1. The best photos are taken when you’re safe
First, you should feel safe in the water. If you’re uncomfortable – or worried about breathing, cutting yourself on coral or anything else, it is difficult to focus on what you’re seeing, much less taking a picture of it. Before taking your camera and plunging into deep waters, assess your comfort level with snorkeling or scuba diving.And don’t forget to do your homework about what’s under the water. Find out about potential dangers – and make sure you’re prepared. Be aware of tides and currents, and possible caves and rocks, as well as which sea creatures will be waiting in the area where you plan to be. Professional divers in the region can also be an excellent source of information.
2. Time to dive: Photographers first!
Here’s a tip that makes a difference: get into the water before taking your photo and get into a fixed position. Set your distance from your photo subject correctly. Remember, the closer you get to the subject, the clearer the photos will be. One meter is an ideal distance for taking photos with great colors and contrast.
3. A red filter, chasing colors
When you slightly reduce the domination of blue and green tones in your photos, the vividness of the underwater world is fully exposed. Try to use red filters; red, as the color most absorbed in water, will enable you to attain glamorous colors in the final photograph.
4. External flash that illuminates deep water
After gaining experience underwater, you will probably want to go deeper. And, naturally, as you descend, it gets darker. An external flash is your best assistant in water too deep for light to penetrate.
5. The path of naturalness: An underwater video
When you’re comfortable in the water, your energy is reflected in the lens! Try shooting underwater videos instead of taking photos. Do somersaults, dance, or simply enjoy gravity-free movement. You can easily turn these moments of pure enjoyment into photos through judicious editing.
6. Sunlight: Nature’s assistant
If you don’t have a flash, then sun – the natural light source – becomes even more valuable. If the solar rays are on your side, the water is brightened and the perfect colors brought out. To take advantage of this assistant, try taking your photos between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Take the sun just behind you and a mysterious world will open to your lens.
7. Underwater protection: Your camera’s savior
To take professional underwater photos, consider your budget for underwater camera housing. Housing made of plastic can work for a while, but if you plan on frequent deeper dives, well-designed aluminum housing may prove useful. As a true adventurer, your underwater camera housing can also come in handy when you’re parasailing, sailboarding or kayaking.
8. Dry yourself, it’s time to edit the photos!
With small touches, you can make your underwater photos look almost flawless. Let go of the JPG format and convert your photos into RAW format. The JPG format compresses your photos and impairs the quality. Since there is no compression in the RAW format, your photos remain at the highest quality. Thus, impressive corals left in the dark, or the somewhat vague-looking fish, pop in your photo after a couple of talented touches with the editing apps.
9. Practice, practice, practice…even in the pool!
The way to get great at underwater photography is to practice a lot. If you don’t have easy access to a sea, an ocean or a lake, practice in a swimming pool! As they say, practice makes perfect.
10. The right lens for the right photo
If you’re using a wide-angle lens or a fish-eye lens to create a successful composition in vast waters, you’ve made the right choice. If you’re an amateur photographer, you can take minimum risks and use your phone underwater – with a waterproof case, of course.
11. The power of accessories: the dome port
We’ve all seen the stunning photos that focus on underwater beauty on one hand, and earth on the other. The secret of these photos is a dome-shaped apparatus called a dome port. With the dome port, you can place an underwater view and a sky-borne seagull in the same frame. The creative possibilities are endless.
