2nd time out with strobe

[midwestdvr]

Took AOW class in key largo 7/13 - 7/15 and took the camera out with me. Got some more practice using the strobe but I know I need a whole lot more. Still need to play around with the strobe angles. Also, finally fiddled with custom white balance underwater and had some mixed results (forgot the slate so had to use a cut up styrofoam container). Anyhoo, here are the pics and I would appreciate any suggestions on how to improve especially if you're shooting a fish out in the open against sand. Thanks, y'all.

Here are pics of a grouper(?) using strobe on the left side at different angles.

 

[midwestdvr]

here are some pics using custom white balance.

 

[midwestdvr]

the rest (some with very glaring errors )

 

[Dee]

The white balance pics look good. I'd run that second one through Photoshop and remove the 'haze' but the sand exposures are good...no burnouts.

The grouper in the first two shots... both look a little dark to me. I'd increase the strength of my strobe or change the exposure a tad.

Nice shots!

 

[cdiver2]

Took AOW class in key largo 7/13 - 7/15 and took the camera out with me. Got some more practice using the strobe but I know I need a whole lot more. Still need to play around with the strobe angles. Also, finally fiddled with custom white balance underwater and had some mixed results (forgot the slate so had to use a cut up styrofoam container). Anyhoo, here are the pics and I would appreciate any suggestions on how to improve especially if you're shooting a fish out in the open against sand. Thanks, y'all.

Here are pics of a grouper(?) using strobe on the left side at different angles.

Also a number of shots are looking down, the shots would look better with a slight upward shot.
The first two shots could be lightened in PH. A example below done in a couple of secs

 

[midwestdvr]

Yep, one of these days I'm going to have to practice tweeking these pics. One thing I liked about the setup of my strobe system was the arms. They were easy to bend into place. I'm actually thinking of getting another extension. Dee, my concern about the sandshots was how to use the strobe without the sand coming out so bright white.

 

[cdiver2]

See if this helps.

http://www.kelpfish.net/strobe.swf

http://www.daveread.com/uw-photo/strobes/aim.html

 

[alcina]

Looking good! I really like this one: http://www.scubaboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=20048

As for shooting fish on sand a couple things spring to mind
- get as low as you possibly can
- aim the strobe so you are just dusting the subject with the light and so the light is not falling on the foreground (sand) - think of the light as a cone and try to visualise it...you do not need to use the whole cone in your shot, some of the light should fall outside the frame. in the groper shot, you can see that your strobe's light has fallen away (and to the left) before it reached the fish. This is practice - sorry no magic tricks for strobe aiming

For shots like the trumpetfish, I would bump the shutter speed up - you don't want that distracting background - and up the strobe power so you still get nice lighting on the fish/coral. Remember, with an external strobe you can get wild with your shutter - go fast to darken the water or really fast to black it out completely. Your strobe is going to give you all the light you need.

When you white balance, you do not need to do this if your light is coming from your external strobe...mess with WB for natual light shots. I think that you have some more ooomph in those white balance shots with a little more PS playtime...they look really nice now, but the colours could be punchier with a quick tweak - the information is there, PS lets you use it.

Thanks for posting all of these - it looks like wonderful diving for sure! I am looking forward to even more!

 

[ssra30]

Nice shots. The first 2, I am not sure if tghe exposure wass not right or if the strobe was not aimed properly.
Generally I don't do much white balance adjustment when I use strobe. If the photo is well lit with a strobe, the color should come out properly anyhow. With your white balance adjustment, it does look a bit strange, like there is no water whatsoever. It is a bit strange for me.
Shooting with whitesand background or silvery fish, you would want to underexpose pictures a bit more than usual so you don't get blown out area. I am not familiar with your camera but many digital cameras will let you will histogram or highlight area of the picture on the LCD, I usually leave the highlight display on so I can check if any area of the picture is overexposed.

 

[midwestdvr]

cdiver2, thanks for the links. Helpful read. As for the custom white balance, the strobe was off. The one time I accidentally forgot to turn off the camera's flash the strobe kicked in and I got a very reddish pic. I was playing around with custom white balance since I've seen a lot of awesome pics here done that way. It would have been very helpful since on my last dive there was this hogfish eating and spitting out sand that let me get as close a foot or less without even flinching. But of course, I didn't bring my camera because I had a little case of mal-de-mer on the SI (very choppy). Just my luck.