New TG-6 Setup

[Chris Ross]

Yeah it's horribly frustrating. I do get some good shots but a large percentage of my shots come out basically black despite me having the strobe pretty much on top of my subject.

What settings are you using? Do you see any sign of light from the strobe? Which strobe and which mode on it are you using? Having the wrong settings can easily cause this problem as the strobe and camera really do not talk to each other.

 

[skl007]

What settings are you using? Do you see any sign of light from the strobe? Which strobe and which mode on it are you using? Having the wrong settings can easily cause this problem as the strobe and camera really do not talk to each other.

I'm using the recommended settings that Backscatter provides in its youtube video. Strobe is firing, and it's set to TTL and my camera flash is set to fill-in. I'm using an Inon S2000.

 

[Chris Ross]

I'm using the recommended settings that Backscatter provides in its youtube video. Strobe is firing, and it's set to TTL and my camera flash is set to fill-in. I'm using an Inon S2000.

There are some issues with the settings recommended, Do you know what shutter speed/aperture and ISO you are using or were selected for the shots that are dark? Is the magnet in or out on the flash? Are the images you are taking macro, wide or both and how far is the strobe from the subject?

Backscatter suggest using f18 - f18 is the fully zoomed f6.3 aperture with a 3 stop neutral density filter added - It DOES NOT give you additional depth of field over f6.3. It will help darken the background, but f18 is quite slow and the strobe may either not have enough power or the TTL may choose to dial down the flash for some reason. Or if you are too far away the strobe may not have enough output to illuminate the subject.

Try doing some on land shooting something like the toy figures in the video and try f6.3 and f18 to see if that makes any difference. Shoot inside with lights low enough that a frame without flash is well under exposed at your selected settings. See what the image exposure looks like. This will give you a starting point for working underwater.

 

[Peter Bomberg]

I'm using the recommended settings that Backscatter provides in its youtube video. Strobe is firing, and it's set to TTL and my camera flash is set to fill-in. I'm using an Inon S2000.

I realized that I missed a key part of the Backscatter instruction, the live settings override the custom settings so even if you set the ISO and shutter speeds perfect in the custom mode unless you set ISO to auto in the live it overrides, same for flash. I only figured this out when playing indoors and now I have to admit it's working very very well. I am even thinking of going to full auto on the S-2000's as the cycle time seems to be fairly fast (was trying 1/64th but I can dial in the strobes perfectly quickly enough to the actual cycle times was much longer than just leaving them on STTL.

I will know in 2 weeks how it all works.

 

[Peter Bomberg]

My setup, still working on the foam aspects thus the excess material and why 2 different sizes of shock-cord.

 

[cruisekingkris]

@Peter Bomberg is that plumbing insulation that you are using for floatation foam? I tried sourcing foam from the big box stores and amazon seeing if there was a better choice then buying it from the photo websites. In the end their stuff works perfect. The stuff from Homedepot will compress at depth and will lose of buoyancy. A stiff closed cell poly foam is what works. Pool noodles and pipe insulation doesn’t work well.

 

[Peter Bomberg]

Hello cruisekingkris it is pipe insulation and yes I know it compresses, but I used it a couple times already and it decompresses nicely so the rig gets negative at around 80-90ft but since most of my dives turn out to be 60-80 I am not fussed, I tried the closed cell and it was too bulky for my application and they did not flex well.

If you look you can see that the insulation is wrapped tight using shockcord, I think the tension is correct but aiming to drop to 130-140 and fine tune. I did not have the schockcord on my first setup and the insulation unglued itself after a couple dives, this way the shockcord keeps it secure not the glue.

That being said my setup is way to positive at the moment, but that is because I filled the loclines with foam (used hard closed cell first (expanding microbubble foam) which was a major mistake, it crushes but does not decompress so one dive later its a write-off and took hours to get out of the locline. I may remove the foam stuffing as it does not seem to dry (4 weeks later the arms were still full of saltwater).

 

[cruisekingkris]

@Peter Bomberg gotcha. My rig is heavy. I needed two sets of the jumbo Stix float kits.

 

[Peter Bomberg]

cruisekingkris , light (and small) is my mantra, some have muttered something about obsessed but I am debating making one more change to my SMB as I can save 4 grams but it will mean 30-60 min of work.

I have already replaced all steel parts with lighter options, including the steel wires in the locline with fishing lines.

And all this so I can travel for 2-3 months with dive gear and not worry about the size of the trunk in rental cars or luggage limitations on puddle jumpers and smile when my bag is weighed at the airport.

 

[cruisekingkris]

@Peter Bomberg thats great. I’m exactly the opposite. I travel like I have a dive shop with me. Drones, cameras, dive gear, extra diver gear and anything else I can fit. Let’s not even get into how big my save a dive kits it. I can save multiple Dive boats. I get different looks from people and it all depends if they need something from me or not.