BIG ANIMAL DIVER
divErNEt.com 41 divErShots without strobes are predominantly a
bluish-green and corals that appear dark purple
or black are, with your portable packs of daylight,
revealed to be crimson or pink.
Most pros use strobes that have outputs that
can be adjusted, either in terms of percentage
power output or plus/minus EV steps.
Some underwater camera systems use versions
of TTL to provide correct strobe exposure, but
many pros prefer to set outputs manually based
on their experiences and reviewing the image and
its accompanying histogram.
Typically, two strobes are used and set up
identically, either side of the camera and angled to
suit the field of view the lens provides and the
strobes’ characteristics and coverage, but in some
cases strobe exposure needs to be asymmetrical.
With a diver set against a wonderful coral-
covered pinnacle, as in the main shot for this
feature, I needed to get the nearest part of the reef
correctly exposed, as well as getting at least some
of the reef close to him illuminated.
It was easily done by a few test firings and a fair
amount of adjusting the strobe arms to get the
right amount of light in the right location.
Annoyingly, I had to increase the overall
amount of light to the right of the image, which
then resulted in backscatter, and even with
powerful strobes I couldn’t entirely reach the
diver. Handily, we’re using the torch trick!
I can still shoot the spectacular reef shots and
the colourful critters that come out on a night
dive but, like it or not, I do have to shoot a few
people on occasion!9
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