Today was my first outing with my new camera rig, which has an external strobe. I was at Redondo, and the vis was about... well, maybe 15 ft. It was pretty awful and it kept getting worse as the tide came in.
No matter how I aimed my strobe, I was unable to get a shot without a lot of backscatter unless it was a close macro. Being new to the strobe I am sure that I could have done a much better job using it... but maybe I am just incorrectly expecting a backscatter-free (or minimal) WA exposure to be possible in those conditions.
The camera's internal strobe was certainly a source of backscatter, even with its provided diffuser on, and with the external strobe I didn't need its light... Is there any reason NOT to cover up the internal strobe? Is its output critical to TTL calculations, or is the fiberoptic cable between the camera and the strobe all that is needed?
(The camera's a Sea & Sea DX-2G + YS-01 strobe btw.)
I'll be doing a lot of reading on http://www.uwphotographyguide.com before my next outing... If anyone has a site that has good placement tips for single strobes I would love a link.
TIA,
MS
Remedial external strobe questions
Re: Remedial external strobe questions
I am not the expert on this site by any means, but here's what I do. For my camera, I tape a piece of slide film over the internal flash so only the infrared or uv or some sort of light gets through. This is more than enough to trigger my strobe via fiber optic cable. I prefer not to have any light coming from the internal strobe "visibly." Hope this helps.Is there any reason NOT to cover up the internal strobe? Is its output critical to TTL calculations, or is the fiberoptic cable between the camera and the strobe all that is needed?
I find that there is more visible backscatter for wide angle than macro. I always try to think of the strobe as the "sun" when I place it; natural as possible. However, I only have one strobe so placement can be tricky and I still don't have it at the optimal position likely. For shots further than 12inches away I put my strobe away from my camera, a little bit behind the plane of field of the camera lens, and I usually never aim the strobe right at my subject but at some invisible thing behind it. For macro I either do an above the subject-sometimes almost a backlit angle, or above my lens and aimed in the general direction. This is all with a single strobe. http://www.daveread.com/uw-photo/strobes/aim.html This is a site with a more visual explanation of how I think about strobes and backscatter. uwphotographyguide has been a useful resource for me! Lots of good ideas, now I need to learn how to put them into practice.
Jacob
*edit* added link
http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/under ... ositioning here is the quick link for the positioning section on uwphotog.