how to take great underwater photographs with a basic digital camera

How to take great underwater pictures with a basic camera

by Jessi Kingan, www.btsphoto.co

• It’s not the camera

• It’s different from shooting on land

• Water absorbs light and color

• There’s no such thing as “motionless”

• You have three dimensions to worry about: in front of you, your angle on the subject, and your position relative to the subject (above or below)

Some simple truths about underwater photography

$3,000 $300

Why spend all that money?

• Of course, the $3000 camera setup can do things the other can’t:

• Dedicated macro lenses allow the photographer to get closer

• Ultra-wide-angle lenses allow over-under shots

• Better low-light performance

• Off-camera flash results in less back-scatter & more flattering lighting

• However, the basic setup also has a few advantages:

• Ability to switch on the fly between macro and normal mode

• Fits in your pocket!

• Easier to learn to use effectively

See if you can spot the difference between what the $300 camera can do* and the $3000 Canon 500D

*The original presentation featured images from the now-discontinued Olympus 1030SW—much better cameras are now available in this price range today. The excellent Canon S100 with housing is about $400 new and allows RAW shooting and some manual control. Used Canon G11/G12 cameras can be found for the same price. Some examples from Canon G12 are included here.

Shot with Olympus 1030SW

Banded Coral Shrimp, somewhere in the CaribbeanShot with Olympus 1030SW

Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

Spotted Moray & FriendsShot with Olympus 1030SW

Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

Spotted Eagle Ray, Creole Rock, St. MartinShot with Olympus 1030SW

Shot with Canon G12

Underwater Sculpture Garden, GrenadaShot with Olympus 1030SW

Cup Coral “Blossoms”, Saba, CaribbeanShot with Olympus 1030SW

Vanishing Star and Jewel Crab on Coral, somewhere in the CaribbeanShot with Olympus 1030SW

Bubbles in blue waterShot with Olympus 1030SW

Bubbles under iceShot with Canon 500D

Shot with Canon G12

Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

Silfra, IcelandShot with Canon G12

Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

In short: The camera you have is better than the one you don’t

If you want to take the best pictures possible and money is no object, then buy the best equipment possible. However, as we have seen, you do NOT need very expensive equipment to get beautiful, colorful underwater pictures.

Tip #1:Get close. Get closer.

When shooting with natural light, the more water between you and your subject, the bluer your picture will be.

When shooting with a flash, the more water between you and your subject, the more particulate matter that can get lit up—backscatter.

Problem: Back scatterSolution: Save the on-camera flash for macro photography, or use an external strobe

Tip #2: Learn to white balance when shooting with natural light.

If your camera has a manual white balance setting, learn how to use it, and white balance frequently, every time you change depth.

If your camera doesn’t, but it has one or more underwater modes, learn about them.

Problem: Green or blue cast due to improper white balancingSolution: Use manual white balance, red filter, or camera’s underwater mode

Problem: Improper white balance for light source (white light added)Solution: If you switch from shooting without a strobe to shooting with, make sure to change the white balance settings!

Tip #3: Shoot where the light is.

In shallow, clear water, when the sun is highest. This enables you to shoot without flash and get clear pictures.

Green Turtle, Caye Caulker, BelizeShot with Canon 500D without strobe

Tip #4:Go for the stuff that doesn’t move so much.

Make it easy on yourself.

Crab, Koh Krok, ThailandShot with Olympus 1030SW

“Ghost Rider”, Creepy Statue, Halliburton, Utila, HondurasShot with Canon 500D without strobe

Tip #5:Keep shooting! Use your LCD to review.

Face it: fish butts aren’t as interesting as their faces.One drawback to point & shoot cameras is that there tends to be a bit of shutter lag, the delay between when you press the shutter button and when the picture is actually taken. This may mean that the picture you frame is not the picture you end up with. Keep trying!

Filefish, HTMS Suddhathip, ThailandShot with Olympus 1030SW

Shark & Ray Alley, Ambergris Caye, BelizeShot with Canon 500D without strobe

Tip #6:Think composition.

Foreground, background, separation, rule of thirds

Striped Goatfish, Koh Rongnong, ThailandShot with Olympus 1030SW

Tip #7:Photoshop is your friend.

Making good photos great, and bad photos acceptable.

Photoshop can make a good photo better, and might make a bad photo acceptable, but it will rarely, if ever, make a bad photo good.

This improperly white-balanced image was edited in Photoshop. The resulting image, at left, is still monochrome, but an improvement. Compare the colors to the one shot with flash, below.

To some extent, it’s possible to improve an underexposed image. However, you inevitably lose some detail. Shooting with the correct settings will give you much better results.

Tip #8: Know your camera before you get in the water.

Jessi Kingan, www.btsphoto.coHappy shooting!