Your top lighting tips for wide-angle and macro

A future issue of the IMAGES column for Sport Diver magazine will be about strobes, and we're looking for quotes from Wetpixel members! What we want is your top lighting tip for both wide-angle and macro. If you do submit here, we'll eventually need your full name and location, so please don't reply unless you're willing to give that up (over PM/e-mail, if need be).

So let's hear your best tips!

Top tip:

Keep lighting simple! I mostly use the same, single, wide beam flash for both wide-angle and macro and the resulting images are lit to my taste (and sell!). As with composition, you can learn the rudiments of lighting by being taught them, but there is still no substitute for the experience of shooting images and learning directly from the (now, near instantaneous) results. But simplicity is often overlooked in the quest for better technology, more equipment and automation. A good, simply lit image is capable of more holding its own many more times than is often appreciated.

They're pretty basic tips, but hopefully useful to your average Sport Diver reader:

Tip #1:

For clean, even light, you want to illuminate your subject, not the water column between you and the subject. Learn to light your subject using the edge of your strobe beam to reduce backscatter and hot spots - your strobe should usually point slightly away from whatever you're aiming at.

Tip #2:

For colorful, sharp close-ups, light your subject with strobes, not ambient light. That means using your camera in manual mode, rather than auto - get comfortable with your camera's controls for setting aperture and shutter speed. Otherwise, you may end up with blurry, washed-out pictures.

Thanks, guys. Anyone else? Deadline is today, and your words may be used in a sidebar quote in the column.

For Wide Angle with Fisheye lens like tokina 10-17 or Nikon 10.5, I found that something to look at, is to place strobes behind the dome and shade, really wide open arms, pointing slightly outwards. That way you´ll avoid hotspots in your pictures and backscatter.

Shooting Vertical WA, I usually place the left strobe all the way down and the right strobe all the way up fully extended, that way when I rotate my camera to vertical orientation strobes illuminates the same way they´ll do when shooting horizontal.

For Macro usually place both strobes asides the port in a parallel line pointing outwards, that will do the trick most of the times with an even lighting.

My 2 cents.-

I don't think mentioned before, but as an adjunct to proper strobe lighting with macro shots, the use of a focus light greatly improves your camera's ability to focus. For that sharp focus everyone desires, a focus light, even an inexpensive one, is a necessity if the water you dive in is dark or green...or dark green.

Dunno if it is too late, but here is one more:

- when using manual strobes, establish a "standard" camera setting per lens when it comes to aperture, shutter and strobe power. For example, when shooting macro, I always set my camera to f16 and 1/180. With WA, it is f8 and EV -1/2. Of course, if the specific situation warrants something different, I change it, but these are my default settings.

By using the same default settings over and over, you quickly learn which strobe power setting corresponds to which situation - and so are able to reduce your response time, which can be very handy when shooting fast-paced or suddenly-developing action.

Vandit

Thank you! Great stuff.

When using manual power settings, always start somewhere toward a middle setting. This way you will always

have the option to increase or decrease your strobe illumination after reviewing the shot.

Hope it's not too late.

I have a trick that I haven't seen discussed elsewhere. One big problem when using a fisheye lens is that it is so wide that you often blow out the top of the frame while underexposing the bottom. The usual trick is to shoot with your back to the sun. If that isn't possible, I extend my strobes arms downwards below the camera and aim them down and outwards. It is also really important to keep them behind the plane of the lens to avoid hot spots.

For macro, my setup is very simple. I use one strobe positioned upper right (or left) and one strobe on the opposite side with a diffuser to fill in the shadows.