When shouldn't I use a strobe? Planning on diving the Cenotes this January
when not to use a strobe...when you're shooting in shallow waters where the sunlight/ambient is enough to light the subject. in this case you should set a custom white balance.
Or when your shooting silhouettes, or usually when the subject is more than 10' away, or when you need to shoot faster than your strobe will recycle, or when your shooting whale sharks and manta rays with some operators. There are others, but there isn't really one hard fast rule! :no
I still post process the photos in PhotoShop.
Speaking of post process in Photoshop, I have never used anything but auto WB on either oly 5050's or canon S-70's. I shoot in Raw and then adjust everything on the computer. For ambient and internal flash I leave the camera in Full Auto! For strobed shots I use MyModes to pre-set 6-8 f-stop/shutter/iso combinations.
At 80 feet, what does your eye see? I see a lot of blue. My goal is to make the final image look like I saw it, not better than I saw it. I'm not saying those using white slates don't produce realistic images, but if I have to post process anyway why would I bother. They don't call 'em p&s for nothing!
The above link is a story thread with a link to some of my best semi-deep ambient work (115' max), and required suprisingly little PS adjustment. Uploaded to computer with Camedia Master, imported into PS Elements 4 with Bridge (adjusting temp, tint, shadows, brightness and contrast), then only minor adjustments once actually in PS. Yes Is sounds like a lot of work, but imagine me doing WB changes while scootering around a wreck, schooling fish, scuba divers, free divers and a tourist sub.
Even when I'm not so busy or deep, I just point and shoot, and sort the WB out with Bridge and PS! Not saying anybody is wrong, just pointing out another way to skin this cat.
