one strobe for wide angle shots, magic filter and or RAW

i have just purchased the following

canon 350D

sea and sea DX350

ys 90 auto

canon 10-22mm w/a sea and sea 8" dome port

canon 60mm macro sea and sea macro port

sea and sea shutter activated focus light

ultralight arm system

I am new to DSLR and have done plenty of reading and played around with the camera on land and am happy with the results. My dilemma is. I have only 1 strobe as mentioned and am keen to get some decent w/a shots. Now do i invest in another strobe, another ys 90. or will i get decent shots if i add a magic filter to my set up i already have. If I add a magic filter would you suggest i shoot in RAW or would you suggest i shoot in RAW regardless

All thoughts welcome, cheers Stew

One strobe should be fine for wide angle. People can make it sound like it is impossible to shoot with only one strobe, but of course that is not the case.

For example this wide angle shot take by Michael Aw was taken with a single strobe:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/tem....jsp?photo=2180

Filters have different strengths to strobes. Some shots are better with filters, others are better with strobes. I think of filters as complementary rather than replacements for strobes.

Have a look here to see the sorts of images that can be taken with filters

http://www.magic-filters.com/gal.html

Alex (purveyor of filters, to state my bias).

Now I have both Subtronics working, and I am no longer limited to a single unit, I can reflect that often things can look better lit with only one strobe

Single & dual strobe use offen have to do with the way we like to capture images and how we see the "shadows"

I have now 2 Strobes and still 90% off the time i use only one becuace i like the way the image get more dynamic and contrast

The same with studio work

Where others uses almost to anything 2 softboxes (tjhat remind me the way most UW photografers use dual strobes) I use only one flash with grid.

DUal strobes will help you to rachive a balanced light without hard shadows and in the same time you can use one as fill light.

So i really think "dual strobes need" depense , more or less, how you shoot and how you like that your images will look

I also found that the result of two strobes works much better than one in an area where there's lots of backscatter. By feathering the subject with the edges of each strobe the backscatter was much less than trying to light the subject with 1 strobe more directly. On the downside, its just one more thing that can go wrong underwater.

WOW awesome photography Alex. Boy, do I hope I manage to master the DSLR camera.

What camera set up were they taken with Alex.?

I particulary like the shot looking down the sharks body with cameraman and shark in background. ( Bahamas I guess)

I am off to south male atoll in a few weeks time and want to get the feel of the set up whilst i am there, ready for mabul komodo and the philippines next year. So I think I will purchse a couple of filters and experiment.

A guy I was in the Galapagos with in june was using filters without strobes on a D200 and his shots were very good quality. Mind you he is a proffessional topside photographer.

cheers for the info, Stew

One strobe will do just fine, but most tend to have two strobes anyway...

My tip is to keep an eye on ebay, There are alot of sea sea strobes out there... I got both my strobes from there.

/jonas

Nice haul Stew! That's not a bad rig for a DSLR beginner.

I would say you'll have more problems with the YS-90Auto per se for wide angle shots than you will with using a a single strobe. Allow me to explain.

The Auto has built in metering so you set an f-stop on it and it does its best to provide that level of illumination on the subject. Now that's fine and dandy for macro, where you're likely to be pointing the strobe directly at the subject, with or without diffusion. The sensor picks up the light bouncing back off the subject and although you'll have to compensate for the colour of the subject it's not a bad system.

Now in wideangle use, you don't necessarily want to point the strobe straight at the subject, because the beam is likely to light up particulates in the water and make them visible. Not good. Most people get around this by pointing the strobe(s) outward and lighting with the edge of the beam, actually "wasting" most of the beam's energy into the water out of shot. Now with the Auto, the metering will stop working in any useful way as you're not pointing it at the subject. It'll probably just fire full dump each shot, which means you'll end up having to either control exposure by tweaking the aperture, or by angling the strobe. Doable, but best to understand what's going on before you experience it.

HTH,

Martyn

I only use a single strobe for wideangle (none fisheye shots) however....

I'm not convinced that the flash you have will give a sufficiently wide beam to adequately light a wide shot (depends on focal length of course). Personally I use a wide beam (not diffused) single flash which I find works well. You'll have to try it and see if you get the coverage needed for the sort of shots you want to take. If not then adding in another smallish strobe might be the cheapest option to get better lighting.

cheers rattus, i was going to shoot aperture priority, i guess i will just have to experiment in the 2 weeks i have, and then i should know what my needs are. then go shopping