Underwater Digital Photography Tips

Underneath the surface of the world’s rivers and oceans lie some of nature’s most fascinating subjects. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to take the plunge...

Marine Photography Explained

Marine photography as a hobby is rapidly gaining in popularity amongst amateur digital photographers. If you’re enthusiastic about photography underwater, it helps to take note of how seasoned photographers go about it.

Underwater Digital Photography Tips # 1: Underwater Photography Equipment

The most important factor in marine photography is to have the right underwater photography equipment, that is, appropriate water-tight housing for your camera. Commercial equipment is readily available, so best not go the do-it-yourself road.

The essential kit for successful marine photography includes:

• Camera and Housing: Useful features include auto-bracketing, macro and wide-angle modes, interchangeable lens and filter compatibility, as well as saturation, white-balance and contrast controls.

• Lenses: Popular lenses for striking effects are wide-angle, fish-eye and macro lenses.

• Flashgun: A flashgun not only enable more creative lighting in low-visibility conditions, it also minimizes ‘back scatter’.

• Strobe arms: Strobe arms are designed to hold flash units and typically position the gun to one side of the camera lens and slightly above it.

• Color-correction filter: Filters work by both removing colors and boosting reds and warmer tones. The strong blue cast beneath the water’s surface creates a need for additional color correction.

Underwater Digital Photography Tips #2: Diving Skills

For successful marine photography, you should preferably be a competent scuba diver. The more experienced you are as a diver, the more you can focus on what you’re trying to accomplish photographically. There are numerous diving schools out there, so do your homework.

Underwater Digital Photography Tips # 3: Visibility is Key

There are some locations that are just irresistible for photography underwater. In fact, it’s not uncommon for marine photography enthusiasts to head to the tropics. The reason? Visibility. As a rule of thumb, the clearer the water you’re diving in, the better your images will be.

Of course this doesn’t mean that you can’t take some great pictures when there’s restricted visibility. In these instances, it’s advisable to shoot extremely wide or very close to your subject for best results in murky waters.

Underwater Digital Photography Tips # 4: Use of Lenses

Photography underwater falls into two broad categories: either extreme wide-angle or macro. You obviously want to do away with as much water between yourself and the subject as possible, so it’s good to get as close to it as you can.

Alternatively, when you’re shooting a big subject such as a wreck, a fish-eye lens will enable you to capture all of it from not too far away.

If it’s not possible for you to invest in specialized lenses, at least use a compact with relevant pre-set scene modes.

Underwater Digital Photography Tips # 4: Lighting

Lighting is one of the biggest challenges for marine photographers. Although working with natural light is almost always preferable, it’s not always possible when diving away from the sun’s rays deep below the water’s surface. This raises the need for artificial light, either in the form of built-in flash, flashguns or handheld lights.

Be aware though, that artificial light sources tend to give underwater subjects a ghostly pallor. The beauty of shooting digitally, however, is that digital cameras provide essential white balancing capabilities, which are crucial for photography underwater. Another solution is to buy a color-correction filter to add some punch and vibrancy to counteract the inevitable blue-grey hue and ghostly flash effects.

Another problem is that flash tends to illuminate the thousands of particles that are floating between you and your subject. One way of managing this is to put some distance between the lens and the flash source. About 30 – 45 cm will do.

Underwater Digital Photography Tips # 5: Auto-bracketing

If your camera supports auto-bracketing (taking three differently exposed versions of the one shot), you can choose the finest of the three or merge all three in your image processing program for optimum highlight and shadow detail. In the end, experimentation is essential with photography underwater, so take lots of shots!

Underwater Digital Photography Tips # 6: Shoot in RAW

I cannot over-emphasize enough how important it is, if at all possible, to shoot in RAW if you engage in marine photography. This ultimately gives you the best chance of stand-out images.

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