Essential Tips For Beginner Underwater Photographers

Consider the reason places like the Cayman Islands are so desirable for divers. It’s a no-brainer right – consistently great viz – like around 150’ to 200’. But even though that visibility is considered superb underwater, the same thing topside would be like standing in the middle of a fogbank.

The key to taking good photographs underwater is understanding how the denser water as compared to air will affect your shots. A common complaint from an aspiring U/W photographer trying out a new underwater camera is that all their pictures look blue, spotty, or out of focus.

So the key problem is how to deal with the water. Figure that out and you’re halfway home. To start with, water absorbs light and color super fast. Beginning with reds going first after just a meter, then oranges, then yellows and continuing through the color spectrum to blue being last.

When the color is gone you have to add it back by using a flash or another external light source. Only problem is that light won’t go very far through the water, which means you’ve got to approach very closely to whatever you want to photograph.

Since close is a relative term, lets be more precise. You should be within 2’ to 3’ of your subject to get the best results when starting out. And don’t be using zoom to get close as doing so means you’ll still be trying to shoot through too much water.

Bear in mind that even though things are going to appear closer with zoom, the amount of water between you and the subject is unchanged. That provides a segue to how things look about 25% larger and closer when viewed through the water . Larger is not an issue because the camera sees what you do, but the fact that things look closer is an illusion that won’t change how far through the water the light must really travel.

The next issue to confront is all those opaque whitish circles you may be seeing on your pictures. This is called backscatter and happens when light from the flash built into your waterproof camera bounces off particles hanging in the water column and gets reflected back into the camera lens.

To get around this you need an external flash or strobe attachment so the light doesn’t reach the subject from an angle too close to and thus is unlikely to get reflected directly back. The ideal positioning for the strobe is set off to the side and angled such that the subject gets illuminated but not the water in-between.

That will minimize any reflection. Also don’t forget to disable the internal flash or if your camera doesn’t allow this, then cover it up either with a diffuser built into the housing, or just tape it off.

So get close and use an externally mounted flash so pictures aren’t bluish and covered with spots. Getting close will also help the contrast but to improve sharpness even more, get down low and shoot slightly upwards. This will test both your buoyancy skills and patience, but the residents on that reef aren’t the most agreeable subjects so going low and slow will help put them at ease and gain their cooperation.

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May 25th, 2010