PS_DiveDoctor

Tim, thank you for the thoughts on the Retra LSD. I'll try the higher output levels and ensure the alignment as you suggest. I also spoke with Backscatter today and they are suggesting the slide may have been slightly misaligned. Hopefully, all this will take care of the problems and I'll definitely try the smaller holes.

Any advice here is appreciated. I just bought the retra snoot and am using it with a Sea&Sea YS-D2J strobe. When using it for the first time with a Nikon D-500 and 105 mm Lens in a Nauticam Housing the lower half of the photo is noticeably darker. I've never seen this before with my other homemade snoot. I'm also using a manual focus gear, but it's back away from the lens. By the second dive the dark area was shorter, but still present. Has anyone else experienced this or have advice about it?

thanks to everyone for all of these replies to the original post. I learned a lot and very helpful.

You should try setting your background first without any flash. Adjust your ISO and shutter speed to get the background you want. After that set your flash on manual and use one flash first to get the lighting effect you want then bring in the second strobe for fill lighting.

Hi Everyone, My name is Bruce and I live in Washington State. I dive almost exclusively cold water from Puget Sound North, but venture to California periodically to dip into some warmer temperatures. I love underwater photography and am always happy to share my images. https://goo.gl/photos/pw1tpfqKN1FdYsTV7

Hi, I've been diving for 7 years in the Pacific Northwest. I've only been in water once that was warmer than 60F and generally head North for the colder waters. I've been taking underwater photographs for 6 years using a Nikon D300 and absolutely love it.