If you love all things aquatic and photography, consider merging these passions with underwater photography! With about 71% of the Earth’s surface covered in water, there exist plenty of lakes, rivers, ponds, oceans, and seas for underwater photographers to explore and capture. Underwater photography serves numerous purposes, too — from an enjoyable hobby that produces alluring works of art to a professional underwater photography discipline that supports conservation efforts and scientific research by documenting and studying freshwater and marine ecosystems.
Ready to dive in and begin exploring the depths? Learn how to take underwater photos as we discuss underwater photography equipment, techniques, common challenges, editing approaches, and inspiring subjects and locations. Read on about these topics while discovering a variety of useful underwater photography tips in our underwater photography guide.
Essential Gear for Underwater Photography
Delving into the underwater ecosystem requires aspiring nature photographers to procure a list of specialized equipment, including cameras, housings, lenses, tools for buoyancy and maintenance, plus a variety of additional accessories. The underwater photography gear that’s right for you will depend on your specific projects, goals, photography depth, and locations.
Cameras and Housings
Camera
When it comes to choosing a camera, most beginners will benefit from starting with one they already own. Even the camera on your smartphone can suffice with the right settings adjustments and waterproof housing. The best cameras for underwater photography have the following features and capabilities:
- Compact and lightweight
- Close focus
- On-camera flash
- Adjustable settings (especially shutter speed)
- RAW file format capabilities (contain more detailed information than JPEGs)
Beyond these ready-to-go options, most underwater photographers consider either DSLR cameras (for their countless lens options and settings controls) or mirrorless cameras (due to their ability to shoot more images per second, low-light performance, and lightweight frames).
Housing and Ports
To protect your underwater camera setup from the elements, you also need a waterproof housing. (Before you choose a housing, remember that it should accommodate all of your underwater camera equipment, including the camera body and lens.) Made of polycarbonate, aluminum, or a combination of these materials, housings protect your electronics from water while still allowing you to access all your camera’s controls and functions.
When shopping for a camera housing, consider the following:
- Depth rating (especially important for scuba diving photography)
- Size
- Materials
- Buoyancy
- Port mounting (for lenses)
- Viewfinder options
- Leak alarms
- Ergonomic comfort
Lenses and Accessories
Lenses provide different zooming capabilities and frames. They are paired with different types of ports that fit onto your camera housing. The ports can be flat-shaped (macro port) or dome-shaped (dome port) to create different angles with your lenses. Aside from lenses and ports, you’ll need port extensions, zoom gears, focus gears, and neoprene sleeves to protect your equipment under the water.
Many underwater photographers also prefer the use of artificial light sources. While a camera flash can be useful, strobes (lights that fit on the sides of a camera) work better underwater, as they help reduce backscatter in your images.
Buoyancy and Maintenance Tools
Beneath the water, your camera can feel like a brick; without buoyancy, it will sink if you lose your grip. Most underwater camera setups include foam attachments to help achieve buoyancy. You will want to attach these to your camera housing, grips, lenses, and strobe arms.
Additionally, water can quickly degrade camera housing materials, leaving them susceptible to flooding. So, you will need to perform routine maintenance on your equipment (preferably after every use). Be sure to clean and lubricate the O-rings on your ports to prevent the buildup of salt and dirt. Make sure that all of the screws, latches and other attachments are fully screwed in, clean and secured before diving.
Underwater Photography Techniques
One of the first things you learn while studying underwater photography for beginners is that underwater photography requires a different set of techniques because of the way the submarine environment influences photography.
Understanding Light and Color Underwater
Underwater, light and color behave differently due to light attenuation. As light passes through a substance (like water), its intensity diminishes due to scattering and absorption. Along with losing light, underwater photographers also lose color.
- At around 20 feet below the surface, the color red begins to fade.
- Yellow vanishes at about 50 feet.
- Scenes become monochromatic when all color disappears at about 100 feet below.
Staying shallow with coral reef photography helps underwater photographers capture the vivid colors of reef species, but those who descend deeper will need to embrace the limited colorscape or rely on artificial light sources such as strobe lights or video lighting.
Composition and Subject Framing
As with all photography, composition and framing are key to capturing interesting, eye-catching images. Underwater photographers can encounter challenges with especially blurry backgrounds, backscatter reflections, and distortion as light bends (refracts) through the water. For this reason, most of the more compelling underwater photos feature close-up subjects that mostly fill the frame.
Approaching Marine Life Respectfully
When entranced by the beauty of underwater seascapes, it can be easy to forget that you’re in a different ecosystem that needs to be respected and protected to safeguard the animals and plants living there. Consider the following tips for safeguarding marine life and the beautiful environments you love photographing:
- Maintain a proper distance from sea life.
- Do not touch the animals or plants.
- Do not chase or follow sea life.
- Learn to recognize signs of stress and fear in sea life.
- Commercial photographers must obtain the required permits.
- Leave the environment as beautiful as you found it.
If you have to touch, chase, or frighten an animal to get the photo you desire, then it isn’t a truly good shot.
Overcoming Common Challenges
Photography in the water accompanies a set of unique challenges that require unique approaches and adaptations to create striking, iconic images.
