flash

on land you normally want your flash close to the camera but it would seem that this works differently underwater can anyone tell me what the rule of thumb is for this i.e. do you need arms for one flash or can you stick it straight on top of the housing.

cheers andy

Andy,

The general rule of thumb is to have your flash off to the side of the camera on an arm. Internal strobes and one that would sit on top might work okay for close up macro shots but would still have a tendency to light up any suspended particles in the water and reflect that back into the lens of the camera resulting in what is called backscatter. By having the lens off to the side you light up the subject from an angle resulting in less backscatter.

Later,

Gary

Andy,

Here's a great example of what NOT to do. One of my first pics underwater...heh. The hologram circles you see in the pic are backscatter. This was taken with a reefmaster film camera with the internal strobe.