Second strobe or Lens?

Hey all, I'm a new diver and new to underwater photography. I started out snorkeling and using a TG-3. The TG-3 was great, and more than capable for my skills. After getting my OW certification I bought a simple tg-4, pt-056 and ys-03 setup.

I'm still learning with it, but I'm gaining familiarity and "theory" of how to use it. Executing of course is another story

I was considering adding a second strobe as I am more interested in wide angle shooting than macro but I'm wondering if it would be better to buy a wide angle lens for the pt-056 case instead of a second strobe?

What should the parts priority be for using this package and wanting to take wide angle shots mostly?

Or at this juncture should I just focus on really increasing my skills with my current setup?

Thanks for all input!

I don't know those part numbers, but I do know that lighting a wide angle scene with a single strobe is pretty difficult, if not impossible, unless you are shooting close focus wide angle and exposing only a small foreground with the strobe and most of the scene for ambient light.

Thanks for the input troporobo. My intent is to get more in the shot when close to a subject, but that's why I was trying to determine if a second strobe should be the first priority vs with macro where one strobe can suffice.

Hi Skeptic14

This is quite a tough question to answer.

As troporobo rightly says, with one strobe lighting wide-angle is tricky. But it is doable especially if you aim to light one smallish element of the reef - generally the foreground - and then light the rest using ambient light. In some ways this sounds as though what you might want to do when you say you want to get close to the subject.

I'd be tempted to suggest you hold off buying either until you have a clearer idea yourself of what you want to do. That said, if the strobe(s) you buy are ones that you can migrate should you decide to change to a different type of system, then there is nothing lost. I don't know if this would be the case for a WA attachment for the TG-4/PT-O56.

Tim, thanks for the response.

Right now without the WAL if I get within a few feet of the subject (wreck, fish, reef) not very much fits into the image. I'm hoping with the WAL I can get close but still fit a meaningful scene into the image (even if most of it is background and ambient lit).

Without the lens I find myself staying too far from things to fit them in the image and there just isn't any color/etc because of the distance.

Plus, maybe the WAL will force me to practice better proximity?

Good point on gear that can be used with lots of systems. The WAL I'm looking at is the UWL-04, I believe it fits a decent number of systems and there are port adapters to change from 52mm to 67mm if necessary.

I initially was going to just buy a second ys-03 as the second strobe, but with growth in mind, it might make more sense to buy a more power strobe that wouldn't need replacing quickly.

Thanks again for you input, photography, especially UW is very new to me!

I agree with TimG.

I actually have the same camera and the same WAL... I've owned the UWL-04 for 2 years, and will finally be using it (almost exclusively) for a big trip in June where there is no macro photography to be had. I really like the macro work because it is easy to get really cool shots, and super easy to focus with the TG-3/4. I've always used one or two video lights and one YS-D1 strobe. It's worked really well for the closeup stuff; but now I am considering buying a second "used" YS-D1 (ugh, now the newer shinier YS-D2 is out but I don't want to be mismatched) for my rig. It is somewhat insane to have 2k invested in video lights, 1k+ in strobes, and $500 in tray and arms; for a $300 camera.

But the nice thing is all that stuff is usable when I upgrade my rig. I think at this point; your best next investment would be a UWL-04 as your single strobe should get the job done for those shots where you light the reef up close, but have the background ambient lit. For you to light up your entire shot; you will need to be close and you will want to have more powerful strobes (ie: 2x YS-D2's), and it sounds like that is going to be more money than you want to spend right now.

PS: I found my UWL-04 used with a few minor imperfections for $175.00 2 years ago (so keep your eyes open for a deal).

The TG-3/4 are definitely really good out of the box for macro, and I probably should do a little of that just to see if I become interested, but wider shots just seem more my style.

Thanks for your input, it's especially relevant since your using a similar setup. I am leaning toward the lens more now. I'm not quite ready to buy a ys-d2 and lens... maybe the ys-d2 will be next

I've done some looking but haven't found any used uwl-04s, that would be great if I could.

What did you think of the results with the UWL-04 and your tg-4 compared to without the WAL?

Thanks

As everyone has said it seems first you need to make sure you know what you want to do.... IMO if you want to do WA you need the second strobe. I would buy a decent quality (you see them advertised in the classified section quite a lot)

one, if you buy a cheap one you will just end up changing it at a later date. If you buy the lens you can manage with the one strobe and I would maybe recommend one to start so you learn about how and where to position it to create good pictures before adding a second.