Tips for Underwater Photography

Tip 1: Be prepared

Get familiar with your camera so you can operate it blind underwater and no longer need to search for the right buttons.

Keep in mind that once you're underwater, you can't simply swap out your memory cards or battery. That's why it's important to check beforehand that your camera has a full battery and that there's enough space available on the storage card.

Tip 2: Shoot in RAW

Set your file format to RAW so that each photo you take contains a lot of information. This comes in handy when you want to edit the photo afterwards.

You'll then be able to recover colours and adjust the photo's exposure. Note: shooting in RAW takes up a bit more memory, so keep that in mind when choosing your memory cards.

Tip 3: White balance

When you dive deeper than 15 metres, the colours start to change. Everything takes on a green-blue tint. Red disappears from the image first, followed by orange, yellow, and green. You can prevent this by using white balance settings. You can adjust these settings manually to suit the situation, in this case the depth and the amount of light.

On some cameras, you can set the white balance to 'underwater' (AWB), which compensates for the colours.

Tip 4: The use of light

Underwater, there is less sunlight than above the surface. The deeper you go, the darker it gets. That's why it's advisable to shoot with the light behind you, so that the light falls on the front of your subject.

Make sure you get close to your subject. In underwater photography, the rule is: "If you think you're close enough, get closer!" It also looks great to shoot upwards, as you'll capture beautiful light refraction and your photos will appear less prone to motion blur this way.

Tip 5: To flash or not to flash?

So should you use flash or not? Yes! But only with an external flash. The built-in flash isn't powerful enough, and your range will be more limited than you're used to.

Positioning the external flash correctly is very important. Make sure you don't light up the particles floating in front of the lens, but instead bring the subject itself sharply into focus. The right placement is from the side, at an angle of roughly 45 degrees. Many underwater photographers like to work with two flashes.

Tip 6: Pay attention to detail

Make the small animals and plants you spot on the seabed stand out by shooting some macro shots too. Above all, stay patient: it can take a while before you spot a little fish peeking out from between the anemones.

Make sure you get down to eye level with your subject and think about the composition. A macro photo taken underwater is impressive almost by default. Zoom in and take a look at how perfectly a seahorse is put together, and how powerful it looks up close. It's fun to pay attention to structure and shapes.

Tip 7: Move slowly

It might seem obvious, but we'll mention it anyway just to be safe: move calmly through the water. If you move too fast, you risk scaring off the underwater animals. The water will also become murky from particles stirred up from the bottom by your movement.

Another downside of moving too fast is that you'll use up your oxygen more quickly, meaning you can stay underwater for less time.

Tip 8: Shutter speeds

Images tend to blur fairly quickly underwater. To prevent this, you can use a fast shutter speed (min. 1/200 or 1/250 sec) with a small aperture and the ISO value as low as possible.

Keep in mind that this will make your background darker. If you want to focus more on the background, you'll need to use a longer shutter speed instead. In that case, you'll need a camera with image stabilisation to keep motion blur to a minimum.

Tip 9: Maintain your equipment

Harro Cats from Sealife explained in his interview that it's important to go through the user tips for your equipment. "Make sure to properly rinse it off with fresh water afterwards and dry the housing completely."

You'll extend the lifespan of your gear by treating it with care. So check your equipment regularly.

Tip 10: The finishing touches

After taking your underwater shots, you can always check whether there's anything you'd like to improve about your photo. In your RAW files, you can still adjust the white balance afterwards, make the colours stand out a bit more, and remove unwanted floating particles.

Feel free to experiment with this and perfect your underwater images!