strobes and underwater portraits

[discrepancy]

...I am planning to do underwater portraits in an indoor swimming pool and curious if you think one strobe would be enough. Would it create harsh shadows? Would I need an additional strobe for fill light? opinions?

I think I see where you're coming from with your question about fill lighting. For portrait shots on land you would traditionally look for a highlight/shadow ratio of no more than 3:1 EV for flattering shots of women, and maybe up to 5:1 for craggy men with character. And 'Rembrandt' lighting is a professional standard.

Can you re-create this ideal underwater? Short answer is it's hard at anything below 10m/30ft with one strobe. At depth you'll either get backscatter from particulate matter if your strobe is close to face-on, or harsh oblique shadows if you angle it off. That's physics. Also, Murphy's Law dictates that the unattractive shadow at depth will fall right across your dive buddy's nose.

But you should get some very pleasing results in a pool because sunlight effectively gives you the high, angled highlight lighting for free, and you can adjust your single stobe to provide the fill in.

Diffusing covers will add a nice soft lighting to your shallow-water shots, just as they do on land, but also remember that a diffuser will cut your flash number down by about 1/3 at depth, and that could mean getting a shot with half-decent colour, or not.

 

[Scubatooth]

If your strobe head doesn't have a diffuser on it, then soften the light by using one. Catherine's strobes look they are pretty soft to me and that is why to my minds eye they look great.

When doing portrait work above water I go to great pains (for the most part) to use diffused light. Doesn't mean that I don't shoot with a high f-stop, but instead the shadows are soft and minor.

Would you be using umbrellas or a soft box to feather those shadows. then also what are the ratios and settings you typically like to go for in a portrait.

Tooth

 

[Jim Ernst]

I just ordered a diffuser for my SS200 (which I've never used UW BTW ). But I will, ohh I will! :11doh:

I would have never thought of leashing the diffuser to the strobe! Thanks for the idea. So how exactly is that done?

ron, my diffuser is tied to my strobe arm with a small piece of string,(same type they use on the pull dump valves on a bc) and the owner of my lds (also a pro photographer) did this for me when i bought my camera equipment through him and he taught me to use it