Diving relatively shallow, flood lights "pointless"?

[Matthew Jones]

When you are diving relatively shallow in relatively clear water, do you bother with your lights? Even up close today I didn't notice too much help from my lights at 25-30ft, but my simple red filter helped. I have two 2500 lumen Tovatec lights. Or are they more for shooting up close at more depth and at night, or perhaps when things are partially obscured by coral or under a shelf? I'm relatively new to photography while diving obviously. Between the red lens and lighting, my photos came out ok, but I think they are crisp...but I had a hard time staying put to photograph because there was some surge. I'm assuming the best photos are taken in calmer conditions.

 

[drbill]

Depends on the situation. I've found that with some subjects (such as a flamboyant cuttlefish in the Philippines) that having my Sola video lights on full power often balanced the ambient light and brought out the colors in the subject if the side I filmed was in partial "shade." I generally keep my lights on regardless of the depth and transparency of the water.

 

[AZTinman]

Lighting use pointless? Nope, I agree with Dr. Bill and usually keep mine on.

I just returned from a week of diving on Kona. While I spend most of my time shooting stills, my wife bought me a GoPro 4 before we left for the island. I mounted it on my DSLR housing and I played with it. My strobes have a strobe/video light mode that I usually use rather than messing with a focus light. I spent a lot of time shooting at depths between thirty and sixty feet.

Even on the 'junk' GoPro video I shot, lighting differences are evident. Light really brought-up the colors of the fish and the coral. BTW... I'm totally colorblind and see the world in shades of black, white and gray. My wife always reviews my photos and assists me with editing stuff. She was amazed to see the colors when the light passed over areas of coral.

I'm still enough of a underwater photography newbie to find myself trying to shoot beyond the range of my strobes/lights. Getting close enough to light things up really matters. I suspect 2500 lumen gets eaten-up pretty quickly underwater.

Perspectives vary, but I know some divers who don't like to use strobes or lights because lighting subjects makes the subjects look different in their photos and videos than what they see underwater. I guess they don't get the thing about how water filters different wavelengths of color from light.

-AZTinman

 

[Matthew Jones]

Do you think it's best to just shoot video, and then capture stills from the video, as opposed to trying to shoot with the GoPro where you can't manually adjust the exposure?

 

[scubastingray]

Pulling stills from the video will come out worse, but unless you have the video back you are left with the pray & spray conundrum.

The gopro is a very cool little gadget, but definitely limited it its uses. Even a basic P&S will often yield better results.