Help! What am I doing wrong?

[midwestdvr]

Alright, finally got the d-2000 wet and now that I work in FL, it should get wet more . Anyway, took some pictures on my two dives in Key Largo. The conditions weren't too great: surge, sand stirred up, and poor vis. I now realize that I'll have to work harder now that there's an external flash. Sometimes I wished I had an extra pair of hands during the dives: two to steady myself on the sand and two to aim the camera and strobe. I don't think I aimed the strobe right at all. Anyhoo, here are a few pics I took. Would realy like to know what I'm doing wrong (and I know I did a lot wrong) so that I can remedy them on my next trip down. Thanks for the help.

 

[alcina]

Looks like you had some fun! Getting used to an external strobe is gonna take a few dives but it will be worth it. Here are some fast thoughts on the images in your post:

1 - you aren't close enough. In several shots it doesn't look like the light from your strobe is hitting your subject. This could be that you are aimed incorrectly, but I think it's more distance.

One way to check your aim is to hold the camera/strobe set-up with it facing you. Then adjust the strobe head as you visualise the cone of light.

In the barracuda shot you can see that your light hit in front of your subject...probably a combination of aim and distance - altering one or other would have worked, though with that distance you are probably going to still get a lot of backscatter.

2- you were shooting in tough conditions that begged for backscatter. This is perfect for learning one of the toughest, I think, techniques...painting with edges of light. You need to catch the edge of the light on your subject with the rest of the beam falling harmlessly out of the frame. This is how you can minimize backscatter in nasty conditions. I don't find this easy and have to concentrate when doing it.

Practice on land so you get a good feel for where the cone of light is.

3 - last shot has some good colour and you got the light on the main subject. Now it's just a matter of playing with angle until you get the drama/mood of lighting you want. I'd also like to know what your settings are as I think I see a little blur at the bottom of that subject (but I am pretty tired from travel still, so it could just be me!)

It looks like you are getting there, just need to refine things a little bit! HTH and I look forward to seeing more and hearing what others have to say!

Oh yeah, an enormously useful resource is Jim Church's Essential Guide to Composition...worth every penny and it's a tome you will refer to again and again.

 

[cdiver2]

Ditto Alcina also you are looking down on most of your shots try getting slightly below your subject and give it a upward shot (still life & marine life). This may help with back scatter http://www.daveread.com/uw-photo/strobes/aim.html and http://www.kelpfish.net/strobe.swf If conditions are real bad you may still get some backscatter. For a first attempt you did good.

 

[ssra30]

In poor viz with lots of particle in the water, you probably will be better of shooting macro so there will be less particles between the subject and your camera. For wide angle, like Alcina said, a strobe firing straight from the top of the camera will only cause more backscatter so you want to aim the strobe from the side so the light does not reflect straight back to the camera.
Your strobe is only good for 3-4 feet away from the camera (true of most strobes) so get closer. Wetmount wide angle lens will be helpful as it will let get close while still able to get good wide angle shot.

 

[midwestdvr]

thanks for the tips. can't wait to try again. hopefully, it'll tirn up better next time.