How to use Light&Motion Sola 1200 with photography?

[Lotty]

Hi guys,
I bought a tray/adapter for my dad's Light&Motion Sola 1200 videolight, so it fits under my Sea&Sea-camerahouse (photo).
I've never used a light before, can somebody tell me how I can use this for good results? Did some google-research, but didn't find a good tutorial on positioning/manual whitebalancing with use of light/amout of light/etc that I found usefull or easy to practise.
I would love some advice, I'm taking it out to a divetrip in Florida next week. It's my biggest nightmare to spot a turttle and then screw-up the photo with bad use of light...

Many thanks and best wishes,
Lotty

 

[mjh]

Reality is you can get decent photos with a Video light but they are not as powerful as a standard strobe. Depending on your subject you will need to shoot in full Manual or some version of. You do not mention what camera you have, that would help. With video lights and a subject as large as a turtle you typically need to shoot at higher ISOs like +400, you will have to shoot at wider f stops, like 2.8-5.6 and adjust shutter speed as needed. But in general video lights can give decent results for macro but struggle with larges subjects. Here is a basic tutorial on strobe positioning you might find useful.

http://opticaloceansales.com/files/OOS-Strobe-Positioning.pdf

 

[drbill]

A strobe with its high intensity short burst of light will be much more effective in lighting a still since it permits high shutter speeds and better depth of field (higher f-stop). Video lights are continuous and emit a lower intensity beam that, as was pointed out above, will necessitate wider lens openings and longer shutter speeds that decrease depth of field and sharpness. The video light may be fine for macro subjects, but less successful for more distant subjects.

 

[Lotty]

Thanks for your answers
The videolight was already present for my dad's videocamera. That's why we invested in a tray to use the light also on the photo-device.
I'm a professional photographer above water, but a rookie underwater. So shooting in manual underwater might be a bit tricky, I'm so affraid there will be an amazing situation and I screw up the shot, haha! At the moment it's an Sea&Sea DX-1G, but within two weeks our Nikon7100 with Fantaseahousing and bigeye will arrive. Such a shame I can't take that set to Florida!
Usually I take my underwater pictures in A or P-mode with manual whitebalance settings. If I use the light as an edition on coral, will that help with the coloring?

 

[Interceptor121]

The issue is the shutter speed with a video light you can get up to 1/125 but higher it will be blurred that is why you need a strobe
Also as field of view of the Sola is only 60 degrees you need two otherwise you can realistically only do macro, where you need to be pretty steady to avoid motion blur at 1/125

 

[LeeCat]

http://opticaloceansales.com/files/OOS-Strobe-Positioning.pdf

Thanks a lot for the link