One vs two strobes for Macro?

I get frustrated by the shadows cast from one strobe in some situations. On our last dive trip there was a seahorse out in the open sand and no matter how I positioned my single strobe, a blue shadow was cast that I found annoying in an otherwise decent photo.

Does anyone shoot macro with two strobes? I have a D200 in an Ikelite housing. I own a DS200, 2 DS125s and DS51 strobe. I would use a DS125 and DS51 (or for compactness get another DS51 and use two).

What do most macro shooters use in terms of strobe setup.

SD

I agree that the shadows from one strobe is rather irritating. I use 2 inon D2000 for macro photos.

MJ

SD

I think most people will agree that using two strobes is better than one. It removes the shadows that you see on the opposite side of your subject from the strobe.

I used to shoot a D200 in an Ikelite housing with dual DS125. The TTL converter on the Ike housing is spot on. Basically all you will need at this point is a dual sync cord, an extra arm set, and make sure your DS125 are the "updated ones" - check their website for serial numbers, and you are good to go. If your strobes are not updated, then you can still shoot manual.

Use the same setup for wideangle. Possibly with longer arms if you have them. I used 5 and 8 inch arms on each side for both macro and wa.

See this article by Stephen Frink.

See this article by Stephen Frink.

Thank you one and all!

Interestign that Stephen Frink prefers one strobe for wide angle.

Steve Dingeldein

Interestign that Stephen Frink prefers one strobe for wide angle.

"painting with light" seems like such a predictable thing to say about photography, but that's what one could (and can) do with a single hand held strobe On the other hand it takes an accomplished diver to dive with both hands full and not bounce around the underwater environment, and most of today's uw-photographers are accustomed to dropping a free hand to steady themselves, or worse.

In my humble opinion some of the more lasting underwater images over the years have been shot that way. Of course having the 15 and 13 to use didn't hurt either

Unfortunately in the digital age holding a housing with one hand is difficult for some photographers and the method has been almost forgotten. Plus strobes specific to digital capture aren't as powerful as some of the blow-torches used in film's day, so two are sometimes mandatory.

I've been shooting my 5D with "older" Substrobe 200 handheld.

EOn the boat everyone is looking at me like I'm crazy (especially since I own two strobes) but I'm kinda finding that I enjoy the dive much more with a single strobe.

I'm still learning but I think I'm liking this better than having the two wide strobes out there looking like a UFO.

I am heading out tomorrow to pick up the new Canon 16-35 and since the minimum focus distance is 0.28m/0.9ft I'm hoping to do some portrait work with the single strobe.

Time (and practice) will tell...