Wide Angle Strobe Calibration

• Why?
  
  • cameras are easily fooled when using TTL for UW wide angle photography
    
    • meter tries to make everything 18% gray (true for everything except Nikon F5)
      
    • meter is in lower middle section of the view finder (when you’re shooting a horizontal shot) (true for nikonos and other rangefinder cameras; SLRs have matrix metering)
      
    • the main subject is usually much smaller than the negative space it occupies
      
  • allows you to control the look of the final image
    
  • trains your eye to know what your strobe can illuminate effectively at what distance (this is important even if you use TTL only; your strobe can only put out 100% not 150% or 200% >> meaning shots will be under exposed)
    
  • every foot of water is equal to one stop
    
  • strobe to subject _not_ camera to subject distance is most important (you’re painting w/the strobe light that’s reflected back through your camera’s lens)
    
  • reflectivity of your subject (low = octopus, moray eel, high = baracuda, the underside of a manta ray)
    
• How
  
  • dry land (tonight)
    
    • get flash meter readings for your strobe
      
      • Note: allow your strobe to fully recharge the capacitors between readings (15 to 20 seconds, the ready light many times doesn’t mean it’s fully charged them)
        
      • full power
        
      • half power
        
      • quarter power
        
      • full power diffused
        
    • compare against a known strobe (monte’s yellow strobe)
      
    • enter numbers into spread sheet
      
    • look at results from a previous test
      
      • how to read them
        
      • what do they mean to your photography?
        
  • pool (to be determined)
    
    • teams (how many people)
      
    • camera settings
      
      • shutter speed = sync speed of camera
        
      • aperture = varies per shooting plan
        
    • shooting plan
      
      • strobe to subject distance (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 feet)
        
      • strobe power (full, half)
        
      • diffusers (off, on)
        
    • exposure board (and model holding the board)
      
    • training your eye to see true distance (diffraction makes everything seem larger and closer)