Handheld Flash Underwater

It doesn’t take long to discover the limits of having a strobe mounted on a fixed arm. The first time I went diving with a Nikonos V and 105 Substrobe, I did like most people and mounted the strobe on the arm and base plate blah, blah, blah. It made sense, it was part of a kit and that’s how it looked in the manual. Good job.

I found a huge moray eel back in a dark crevice and was futilely trying to angle my camera / strobe in such a way to throw light on the eel. It wasn’t going to happen.
The crevice was only wide enough to fit the camera in which left the strobe outside blasting away at everything but my subject. I didn’t get the shot.

That was the last time I ever used the strobe arm. I knew there were nice aluminum alloy adjustable and reticulated strobe arms available out there, but I was a diving instructor and I couldn’t afford that stuff!

From then on, I would just swim around with the camera in one hand and the strobe tucked in my armpit. This way I still had a free hand to deal with my dive gear as needed. When I wanted to take a photograph I now had my camera in one hand and the strobe in the other. Now I could place the strobe anywhere that my arm could reach. Left, right, up high, down low, anywhere. I could even place it in a crevice with an eel.

The more I dove and photographed this way I started to see a trend in my shots. I tended to light my subjects from below. The strobe down low and lighting up, opposing the natural light like the turtle shot above. It actually works great for photographing other divers too particularly in lighting their eyes without a glare on the mask.

I liked the simplicity of a single strobe. It kept my compositions fairly simple and the strobe not only added color, but also defined shapes with the various angles I could light from.

Gear: Nikonos V / Nikonos 15mm lens / Nikonos SB-105 substrobe

Manual Exposure: ISO 50 Velvia slide film / F8 1/30th / strobe at ¼ power handheld!

It’s worth mentioning here that to use this technique, your diving skills need to be up to par. Buoyancy control and every other aspect of diving should be second nature to you so you don’t cause damage to the reef or yourself.

As always, click any image for the large version. TR