Underexposed photo even when using strobe

[atabaksh]

do you have red eye turned off?

normal humans can not detect the preflash from the main flash (at least none i know). if you are detecting 2 flashes, then the first one is likely the red eye flash?

Yes I have turned off the "red eye" . I feel the 2 flash. Is there any option in the camera to check the preflash?

 

[sea_ledford]

How fast are you shooting? It sounds like you might be going too fast for the recycle rate to keep up. After a few shots the strobe can pre-flash but no power is left for the actual flash.

-Chris

 

[atabaksh]

How fast are you shooting? It sounds like you might be going too fast for the recycle rate to keep up. After a few shots the strobe can pre-flash but no power is left for the actual flash.

-Chris

seems like it can be one of the reasons, thanks man, I have to give it a try. How much should I give time between shots?

 

[sea_ledford]

Depends on the strobe, batteries, power setting and heat. I'm not real familiar with the YS-03 strobe, but I don't think it is super strong.

2.5 to 3.1 seconds for full recycle according to specs here:
Product Specifications | SEA&SEA |

It'll probably pop off a few times fast than that, but will eventually have to stop. You also might want to be careful of dry firing it, too much heat can kill some strobes if they don't have any temp regulators.

-Chris

 

[ScubaMarc]

Can you find 2 pictures, one good and one bad and check out the exif data and see what is different.

 

[Steve_C]

Seems like every dive, especially second dive, I will have a few grossly underexposed pictures due to the fact I get trigger happy and don't give the flash time to recharge and then have to remind myself to give it time.

 

[KeithG]

How fast are you shooting? It sounds like you might be going too fast for the recycle rate to keep up. After a few shots the strobe can pre-flash but no power is left for the actual flash.

-Chris

good point. i never thought of this...

a fast recycle rate is why i always pop in a set of freshly charged batteries for every dive.

 

[Ardy]

This is interesting as I get the occasional totally underexposed shot on my OMD-EM5 and dual SnS strobes whilst firing in manual mode with flash set to man 1/64. Both strobes set to manual.

I have wondered about it but never given it a lot of thought as I focussed on what came out well and assume a few failures are bound to happen. I did miss a great shot on my last trip due to this.

 

[Ardy]

good point. i never thought of this...

a fast recycle rate is why i always pop in a set of freshly charged batteries for every dive.

I think many of us do the same thing, the dive trip (in my case) always costs a lot and to have a stuff up due to not putting in fresh batteries, both camera and flashes, is a walk across a busy road. Mind you we have all done it that's why I'm a little more cautious these days.

 

[Ardy]

I would suggest to the OP to ignore TTL and use manual only. I recently had a go with TTL and it wasn't bad it was just the exposure was worse than what I could conjure up myself.

When I bought my SnS 110a there was some issue with firmware but that was a few years ago and would only be relevant if your flash was more than 3-4 years old.

BTW 90% of my shots are macro these days.