New and I have a question! :)

[silentdea]

Hi everyone at Scubaboard! I've been a scuba diver for a year and I've recently joined scubaboard in order to get more in-depth information in scuba and everything related to it

So, here's my first question (in photography). So, currently I am using a Lumix Ts-10 with a ikelite housing. Well, when I do take photos underwater, they all turn green! My divemaster told me that I needed a light. So I was wondering which light (stobe) I should get. Also, what else do I need other than just the strobe?

He told me that I should get a light (flash-light) from Light and Motion. What do you suggest?

Thanks!,
Silentdea

 

[AndrewK2]

You'll need the strobe(s), arms/tray and cables to connect them to the housing. On the Ikelite site, it says you can use an optical sync, so you'll need that cable to go from the housing to the strobe you choose. Light and motion doesn't really make any strobes that I know of - they make continuous lights for video. You could probably use one of the Ikelite strobes such as the AF35 or the DS series if you want to get a little more advanced. There are others by Inon and Sea&Sea that are highly regarded as well. Hope this helps

 

[Petert71]

I'm also new and haven't gotten to photography yet, but I did have an interesting conversation with another diver on a boat yesterday.

It's not the camera that costs you in underwater photography, it's the lights. In order to get good colours you need to light the subject properly.

He said he'd spent about $400 on the camera and about $2,000 on lights.

 

[Searcaigh]

A good strobe will cost around $600 these days (Sea & Sea YS110a), x2 = $1,200

 

[AndrewK2]

yes, good strobes will cost a lot - for both my Ikelite strobes it has been around 2000.00 when you factor in arms and sync cords. I don't think strobes for a 400.00 camera/housing (if it's even possible to get a setup for that little) will need to be that much, especially if you just want to start out with a single strobe to experiment with. Also, in terms of the green water, make sure your white balance is correct and your tint is as well - you can adjust the tint by either using a red filter or boosting it afterwards (if your camera can shoot raw).

 

[Ardy]

My advice would be, assuming you don't have much money, or like me, won't spend it. Is to buy a second hand manual flash that has a slave mode so that you can trigger it with an optical cable. This will work well in manual mode assuming another thing and that is you can set the 'on camera' flash to manual (which you can on my panasonic).

I sold my old Sea and Sea YS50 with the optical cable attached (by me) for $50 on the local ebay. The guy who bought it was like you and just starting in UW photography and was stoked to be able to get something to work for that amount of money.

If you have the money buy an Inon or a Sea and Sea, (Ikelite are great strobes but will need a converter I think) roughly $400-600 on ebay depending on model and start with one moving to two as you get used to it and understand the limitations of a single flash.

 

[Puffer Fish]

You most likely need a strobe, but it depends on where you are diving...you may just need to learn how to do manual white balance...need to know a little bit more about where you dive and what you like to take pictures of.

Because you use a Panasonic camera, oly strobes are a possibility, and their lowest cost one is major deal... not very powerful...but works really well.

Welcome to scubaboard, by the way.

 

[slowhands]

Yeah, the red light gets absorbed by water. It's not that they turn green, its just that only blue and green is left. You can stumble along without a strobe, if you can do manual white balance with the camera. If not you and fix it in Photoshop with an action called mandrake (google it). If you get a camera that shoots RAW format images, it's even easier, but that's for the advanced class.

I agree a strobe helps, but not beyond about 5 meters, 15 feet. The light just gets dissipated by distance and the absorption of the water, so knowing how to tweak the photos in Photoshop is needed after all.

 

[silentdea]

Thanks everyone for all your help and sorry for not updating, but I don't like waiting 3 days for a person to answer my questions.

So, just to update, I'm going to buy the light & motion sola 1200 light. Well, you might be saying that the sola 1200 isn't really made for underwater photography, but my dive buddies use them and they usually come out with really stunning photos! Also, If the sola 1200 doesn't workout for me I can just buy another strobe. (Truly, money isn't a problem for me )