Shooting with one strobe?

[fruehaufsteher2]

As mentioned before I am more in freediving than scuba. That means to avoid any unnecessary drag from the equipment. My Nauticam -housing for A7IV is just acceptable but I'll stay with one strobe.

I'm actually quite familiar with the rules (long arm, pointing slightly outwards...) but now I've noticed that some photos lose their depth of field and look rather flat.
Does it make sense to position the flash outside the horizontal or vertical axis of the lens? For example, top right instead of top centre? Would this create more of an impression of depth? Or is it rather because I have given the flash too much power? Any special recommendations for illuminating with only one light source underwater?

[TimG]

Generally I think the problem of images appearing flat is indeed that the lighting is too centred and shadows are removed. Oddly, I reckon this is more likely to happen with two strobe users rather than with a single strobe.  With two strobes there is a tendency to balance the strobe positions to mirror one another. You can't do this if you only have one strobe - although, if you have the strobe along the central axis of the lens, you are likely to create the same effect.

I'd suggest trying to angle the lighting in such a way that it casts a slight shadow on one side of the subject. Try 45-60 degrees. This should help create a bit of depth and, if you carry it to almost extremes (120 degrees?), you could "Rembrandt light" the critter!

[fruehaufsteher2]

Thanks, that helps. 45-60 is more than I expected, and I'll give it a try in 2 weeks 😁

[TimG]

No worries. Let us know how you get on and maybe post some before and after shots? The comparisons would be interesting.

[fruehaufsteher2]

I'll do! Hopefully Fulidhoo has a nice house reef... 😜

[John Liddiard]

The 'old masters' (artists/painters) used to work in rooms with the window on their left shoulder so as not to shadow their work with their right arm (right handed). Hence a single strobe slightly to left will conform to the historic norm.

[Floris Bennema]

I used one strobe for some time and had difficulty to avoid strong shadows. The subtility of Rembrandt lighting is that in addition to the direct light on one side, he used reflection of light at the other side.  Possibly you could Imitate that with strobe light on one side and natural light on the other. But that would complicate your freediving photography even more. 

[fruehaufsteher2]

Hi Floris,

you named it. Your proposal is what I'd do on land but in the water this could be too difficult. First thing I'll try will be putting the flash more in left upper corner.

I'll give feedback.

 

[TimG]

Was Rembrandt a diver? 

[Mehmet GUNGEN]

First of all, I think your picture is lit quite good with a single strobe.

By saying "some photos lose depth of field and look rather flat" i presume you mean a more 2D look of the composition.

Regardless of the number of strobes you are using you ll be having a strobe lit foreground and an available light illuminated background.(as the dark reef section in your photo)

I believe having a little bit more background in your photo could give more depth to it. This of course depends on the topography of the dive site. I first thought that you could have approached a bit closer and get a bit down and shoot with a slightly upward angle but than i realised that if you have done that in this particular photo you might have totally lost the reef on the background. If this is the situation you could try to have water surface texture or the dive boat etc on the background. 

If what i have written above is irrelevant and you meant the way you lit the foreground part, by moving the strobe from central position to side you could have more shadows and texture on the foreground. I believe you can do this easier with an off-center single strobe than double strobes.(in the latter you should have done inward lighting for that effect ) 

 

[Dave_Hicks]

To get a bit more of a 3d look that will bring out the texture of the subject, try repositioning and aiming the strobe in different ways. If you are not seeing the scales, eye bulges, protruding fins of your subject, you may be generating flat images.

For close up shots like the one shared above, I like to have a long arm, canted up between 9pm and 12pm, maybe a bit behind the subject. Aim the strobe toward the lens, and not canted outward. Control the strobe power until you get a look you like. You may find this works better to control backscatter as well, depending on conditions.

If you add a second strobe, use it for fill light. Off to the other side and at a very low power so you don't eliminate the shadows created by the key light.

[fruehaufsteher2]

16 hours ago, Mehmet GUNGEN said:

I believe having a little bit more background in your photo could give more depth to it. This of course depends on the topography of the dive site. I first thought that you could have approached a bit closer and get a bit down and shoot with a slightly upward angle but than i realised that if you have done that in this particular photo you might have totally lost the reef on the background. If this is the situation you could try to have water surface texture or the dive boat etc on the background. 

[...] by moving the strobe from central position to side you could have more shadows and texture on the foreground. I believe you can do this easier with an off-center single strobe than double strobes.(in the latter you should have done inward lighting for that effect ) 

 

All your input is extremely helpful. I'll give them a try, but I'll stay with one single flash. Thank you so much!

[Mehmet GUNGEN]

1 hour ago, fruehaufsteher2 said:

All your input is extremely helpful. I'll give them a try, but I'll stay with one single flash. Thank you so much!

For free diving absolutely right choice. I think you re doing well. Good luck 

[Klaus]

First of all, I think this is a really nice shot and the pose of the octopus(?) is really cool. You probably tried cropping out just this guy in a vertical, maybe even b/w. Almost looks like (s)he’s ashamed of skinny-dipping…

I don’t know a lot about UW photography, but I am not sure that more shadows necessarily translates into greater perceived depth. Your strobe is off-center already (towards the top left, shadows are a bit to the bottom right). I think the suggestion to go a bit lower yet is a good one, maybe it’s not that easy when freediving  to try a couple of different angles. 
But as said above, definitely a great moment to capture!

