Practice with 2 DS-125 strobes

[Cussy]

I managed a dive in Stoney Cove last Friday after having to cancel a couple of times the week before because of illness. Whole purpose of the dive was a) for my mate to try out his new drysuit and b) for me to do my first dives with the twin DS-125's and the D80 set to manual throughout. The best of the bunch are below:



I am really pleased with these 10 and can't believe how much my photography has come on this year. diving Friday was glorious as Stoney was empty and during over 100 minutes in the water we only saw about 6 other divers. Saying that though there was a lot of crud in the water and my strobe placement needs more thought in the water.

Hoping for another dive next week, where I will be putting my top-secret project in the water! If it works I will definitely be posting the results here!!
Rob

[Tazzie]

Really impressive Rob - Stoney should use you for their advertising brochure!

I love number 5 and 6!

[Bombebit]

Really lovely pictures... you should be proud...

B x

[Tazzie]

Rob, having had further thoughts on this - what would you say the main difference has been over using 2 strobes? How has it affected your photos? Are they TTL or fully manual?

I'm still using just the one albeit on manual, haven't even played around with positioning much yet

[Cussy]

Tazzie,
If you look at the last 4 I really don't think I could have lit them well enough with one strobe, although saying that I have never tried diving with just one DS-125 - they have a lot better coverage than the S&S YS-25 I had before. With one on scenics I tended to find you can see the circle of lighting, which fades away into green. With two you get a more even coverage of light.

For the macro shots it means you can start being creative. For many of these shots I was trying to get the lighting under the chin, but with one strobe I think it can end up looking slightly odd with too heavy a shadow (the first one is probably guilty of this, although I am chuffed at getting a black background in only 3m of water on a sunny day). With two you can illuminate with the one and do an effect with the other. For really close macro I often have one strobe over the port for illumination and the second almost side on to the subject. I'd like longer arms so that back-lighting would also be possible.

Saying all that though, I am finding down-sides. The water really wasn't clear and I have really bad hot-spots on either/both side in a lot of images. I seem to shoot a lot of portraits too and I must be getting placement wrong here - I had strobes either side of the port, I think in portrait maybe I should have one on one side and the second perpendicular to it.

The bonus of getting things wrong is a keen urge to get back in the water and sort it out!!

Rob
PS I was shooting totally manual on the camera for 2/3rds of the dive. Camera was set at 1/200th (fastest the flash with sync) and ranged from f8 up to higher f numbers to make the backgrounds more black. The strobes were set on TTL, mainly with -0.5 to -1. Very reflective fish scales are a pain and if the fish is too close the TTL has no chance. HTH.

[Tazzie]

Thanks Rob.

I think I am guilty of not looking for the strobe effect, I certainly hadn't considered the last couple of photos wouldn't have had enough light from just one strobe (my wide angle and strobe technique is pretty limited)

You have reiterated the mind set for me by going in with the intention of lighting the fish from below - this is something I have got to work alot harder on for sure, I'm still taking opportune shots in the main.

Thanks again

[TimIngmire]

Hey Rob,

these are really good. Well done - you've got a drip on that 2nd strobe
very well.

Tim

[Cussy]

Originally Posted by TimIngmire

you've got a drip on that 2nd strobe
very well.

??

[TimIngmire]

should have been 'grip'

and 'very well done'

The age is getting to me.

[Cussy]

No point in a new thread, but had another practice with the twin strobes on Friday. I'm getting something very wrong on WA shots, need to work out what. It is most noticable on portrait images and I wonder if it is anything to do with spot metering, as it is the strobe that ends up at the bottom that gives a lot of back-scatter. Anyway, here are my favs:



Is anyone else diving?
Rob