Power saving tip number one : Flash output
Just a short blog for underwater photographers. Did you know that if you are using a strobe on manual power (rather TTL) with a fibre optic cable for triggering your camera flash will trigger the strobe on any setting. This means you can set your flash to manual on the lowest power available, which will save you considerable camera battery power if you haven't already been doing it.
A male bluebelly or painted blenny (Alloblennius pictus) in full courting colouration, photographed in the Egyptian Red Sea.
As a couple of examples the Canon G9X MkII has three different manual flash powers: Minimum, Medium and Maximum. You can only alter these in Tv, Av and M modes. So if you are using a strobe it's another reason to get used to using the more advanced shooting modes. Instructions on how to alter the flash power setting are on page 95 of the G9X MkII manual.
As a second example the Olympus OMD EM10 MkII allows you to set the flash down to 1/64 power. This can be done via the super control menu (normally accessed by pressing the OK button. Scroll to the flash window using the back dial and select manual using the front dial. The window underneath will now show you the power setting, move down to this and scroll with the front dial again to select the power. This is true for the other Olympus mirrorless cameras and their TG tough cameras..
So if you haven't done so already have a look at your camera manual and see whether you can change this. Bear in mind that some compact cameras don't allow you to adjust flash output manually. For these you can just have flash on or off. But if you can reduce the flash output it will give you considerably more battery life.
For more about strobes and lighting checkout my Underwater Photography FAQs part two and part three and for my blog about the difference between using constant lights and strobes go here.
We discuss lighting on our photography courses. For up coming dates see the Events page. For information about anything we do or quotes on equipment email info@alphamarinephoto.com Anyone with an interest in photography is welcome to join the Alphamarine Photography Q and A
Another fish with the species name pictus in this case Pomatoschistus pictus, the painted goby. This one was in Loch Creran in Scotland.
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