Strobe aiming question

[DiverBob]

I now have several dives with my strobe and I think that I am getting used to it. I have been trying to keep as large of an angle as I can between the strobe and camera to reduce back scatter. I still try to aim the strobe directly at the subject. Is this wrong? Should I be pointing strobe away from the subject a bit? I am having a more difficult time shooting nudibranchs. I tend to overexpose them. To help reduce this, the plan was to stop down the aperture at least one stop. Maybe putting the strobe at a different angle would help as well. There sure are a lot of things to juggle with a strobe, but I am having a blast shooting with it! Thanks, Bob

[cardiver]

I now have several dives with my strobe and I think that I am getting used to it. I have been trying to keep as large of an angle as I can between the strobe and camera to reduce back scatter. I still try to aim the strobe directly at the subject. Is this wrong? Should I be pointing strobe away from the subject a bit? I am having a more difficult time shooting nudibranchs. I tend to overexpose them. To help reduce this, the plan was to stop down the aperture at least one stop. Maybe putting the strobe at a different angle would help as well. There sure are a lot of things to juggle with a strobe, but I am having a blast shooting with it! Thanks, Bob

You should light your subject with the spill, Bob. This will avoid back scatter and over exposure.......
See you in the morning!

[ljjames]

Scott Boyd has a great description of good strobe aiming technique on his web site...

http://www.boydski.com/diving/uwphoto.htm

so what he says about strobe angle, and if at all possible, shoot up... then you get cool green shots or cool black shots in part of the back ground instead of all the shots looking "down" (Dives eye view) at the subject. Shoot 'up' for more of a critter eyes view, a more 'realistic' view of how we as divers see stuff when we look around.. and keep in mind rule of 1/3rds for bottom, subject, water column, negative space, whatnot... blah blah blah