1. While effective wide angle strobe photography can certainly be accomplished with just a single strobe, one strobe for this purpose is very limiting. However, the use of two strobes will a) significantly expand one's creative options; b) will make the reduction or elimination of backscatter easier; c) will allow one to take full advantage of the dramatic "perspective distortion" inherent in all wide angle lenses; d) will allow one to create more even lighting across the broad expanses very wide angle lenses can "see" from relatively short shooting distances. (Don't be mislead by strobe stats claiming extreme beam angles -- say 110 degrees for example -- and erroneously think that such a strobe alone will then provide adequate coverage for your wide angle lens whose angle of view is, say, 95 degrees. It is very unlikely the strobe will illuminate that entire field of view evenly, and it is more likely to provide significantly brighter light in the center than at the edges. Your sea fan will look like it had an automobile headline trained on it when you took your shot -- that dreaded amateurish look. You will not be able to replicate the more natural, softer, "diffused" lighting which two strobes allow.

2. When using two strobes, the strobes should be perfectly matched; that is, identical left and right, same make, same model. Many photographers will have, for example, a big strobe on one side and a small strobe on the other. Such an arrangement will limit their compositions and determine highlight / shadow direction as well as lighting ratios, not to mention the fact that this arrangement won't allow the photographer to create even light across broad areas when desired. The advanced photographer will want to make these decisions for themselves, and not have them dictated by equipment limitations. Different strobes may also have different color temperatures, beam angles, light patterns and recycle times, adding to the complications and disadvantages.

3. Strobes intended for wide angle photography should have wide beam angles. But if wide is good, wider isn't necessarily better. a) As noted above, strobes with beams that are excessively wide may also result in very uneven illumination -- a dramatic hot spot in the center, with unacceptable falloff toward the edges. b) Controlling backscatter is difficult when the beam angles of the strobes are too great. c) Additionally, when a manufacturer uses a reflector which widens the beam excessively, it results in less maximum illumination -- the same number of photons output by the flash tube must now cover a greater area, so the illumination provided at any given point is less. d) My ideal strobe would have a beam angle of around 95 degrees.

4. The more power, the better. You can always reduce power as necessary. But when you need more power and your strobe can't produce it, you're stuck. Small strobes with low maximum output may not produce adequate illumination to provide a balanced fill in bright water at anything but very close distances. The farther away you get from your strobe's subject, the more power you will need to illuminate it. Wide angle photography, by its very nature, is often accomplished at greater distances than close-up photography, and wide angle strobe fill photography will always employ a working aperture based on the ambient light level and chosen shutter speed. Since focal plane shutter cameras (the kind most of us use) have strobe sync speeds generally limited to a 250th of a second or slower, we cannot simply open the aperture up at will the farther away you get to permit a correct strobe exposure, as each wider aperture selection made will necessitate a correspondingly faster shutter speed, and at some point you will run up against the sync speed limit.