There are quite a few people using the 10.5MM lens from Nikon and wanted to know how YOU light it. The lens is great but I'm sure you'll agree it needs practice to light correct.

Make sure the strobes are well behind the lens and that, if possible, you can use the beam edge to light your subject. Depending on the viz, you might want to use long strobe arms and place them about 1-2 feet to either side of the camera. Personally, I use the strobes with two five inch arms and point them outward away from the main subject, using the beam glow to light the subject if I can. That helps reduce backscatter. So does using long arms and placing your strobes way out, but I just don't prefer to haul the long arms through kelp, etc. Just a preference, of course.


Joe

I am no expert, just getting the lens myself but the question you are asking has many answers as there are many diferent things to light. A Reef scene - Large shark, The sun and some coral and divers etc. Shooting vertical or horizontal. If you are doing a wall on the left and open water on the right you may only want one strobe on or move the other over. Condtions also play apart like Kelpfish was talking about. He additionaly makes a good comment about beam edge, this avoid sthe hot spot in the center. You don't have to aim the strobes to the middle, aim out to get a nice spread. for general stuff, you can always be creative with harsh sidelighting etc but the goal is usually too make the lighting look like it isn't from a strobe (obvious) but even and balanced with blue water in the background if desired.

The 10.5 is usuallly going to be a two strobe lens but you can certainly take one strobe pics doing Close Focus Wide angle with out large items in the forground but say a diver and a boat with the sun and something smaller in the foreground. You can put strobes out on the side, one over top if conditions are good. There are no rules just try to avoid the obvious mistakes - keep the strobes out of the picture, avoid a hot spot, and try to keep the water blue in the background rather than dark space if applicable to what you want to create.

I am certainly no expert either - I just starting shooting it as well. I use some super long arms with dual strobes and spread them way out to get good coverage. In clear water and depending on what I am lighting (how close I am and if I am shooting verticle) I sometimes switch to over/under lights.

I would certainly say the easiest mistake to make is to get the flare in the picture by not putting the strobe far enough back behind the dome.