First Time with Wide Angle & DSLR

ok - so here is my 1st attempt with Wide Angle and an DSLR Camera

(Canon Rebel T6i with Sea & Sea RDX-750 Housing & 2 x Sea & Sea YS-02 Strobes)

keep in mind - I'm diving in the PNW - VERY dark, cold water usually with a lot of suspended particles in the water making VIS very low. So trying to minimalize backscatter is tricky ....

we lucked out on this dive with some really decent VIS.

I did notice with the Wide Angle Fish Eye Dome - my camera really wants to point upwards due to the large airspace of the Dome

(so will have to look balancing it out with some sort of weigh to counter act the buoyancy characteristics of the W/A Dome)

however - its all about learning - so here you go - would love any feedback or thoughts ....

I'm originally from the PNW and dove on a regular basis when I lived there. I see you're in B.C., have you ever made it to Skookumchuk rapids in Egmont or God's Pocket on the North end of Vancouver? I can tell you this much is that this short little strobe arms aren't going to do much for a wide angle and would be primarily for macro, although I just realized that's probably your buddy. I use a pair of 16" arms on each side giving a 3 foot reach on the left and right. The easiest way to see what your light will do is to use a flashlight to light something and put it in all different positions in relation to the position of your eye simulating the camera lens and the flashlight would be your strobe. You'll see the farther out you get it the less backscatter you get and your subjects will have more texture as well giving the image a substantial amount more pop. Learn how to skim textures and this will help tremendously underwater. Think of a car coming down the road at night and if your standing on the sidewalk. The headlights from the car will be low to the ground skimming the texture of the road and you'll see every little bump and texture, I prefer to use this concept for underwater and it makes a big difference.

For the one image of the fish, I would've faced my right strobe towards the fish since it's facing the right strobe and it will also skim the side of the fish adding more texture as well. Turn down the light level of the left strobe to be more of a fill for shadows. Then position the left side up above the lens or out more to create more texture with just the edge of the light beam hitting the anemone.

The image that shows the most wide angle with all the green with a little bit of lit up hand rail should have the strobes angled towards the further area you want to light up. I wouldn't have pointed the strobe at that hand rail at all. If you light whats behind it, the feather from the strobe will light up the handrail any way bot not as much to be more even and not as blown out. this will give more color and it will help prevent near objects from being so blown out.

Most of the time my strobes are faced all over the place and I'm constantly adjusting depending on what shot I want to get. Once you understand lighting, everything will fall into place.

thanks Fruit !

definitely a lot for me to learn. I did just buy Martin Edge's "The Underwater Photographer" to help me learn the basics

have dove Egmont - but not the Skook yet .... bucket list for sure !

was up to Browning/God's Pocket several years ago -- but all I had back then was a GoPro

Am heading back up there April 2019 - with this unit - so fingers crossed.

Thanks soooo much for the feed back - I will look at re-positioning for farther spread and not pointing directly at the foreground subjects (causing the bright blow-out) - or for those ones - lowering the light level on the strobe ...

I guess the best thing is to try several different strobe positions & power level on each shot so I can see what works best.

you are correct - that shot is of my buddy.

I have my strobes on a set of arms that total 12" each (8 inch arm attached to a 4 inch arm off the housing plate handle) - so I guess I'll need to swap out the 4 " for another 8" for the 16 inch reach you recommend

I've wondered how to set the strobe power for lighting

- when to use TTL or when to use manual settings ??

also - the other strobe setting knob- there are 2 sets of #'s settings (one set for when using TTL and one set when using Manual)

I have no idea what these #'s are for - I'm guessing the for the manual - its to match your F-stop ... ??

as for the ones for TTL - no idea

thanks again for your feedback !