need good setup for sp-350

[jfproul]

I am going to Bonaire in april and i am sure there is someone who has
posted a good setup for my sp 350 in ikelite housing with ikelite ds-125 but
i am very lazy on searching the treads , its the first time i am gonna use a strobe
so i just know nothing.


thanks for your time

 

[RockyHeap]

So you have all this gear now? I'm not sure what you're asking mr lazy.

See my thread titled Fiji Fun times with SP-350 for my work, and my gear listed below.

 

[gert7to3]

Where're you staying? I just got back from a trip there last week. It was a bit windy so vis dropped off a bit, but it still beat going to work.

I've done three trips there, the last one was mostly boat based. I really prefer the freedom of shore based diving. No hurry, hurry and back to the boat in an hour.

The stern buoy on the Hilma Hooker was lying down in the water, but you could still find it once you swam out. Of course by the time you got to the buoy, you could see the ship. Finally saw some southern sting rays on the trip back to the beach.

Couldn't find any scorpion fish this trip. Water temp was 79 F-81 F. I was comfortable in a 3/2mm O'Neil suit. Have a good time, wishing I was still there.

 

[alcina]

I second that...what's your question? Happy to try to help, but have to know what you are looking for.

Check out the Pink Link in my sig for most of the initial stuff you will need to get started...

 

[jfproul]

Thanks guys ... ok ...I have sp-350 , ikelite housing with strobe ds-125 but NO
experience at all with this equipment ( strobe ) ...i used my sp-350 a few times with
an olympus housing with great pics but i wanted a strobe and now i have it but i don't
know where to start in the setup ...should i put auto mode and shoot or someone could give me a good setup for bonaire wich there's a lot of macro there ...

btw i will be staying in a townhouse and i took my unlimited pack at Divi ... it was
the cheapest way to go for me .

thanks for everything.

 

[alcina]

Have you looked at the Pink Link? Virtually everything you need to get started is in there - including links to more information

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Rather than give settings, the best advice I can give is to experiment:

Do a test dive dedicated to your new toy.

Prior to your dive write down all the various combinations of camera and flash settings you can think of …. Jot these down on a slate.

Dive in. Set you focus to spot. Set camera to use both internal and external flash. Set camera flash to always on.

Settle down on a sandy bottom near a rock and find a small non-moving object (say a nudi), get close, set your camera to macro if need be. Then methodically go through the various settings. Record how they go on a slate.

Try manual exposure (say 1/60 at f5.6) with manual flash (go through full strobe power range), then try with the strobe in its auto mode

Try aperture mode (say f5.6 to f8) with both manual and auto flash. Try a range of apertures and see how they affect the image.

Try the full program mode on with auto and manual flash

(by this time your buddy will have swam off in disgust...)

Try the underwater macro mode with flash on auto and then a range of manual settings.

You will see what works and what doesn't, and on the way learn a lot about handling and using a camera underwater. I found full manual on both camera and strobe taught me a lot, despite a fair amount of trail and error. When a combination doesn’t work think about why.

Later set the internal flash to a low power slave mode and see what happens to settings that had worked before. Later yet turn the flash off and play around with white balance.

All this fooling around and reviewing will save you a lot of time later.

Still, theres no real end to this learning curve....
Enjoy,
Rohan.

 

[RockyHeap]

Good Tips Tassie and everyone, but I disagree you want to force the internal flash on with his, and mine, set-ups.

The battery life of the SP-350 can be extended by not using the internal flash, as he has the ikelite housing and DS-125 he's using the TTL cord.

I shoot in manual mostly, and you'll learn your rig after a couple of dives, Experience is everything, you just can't learn this stuff by reading a book. TTL metering is also good, so play around with it.

It also depends on the look of the photo. Are you shooting flat over a reef looking into the distance? and say you want a blue water background, or black background. Well if you slow the shutter down to 1/60th-1/125th, you abosrb more light and it'll be a great depth of field and go off into infinity, but say you're shooting the same Gorgonian sea fan with a crab on it, and you want a black background, go to a higher shutter speed such as 1/1000th, and higher strobe power and you illuminate all close up colors but the background is matte black.

I set my white balance to cloudy, I'm too busy underwater to set it manually. Depending on water clarity, start with ISO 200, but I also set it down to 64, or even 800 for deep dives.

The key is THROWING LIGHT.........if you're in macro, you don't need to blast full power and wash out colors, but if you're shooting with a wide angle lens from a distance, shoot at a slower shutter speed and higher f-stop.

practice practice practice. I can easily shoot 100-120 photos during a dive, of which I'll show off 10-20 keepers to friends. During surface interval, swap out a new 1 gig mem card and fresh batteries. Shoot in Video mode too (white balance in cloudy mode) while using your DS-125 internal modeling light, this works great even during night dives.!

 

[alcina]

Very interesting tips!

I guess I'm surprised to read that some bother with their white balance at all since they are using a strobe. I wouldn't bother - my strobe gives off the light that I want.

Ditto for changing the ISO - lower is better, with exceptions, of course. Of course, if you are diving in very dark waters, this may be an issue, but I would have thought that for most instances again the strobe would be providing the light you need?

This thread is a perfect example of why "settings" aren't all they are cracked up to be...you need to get out there and shoot and see what works for you. Take the settings advice offered and work from there.

Most importantly - shoot lots and have fun!!