[Tom Kline]

I have shot several 100 thousand underwater images using just one strobe with the strobe at the 12 o'clock position. Here is an example: https://www.salmonography.com/Salmonid-Topic/Photography-techniques/i-xqzsjZ7/A

Use the arrow keys to see more examples. Mostly used fisheye lenses. More recently (last 2 years) have been using the Nauticam EMWL lenses - first images in the gallery are the most recent. I do not think one strobe is much of a limitation!

[TimG]

Tom, do you think you could do a post about your pole-cam arrangement? I think that would be of interest to folks here.

[Tom Kline]

Yes but it needs to wait until a get home. Meanwhile one can can look at pix in my techniques gallery. https://www.salmonography.com/Salmonid-Topic/Photography-techniques/

Many of these pix were previously posted on Wetpixel. The irony is that the internet is about an order of magnitude faster here (at sister's).

Is there a way to post videos here? I know almost NOTHING about video. I used LR to edit and post the vids on my website via the LR smugmug app. All the recent ones there are done with my ipad that I have along to use with my Retras.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Tom Kline

[Davide DB]

11 minutes ago, Tom Kline said:

Is there a way to post videos here?

The best option is using Youtube.

If you have a Google account you have automatically a Youtube account. Just upload and publish a video there. You can set the video "unlisted". Only who has the link can see the video. Then you can post the link here and it will be automagically embedded in you post

[Tom Kline]

1 minute ago, Davide DB said:

The best option is using Youtube.

If you have a Google account you have automatically a Youtube account. Just upload and publish a video there. You can set the video "unlisted". Only who has the link can see the video. The you can post the link here and it will automagically embedded in you post

Way more advanced than my video level.  As well even posting v low rez versions takes many minutes even for a 30 sec vid. My net is very very slow for uploading.

[Davide DB]

3 minutes ago, Tom Kline said:

 As well even posting v low rez versions takes many minutes even for a 30 sec vid. My net is very very slow for uploading.

It's normal for video work/editing. Always moving a lot of data.

[fruehaufsteher2]

On 12/12/2023 at 1:52 PM, fruehaufsteher2 said:

I'll do! Hopefully Fulidhoo has a nice house reef... 😜

…. Really great house reef but lousy conditions. Rain and storm. 
 

No time to adjust anything, will have to wait for the next holiday. 

[Crasoner]

On 12/12/2023 at 2:02 AM, fruehaufsteher2 said:

As mentioned before I am more in freediving than scuba. That means to avoid any unnecessary drag from the equipment. My Nauticam -housing for A7IV is just acceptable but I'll stay with one strobe.

I'm actually quite familiar with the rules (long arm, pointing slightly outwards...) but now I've noticed that some photos lose their depth of field and look rather flat.
Does it make sense to position the flash outside the horizontal or vertical axis of the lens? For example, top right instead of top centre? Would this create more of an impression of depth? Or is it rather because I have given the flash too much power? Any special recommendations for illuminating with only one light source underwater?

When I started UW photography with just one strobe time ago, I spent many hours in my room shooting different repetitive scenarios and moving the single strobe to understand how the shadows are created. Also, modifying the amount of natural light from my window at the same time helped me out to get more information about lighting subjects. You don't have much time underwater to test all these things because of the limited free diving time, so better try it out out of the water. I would suggest you to put the strobe on the top but move it slightly to the opposite side of the subject to get a less plain pic and more shadows in the background. 

Edited August 1 by Crasoner

[fruehaufsteher2]

Hi @Crasoner, 

All true. Now that I practiced more I saw an additional point - the extension was too short. I‘ve updated to second flash, longer arms and the first tests look promising. 

 

Thanks a lot!

[devinphotographer]

On 12/12/2023 at 12:02 AM, fruehaufsteher2 said:

As mentioned before I am more in freediving than scuba. That means to avoid any unnecessary drag from the equipment. My Nauticam -housing for A7IV is just acceptable but I'll stay with one strobe.

I'm actually quite familiar with the rules (long arm, pointing slightly outwards...) but now I've noticed that some photos lose their depth of field and look rather flat.
Does it make sense to position the flash outside the horizontal or vertical axis of the lens? For example, top right instead of top centre? Would this create more of an impression of depth? Or is it rather because I have given the flash too much power? Any special recommendations for illuminating with only one light source underwater?

How far down are you Freediving with that setup? I have lately just been Freediving with my Sony in the Nauticam and no lights. I can't imagine what it would be like with arms and lights on there

[fruehaufsteher2]

Hi @devinphotographer,

My comfortable dynamic apnoe time is around 50-60sec. in this time I should be able to go down, unfold flash arm, frame the scene, take the picture, have a short look at the histograms, adjust flash intensity, take a second picture and go up again.

 

I found this workflow comfortable up to 12m, if necessary up to 15m.

 

Before going down I usually have the flash arm folded in a way that the flash itself is as close to the housing as possible.