General question on lighting combonations

Hi guys.

I'm a newbie at underwater photography and have a basic question. Before I go out and spend a healthy sum of money on lighting, I want to be sure I understand my options. I'm hoping someone will take the time to answer my question.

I will be taking both photos and video. As a result I will need two types of lighting. So my thoughts are to go with a single video light that is 6000 lumen and has a 110 degree field for shooting video. I want to use the video light in conjunction with the strobe. The primary reason is to keep costs reasonable. Having said that, I am wondering if it is possible to have a strobe on one side of the camera and use the video light on the other side when shooting stills. My thinking is that the video light would act as a focus light and fill light for the strobe when it fires.

My concern is that the TTL will not fire the flash if it detects the video light and ambient light. I want the lighting to be sufficient enough to prevent any blurred images of course. So my question is this, will the flash fire reguardless of the detectable light and provide the additional lighting needed, or would the image possibly be over exposed?

Please advise.

Thanks

That will be a fine setup (depending on the strobe). The TTL will certainly fire the flash (the flash signal from the camera goes to the strobe via fiber optic) and the return signal goes back to the camera. In general think about flashes as 10 million lumens (for a short time) and you will find that TTL should work fine.

Bill

That sounds like a great setup.

Many people rush to get 2 strobes, leaving no budget for a decent video light.

While 2 strobes are indeed better than one, one strobe is infinitely better than no strobes and certainly enough for many photographers.

Do remember, that even a 6000 lumen video light is much weaker than your average strobe. However, for shooting macro / close-up stills it should be excellent and as you said, it would be helpful as a focus light as well, for low light conditions.

As Bill noted, the flash would fire just fine even with the light on.

I also recommend playing around with TTL vs manual output. You will be surprised to find that many times manual is easier than TTL and produces better results.

You may find some more useful info on my article regarding choosing a video light.

Hi.

It will be a challenge to do Wide Angle. Both for Video and Stills.

Might be easier on Macro.

Nevertheless it is important that you get the same color temperature for the light and the strobe. Once I had to borrow a strobe from a friend because I ha an accident with one of the two of mine and it was problematic to work with two strobes that are different and have non matching color temperature.

Pedro Alves

As Bill said that set up will defiantly work. I would think about what exactly you want to shoot i.e. Macro or WA.... WA you need 2 strobes in my personal opinion anything else one strobe will work. If you look at some lights they have different output settings so you can reduce the light for use as a focus light.