Water Clarity and Visibility
Water clarity and visibility can be measured by the distance you are able to see and the depth to which light is able to penetrate. When the water is clear, few particles (such as silt or algae) are suspended. When visibility is low (turbidity), the water will have high levels of suspended particles.
The clarity and visibility in water can vary drastically depending on several factors like:
- Depth
- Above-surface weather
- Season
- Type of water
- Tides
High turbidity can hinder underwater photography and also create unsafe conditions for swimming, snorkeling, and diving.
Focus and Movement Control
In underwater photography, everything moves: you, your equipment, your subject, and the water. This makes achieving a sharp focus especially challenging.
For the best results, do not rely on your camera’s autofocus feature. It will struggle, especially in low-light conditions. Instead, practice focusing manually on subjects at different distances. Like in sports photography, manually selecting a high shutter speed while relying on an automatic (ISO) for accurate light sensitivity will help you capture sharper images.
Safety and Communication
Sure, you could get yourself into some tricky situations taking photographs on dry land, but safety considerations are always paramount in underwater photography. Remember that swimming in an open body of water is drastically different from swimming in a pool. You not only want to protect your photography equipment with the right gear; you also need to protect yourself.
Make sure you have the proper equipment, skills, and training to keep you safe, such as:
- Well-maintained and properly fitted scuba or snorkeling gear
- Wetsuits for warmth
- Proper training and certifications
- Good buoyancy and breathing control
In addition, make sure you:
- Know the area you are photographing.
- Check the weather and water conditions before heading out.
- Familiarize yourself with the marine life present in the area you are photographing.
- Have a clear system for communicating with your diving partners while underwater.
Post-Processing and Image Enhancement
Underwater photos often lack contrast and contain too much blue. What looks interesting and beautiful to the naked eye might look dull in a photo. Underwater photography post-processing and editing can help enhance the images you capture, making them more true to life, vibrant, and captivating.
Color Correction Techniques
In post-processing, color correction (also called color grading) can help remove the blue tones that saturate your images.
In color grading:
- First, try adjusting the white balance and contrast by moving the temperature and tint sliders in your editing software. Try to add in more warm tones to restore the red.
- Next, adjust your blue, green, and red curves to balance the colors in the image, helping to remove some of the blue-green cast from the water.
- For final touches, you can adjust color levels to improve contrast and balance.
These steps are most effective for images shot in water that is shallow enough to have at least a little red retained. If no red has been retained in your photos due to depth, then color correcting will be challenging. In these cases, leaning into the monochromatic appearance of the images by converting the image to black and white while sharpening contrast might be your best bet.
Cropping and Sharpening
If you don’t like the look of a photo, you can crop it to improve the overall composition. This cropping can sometimes result in an image losing some of its sharpness due to enlargement. Experiment with contrast levels to sharpen the definition of subjects.
Software Recommendations
Lightroom and Photoshop from the Adobe Suite are the most commonly recommended software tools for editing underwater photos. Though they have a slight learning curve for new users, they feature robust and comprehensive tools that facilitate color correction for blue casts and tools for removing backscatter.
Inspiring Subjects and Locations
With all of the diverse marine and freshwater ecosystems on Earth, the limits to underwater photography subjects and locations are just about endless.
Popular Marine Photography Subjects
Some of the most popular underwater photography subjects include:
- Marine animals
- Small sea life for close-up photography
- Coral reefs
- Shipwrecks
- Kelp forests
- Oil rigs
Top Underwater Photography Destinations
When choosing an underwater photography destination, be sure to research the seascapes to ensure they are available and accessible to you. While some destinations feature easy-to-access coral reefs that are perfect for snorkelers, others might have interesting deep-sea features that scuba divers need to access by boat. Some of the top marine photography destinations around the world include:
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Baja California, Mexico
- Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
- Bimini, Bahamas
- Cayman Islands
- Riviera Maya, Mexico
- Chuuk, Micronesia
- The islands of the Philippines
- Raja Ampat, Indonesia
- Papua New Guinea
While these locations are specially recognized for their marine life, you will find underwater photography opportunities anywhere you can find water.
Underwater Photography Competitions and Communities
One way to learn more about underwater photography is to get acquainted with others who share your passion and interests. Consider joining or following an online underwater photography community or on social media like Instagram or Facebook.
Additionally, you can learn from the best and get involved by following and participating in nature and underwater photography competitions, such as:
- Underwater Photographer of the Year
- Ocean Photographer of the Year
- The Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year
- Nature Photographer of the Year
- Wildlife Photographer of the Year
From Hobbyist to Professional: Take Your Photographs to the Next Level
If you are already love snorkeling or diving but don’t have a full grasp on the concepts, principles and elements of photography, studying to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design could help you acquire the skills, knowledge and specialized tools necessary for taking your marine photographs to the next level.
While earning your degree, you’ll gain knowledge and experience in using and manipulating the elements of photography, such as lighting, aperture, exposure, and shutter speed — in addition to post-production software to capture and create stunning images. You’ll learn concepts like visual storytelling and composition while gaining real-world photography experience to help your photographs captivate your audience.
To learn more about the Photography Program at RMCAD, request more information.
