Nikon 10.5 MM fisheye, shoule I use 3 161 strobes.

I just bought a 10.5 mm nikon fisheye lens. I am using a d300 housed in an Ikelite housing with an 8" dome port. I currently own 3 DS161 strobes, and was wondering if I should consider mounting my 3rd strobe on the top of the housing via the mounting screw hole and triggering it with a manual EV controller. Will this give me better coverage, or will I get to much strobe flare from having my strobe so close to the back of the port? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks

You will get most likely too much "strobe flare" and/or backscatter, except you dive in distilled water.

Chris

I just bought a 10.5 mm nikon fisheye lens. I am using a d300 housed in an Ikelite housing with an 8" dome port. I currently own 3 DS161 strobes, and was wondering if I should consider mounting my 3rd strobe on the top of the housing via the mounting screw hole and triggering it with a manual EV controller. Will this give me better coverage, or will I get to much strobe flare from having my strobe so close to the back of the port? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks

Hi Doug,

I shoot alot with the tokina 10-17mm @10mm and also the Nikkor 10.5mm FE with only two Ikelite Ds161 with my Nikon D7000. I find that strobe placement is one the most important factor with shooting a Fisheye lens and especially when shooting large animals at close range with them. I find by having my DS161 (with their diffusers on to increase coverage but at a cost of a stop) positioned close to the body of the housing but behind, with the strobe angled away from the housing itself the most successful for my style of shooting.

This allows me to get full coverage on large subjects and also also gives coverage to the subject if they get really close without getting shadows, stobe flare and backscatter. If I have strobes out wide or angled straight ahead I either get issues with backscatter or shadows in the middle of the subject if they get really close.

Here are few examples of larger subjects shot at close range with the strobe position as i discribed:

Regards Mark

Marc, you always have great shots. When using the 10.5, how far back are your stobes, and are they right next to the housing, or out a little bit (to avoid flare)? Also, is the Tokina 10-17 a fisheye or a rectilinear lens? Thanks, Doug.

Marc, you always have great shots. When using the 10.5, how far back are your stobes, and are they right next to the housing, or out a little bit (to avoid flare)? Also, is the Tokina 10-17 a fisheye or a rectilinear lens? Thanks, Doug.

Doug the strobes are behind the housing and about level with my head when I am looking through the viewfinder. The secret is that the strobes need to angled away slightly from the dome so there isnt any stobe flare or backscatter. Remember that the DS161 strobes with diffusers have a 110 degree spread.

roughly like this:

Hope this helps

Regards Mark

Thanks for the picture, it really helps! Thanks much, Doug.

Here are few examples of larger subjects shot at close range with the strobe position as i discribed:

What's the distance to the subject in those shots?

What's the distance to the subject in those shots?

The shots were taken either with the 10.5mm Fe or the Tokina 10-17mm @ 10mm. I Would be estimating that the First shot of the Grey Nurse shark would be 2 feet away. The Second shot would be a foot away. The third shot of the Leopard Shark would be 3-4 feet away. Its hard to tell how close as your looking through the viewfinder trying to frame the shot and when you look at the subject over the housing often its like "Oh shit" bit close.

Here is a sequence of shots where the subject ended up only a few inches away from the dome. Shows how the strobes provided excellent coverage and no shadow in the middle of the frame if you happened to have these strobes out away for the housing:

Nikon D7000 with Tokina 10-17mm FE @ 10mm, Ikelite DS161 x2. ISO100, f9, 1/200th

Regards Mark