longbord1 3 Posted December 4, 2018 Hey all, I'm a new underwater photographer, mainly doing natural light and having a great time. However, I was able to get away with no lights due to shallower freediving depths. I recently became scuba certified and feel that I am not going to have as much room to capture the images I want at deeper depths, without additional light. To be very honest, the things holding me back are that I don't want to drop a large amount of money on two strobes(probably unavoidable haha) and I also don't want to have more gear to schlep while traveling than I already have. Does anyone have any experience using a video or dive light for that extra pop for subjects. I understand backscatter and light positioning. Is there a minimum lumens I should look for if I do splurge for continuous lighting? I shoot with a canon SL2, 15mm 2.8 and ikelite housing with 6" dome. Any input would be awesome! Thanks! -Mike www.flickr.com/fifinator Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bvanant 190 Posted December 4, 2018 If you are doing mostly wide angle, then natural light will be your predominant source of light since strobes are only good to a few feet away. For close focus wide angle you can use your video light but remember that a video light is likely 100x less light than even a small strobe. Bill Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisRoss 150 Posted December 5, 2018 (edited) The problem with lights bright enough to be useful is that when you approach with them turned on a lot of creatures leave. If you are concerned about costs you could always get two of the lower powered strobes, like the INON S-2000. I think you'd find that lights bright enough to compete with a strobe would set you back more than a pair of strobes anyway. In your case, the 15mm f2.8 (fisheye I assume?) you need quite wide coverage so you need quite a wide beam on your lights. Edited December 5, 2018 by ChrisRoss 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
longbord1 3 Posted December 10, 2018 Thanks guys! Just the answers I was looking for. Simple physics is my limitation I guess. Now to decide if I really want to schlep some strobes around or just continue the natural light path. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
