first day of diving with my new setup , mostly underexposed

hi

i am not sure if my problem relates to my strobe position or camera settings or presence of diffusers?

first day with d810 ikelite dual ds 160 , shooting fish and macro mostly less than 4 feet away.

camera iso250 1/320 f9

strobes w diffusers in TTL pointing straight ahead positioned about 3-5 inches on either side of the housing handles.

i noticed in water that my histograms were under so i added plus 2-3

even still most of my images needed to be bumped up 1-2 stops in post

do i need to take off the diffusers, tuck in the strobes, point in the strobes\

dont really want to add iso, the fish were quick so as well so I dont want to slow shutter and want dof so dont want to increase aperture.

the good news is the visibility was just ok and i did not have much backscatter to my surprise

Thanks for the advice

Ian

Going by your settings alone, I'd say that your shutter speed is far too fast... My "go-to" settings at ISO 200 in that sort of shooting would likely be more like f8, 1/100 or 1/125. If I was shooting close up macro and needed to increase DoF, then I'd shoot maybe f11 to f16 and decrease the shutter speed accordingly...

I use the same strobes, and they have tons of power. I rarely have mine set more than 1/2 or 2/3 power. I would suggest you try that and leave the diffusers in place...

ok thanks

i guess you dont need the shutter speed to freeze teh action as it the strobes do that. in one of scotts articles he suggested starting at the highest sync speed that is how i chose the 1/320. i will try 1/125. i will try off ttl using manual to try to get a feel for things.

Ian

Is it your strobe that's underexposed, or the ambient?

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i just realized the little switch inside the housing had accidentally flipped from ds 160 to ds50, maybe rhis limits the juice sent to the strobe?

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1/320 is really fast and unnecessary for anything other than a diving cormorant I expect. I rarely shoot faster than 1/125 and I shoot a lot at 1/60 or even less... But then shipwrecks tend to be fairly slow moving... ;-)

i got it all sorted out . i am pretty sure the problem was that little switch inside the housing to tell the housing whether you are using ds 160 series strobes or ds50 . all my pictures today were well exposed.

Yay! Well done! That must be a huge relief.