first three digital dives without TTL

Hi all,

Some pictures from Moorea. Nothing too exciting but these are my first digital underwater pictures and my first dives without TTL.

I did not expect to become comfortable so quickly with manual strobe control. Due to strong winds/currents I only had the chance to do 3 dives during our stay. This means: you don?t have to be a pro or frequent shooter in order to handle manual power settings. And it doesn?t take long to obtain proper strobe exposure. No one should hesitate.

Dual Z220 on manual power, even close-ups are easy:

Wideangle shots and manual power settings: IMO more reliable and safer. TTL systems require more compensation and adjustment.

Even unexpected distance changes are no problem:

I found it to be suitable for snapshots and spontaneous funstuff as well:

I might be the last 10D owner housing the camera. But I am happy to be a true digital shooter now and can't wait for the next trip with hopefully more dives. What is TTL? :-)

Julian

Great shots Julian! I dove on that same shark feeding spot last year, too bad there was a problem with processing my film. I want digital!

Nice shots Julian. I especially like the first shot of the damsil in the anemone.

Really impressive Julian,

You've certainly demonstrated your capacity to get great shots with the system.

Were you shooting a few with the histogram and then adjusting the aperture/strobe output on the fly or were you able to guess the distance (and therefore the settings) a priori?

Excellent results either way!!

Nicely done!!

Nice pictures Julian,

Soft lighting and I love the shark images. They are not always easy to render with strobes and you succeeded.

I think your comments illustrate the point I was making in another post about the fear of most neophytes when it comes to shoot in manual exposure mode.

It was not that complicated with film and it is much more easier with digital.

Regards,

Michel

Julian.

I've always appreciated your advice and sharing of your knowledge. And now you grace us with striking images.

Thanks!

Looks like you've made the transition excellent color on the sharks and I especially like the Picasso (?) trigger shots ...a tough subject to get that close to....well done :wink:

Karl

Thank you all very much for your kind and nice feedback. I really appreciate your comments.

@Rocha

Was the spot pretty next to the Sofitel Ia Ora hotel? Too bad film processing screwed up. IÂ’ve had that several times as well.

@anthp

First I started with both strobes set to full power and tried f16 on 1,5m. That was a good starting point for WA. You pretty easy and quickly get a feeling when to close/open the aperture a step or change the strobe’s power when distance changes. Just a few “calibrating” shots at the beginning of the dive (strobe/aperture setting in relation to ambient light to get proper blue colored background). I did not change power settings to often underwater. Just aperture finetuning and distance compensation with the aperture as well. I have picture + histogram review selected. My calculated exposure chart for two Z220 translated into UW guide numbers was quite useless. It’s simply no film and therefore much easier.

@manatee19

Yeah, I was pretty afraid as well. Maybe I should have tried already in my film days

Now I can confirm, manual is easy and good.

@kdietz

yes, I feel quiet comfortable with my new rig.

Picasso fish – I was not sure (I have a very poor knowledge of critters). Thank you Karl

Julian