With the diffuser on:wink:
 
Here is my "general" observation...

light background (sand)... less than 2' .... move the flash up and away...

dark bakground (potential distance 2'-6') remove diffuser and take the shot... if it is not what I want, add diffuser and take several shots until i get what I want, or what I want moves away....
 
I live in Puerto Rico. You went to a cockfight here? Haha... That must be a great story.
 
...you are probably missing out on some photo opportunities then...if you just use the on-board flash (assuming it is not masked by your housing), then you have to shoot close (really close) - but then you get just as good results, e.g. with a strobe you may get nice colors upto 3 or 4 feet away, on board flash gives good colrs 1-2 ft away.
Stu, I know I'm missing out on photos, you're right. But the reason I bought the camera is so I could share with my wife and kids what I get to see down there since they don't dive (YET!) So having pictures that don't show the color and detail does beat having no pics at all, I just don't feel it does the scenery any justice!

For example the photo on my profile was taken with my sealife camera at 50' in Roatan and the vis was easily 100' yet the colors are washed out. I would like to show them what I see.

This photo stuff is new to me, what's the difference between the Sealife analog and digital strobes?
 
SFor example the photo on my profile was taken with my sealife camera at 50' in Roatan and the vis was easily 100' yet the colors are washed out. I would like to show them what I see.

This photo stuff is new to me, what's the difference between the Sealife analog and digital strobes?

yep - always tricky on the further away shots. e.g. on your profile pic, you can see the colours in the wetsuit and inflator as the flash has lit it up but the distant scenery is blue
- the (simplified) reason is that due to refraction of light in water, the colours disappear the deeper you go - so within about 10-15 ft depth the reds disappear (so things start looking more blue) and gradually the other colours start to disappear - by about 100ft all colours are essentiallly gone (this of course is in clear water, murkey water will be worse). The strobe or on-board flash will add the colour back, but the range is very limited, so even with a strobe you cannot light up more than a few feet (e.g. 3-6 ft) and further away the blues start appearing again

so you have a couple of choices:
- either take closer up photos where you don't have large amounts of blueness, e.g. close up subject can be well lit and see colours but try and limit the distant reefscape (or have artistic shots with well lit main subject and blueness in the background or if youre a photoshop wizz you may be able to do something nice!)
- or maybe try using the manual white balancing at depth (essentially at whatever depth, set the white balance to tell the camera how to interpret the colours) - then reset if you change depth again. People usually re-set the white balance every 10ft or so. I think in Alcina's signature line there is a link to white balancing, or maybe someone with a Sealife can give you sepcific steps and recommendations to do it - (and perhaps post some examples)....seems like an idea for a new thread in the new forum :D
 
Stu, I know I'm missing out on photos, you're right. But the reason I bought the camera is so I could share with my wife and kids what I get to see down there since they don't dive (YET!) So having pictures that don't show the color and detail does beat having no pics at all, I just don't feel it does the scenery any justice!

But didn't you see my pics. Im my opinion they have some pretty good color. So why not show that?
 

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