Off Camera Strobe Design Suggestions

Hi.  I’m interested in using an off-camera strobe for some local wreck diving here in Eastern, North Carolina, primarily Morehead City, Beaufort and Cape Hatteras.  Graveyard of the Atlantic wreck sites with large Sand Tiger Sharks.

From what I can tell these are the key components:

1.     Strobe

Is there a particular strobe model that would be really well suited for this application? My plan is to purchase a used strobe.  I’m currently using dual Sea & Sea YSD2 for my on- camera strobes and use optical sync cords so, it would be best if the off-camera strobe could fire with optical as well.  I could start by using one of my strobes as the off-camera strobe and going single strobe or ambient light, or could purchase a used high output strobe dedicated to this project.

2.     Strobe Slave Trigger

I’m looking at purchasing a Triggerfish slave trigger or equivalent.  

3.     Tripod

I’m looking at the GorillaPod line up.  There is a wide range of offerings ranging from $40-$100 USD.  Which end of the product line should I be looking at?

Is there anything else I should be considering?

Hi Redwing

Strobe, trigger, cable, tripod: those bits should do it. Depending on how far away the remote strobe is, you could always just use a fibre optic cable from the camera to the strobe - but the Triggerfish do work well (although turning them on and off is a bit of an art form!)

I always think that having the same equipment for doing a similar task works well - you know exactly how to use them. So if you are happy with the YSD2, why not get a third one? Second hand maybe?

Or, as you say, set one of your two as the remote and just use a single strobe if you can - and see how that goes. You can then decide whether a third is worth it.

If you do a search on WP on Gorillapods, you should find a good few comments on the various models. This has come up a several times.

The YS-D2 strobes have been a feature in various posts here on Wetpixel with triggering difficulties, so I would suggest trying whatever remote trigger you use with them first before buying another strobe. 

You might want to weight your gorilla pod if you are needing to deal with any sort of surge or current.  UW strobes are mostly quite close to neutral in water, so may need some assistance to prevent being bowled over in surge.