The Sony Alpha A700 is Sony's mid-level digital SLR, competing in the same price class as the Canon EOS 40D, the Pentax K20D and the Nikon D200/300. Bob Atkins takes a close look at the A700 and includes example images. Read More »
Underwater photography can be incredibly rewarding. There are countless bizarre,
colorful animals, shimmering coral reefs, and towering kelp forests that beg to be
photographed. It is also very equipment-intensive, often involves travel to remote
locations, and can be totally aggravating. Like many people, I grew up watching Jacques
Cousteau specials, and scuba diving was something I always wanted to do. Once I tried it,
I was completely hooked. I also knew from the very first dive that it wasn't going to be
enough to just be there, I was going to have to photograph it too.
You may notice, both in the images and the equipment used, that there are only two
kinds of underwater photographs. They are wide-angle, usually with the main subject in the
foreground, and close-up/macro shots. The reason is simple: underwater, your biggest enemy
is the water itself. Even crystal-clear tropical water is not as clear as it seems. More
importantly, the greater the distance light travels through water, the more warm colors
(reds, yellows) are absorbed. If you dive to a depth of 50 feet, virtually everything will
appear blue/green, and the same applies horizontally to a subject 50 feet away. (Your own
eyes compensate to an extent, but you won't have that benefit on film.) One famous shooter
compared u/w photography to shooting everything through a bowl of Jello. The solution is
to eliminate as much water between you and the subject as possible. Wide-angle lenses
allow very close focus on large objects (reefs, whales etc.) and still provide a view of
the environment around it. Macro, of course, works well since you are within inches of the
subject. Telephoto lenses are completely useless underwater, as is any lens that forces
you to work more than a few feet from the subject.
Most nature photographers would agree that with a decent P&S or cheap SLR, and
under the right conditions, you could still make some outstanding images. Unfortunately,
there really is no equivalent to that underwater. It's not that u/w photography is harder
than other specialties; more that there are some very specific optical problems that have
to be overcome. For that reason, the various cheap u/w outfits (Bonica Snapper, Ikelite
Aquashot, some of the Sea & Sea cameras) are going to give marginal results at best.
I've never used any of those cameras, although I certainly see them around, and I've seen
the results they give. It depends on what your goals are; if you just want some snapshots
of snorkeling in Hawaii, then those cameras are fine. But if you expect sharp, saturated,
publication-quality images, there really aren't any shortcuts. You don't have to sell off
your children to do good u/w photography, but cheap P&S cameras are going to be a
disappointment.
Something to keep in mind: underwater flash units, often referred to as strobes, are
not optional equipment! The loss of color through the water column is a problem that will
never go away. It would be safe to say that over 90% of underwater images were made with
strobe. In theory, if you were less than 5-10 feet down in clear water it might not
matter, but this will severely limit what subjects are available. Even at shallow depths,
small amounts of strobe will help with saturation and detail. The problem is much too
severe to be simply fixed in Photoshop. Color filters won't cut it either. For a given
filter, there would be an ideal depth/subject/distance/exposure that might work, but your
chances of bringing all those things together are mighty slim.
GETTING UNDERWATER
By and large, serious underwater photography is a pursuit that requires scuba diving.
There are some specific subjects--notably dolphins and whales--where you are better off
snorkeling. This is mostly because marine mammals tend to be bothered by noisy bubbles
from scuba gear, so you leave it on the boat. Even this requires more than just snorkeling
to be really successful. Known interchangeably as free-diving, skin-diving, or breath-hold
diving, you dive as deep and long on one breath as your body can handle. I would classify
myself as a pretty average free-diver, but I've seen people who can hold their breath for
1 or 2 minutes, or even more. Physical fitness is a big part of it. In theory, you could
get some good shots of shallow reefs this way, but you're limiting your subject matter
significantly.
Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, taken while free-diving
I would highly encourage anyone to learn how to scuba dive! Unless you have some
serious phobia about the water, it is not that difficult to learn. A few days of training
and you can learn the basics, and then decide if it's something you want to pursue
further. There have been volumes written on scuba instruction and I won't re-hash them
here, but in short: find a good, patient instructor who will help you learn at your own
pace. I was never a champion swimmer (and I'm still not), but I took to scuba pretty
easily. I don't consider it an especially dangerous activity. Modern gear and techniques
are a far cry from the daredevil days when Cousteau and others pioneered it, and if you
actually follow the rules, it is very safe. I have two young boys who I plan to see grow
up; if I thought scuba was that dangerous, I just wouldn't do it. I definitely worry more
about battling roads surrounded by crazed, caffeine-laced commuters than I do about
diving. Even if you don't pursue the photography, scuba is a wonderful way to see and
experience the ocean.
Yours truly, shooting macro in Fiji
For photography, having good skills and a high comfort level underwater is a must.
Aside from making it more enjoyable, it will have a huge impact on the type and quality of
your images. Encountering wildlife underwater is often quite different than any experience
on land. Most terrestrial animals have a natural fear of man, and flee at the first
opportunity. Thus, nature photographers use long lenses, build blinds, tiptoe through the
woods, etc. Underwater you are much more of an alien visitor, and are not necessarily
viewed as a threat. Without sounding too New Age, I think fish and marine mammals have an
almost Gaian sense of their surroundings, one that we can't even approximate with only our
vision. They know you're there, and what you're doing, long before you even see them. This
is where your skills pay off; animals underwater are very, very tuned in to body language.
If you're uncomfortable, kicking and thrashing around, every creature within 100 feet will
bolt into the blue. On the other hand, if you move slowly, and breath lightly to create
fewer bubbles, marine life will often come over to investigate you. As you get close,
animals react differently: some are afraid, rarely they are aggressive, most often they
don't seem to care. Keep in mind: the slowest fish in the sea is still faster than a
scuba-laden human, so don't bother chasing anything. Good diving skills also impact the
environment less, as coral and other marine life can be quite fragile and easily damaged.
WIDE-ANGLE PHOTOGRAPHY
Wide-angle images underwater can be many things: coral reef or kelp forest
"scenics", large animals like whales, shipwrecks, diver portraits, or schools of
fish. The unifying feature is the wide lenses, whether with an amphibious camera like the
Nikonos or a housed SLR. Which lenses and other equipment to use is covered in separate
articles, so here we'll talk about general techniques.
1) GET LOW, GET CLOSE, SHOOT UP
This is not a Timothy Leary slogan encouraging recreational drug use, but a mantra for
any underwater photographer. It comes back to the general rule of eliminating as much
water as possible. Whatever the subject--coral, fish, dolphin--get as close as you can,
less than a foot if it's feasible. Getting below the subject and shooting at an upward
angle will put open water in the background, which is almost always better. Downward
angles will be more difficult to expose, and tend to have less aesthetic impact anyway. If
this seems like it's dictating what kind of shots you should make, it won't seem that way
in the end. With the unfamiliar size and geometry of many u/w subjects, most people will
be unaware that this was part of your technique.
This picture of French Angelfish may not seem like an upward angle,
but it was shot at about 45-60 degrees
up from horizontal.If it hadn’t been, the sun and surface would not have appeared in
the image.
2) AMBIENT LIGHT EXPOSURE
This is the technique that I found, both when I started and when I see other beginners'
work, to be what gets done wrong the most often. If your ambient exposure is correct, a
lot of things fall into place. The shot will have a more "natural" look to it,
and the use of fill-flash becomes much easier. If you're making a silhouette of an animal
with blue water in the background, ambient exposure is about the only thing you need to
get right. If you're shooting something like a giant shipwreck, you can't possibly light
the whole object, so getting the correct ambient exposure is crucial.
How do you get the right exposure? The trick comes from knowing how to meter the water
in the background. In an image like this one, there is a huge range of light values, from
the bright sun to almost black at the bottom. Knowing that your camera's meter is trying
to create 18% gray out of this mess, you need to help it make the right choice.
Why not use matrix-metering with some automatic mode and let the camera figure it out?
The theory seems good, but in practice it isn't very reliable. I can attest that I went
this route when I first started, and results were mixed. For whatever reasons, automatic
modes tend to be confused by these wide ranges underwater, and will get it right only some
of the time. You will do yourself a favor by learning to meter the background water
manually, and it isn't that difficult.
Looking at the whole water column, you need to decide which area represents 18% gray,
and set your f-stop/shutter accordingly. Obviously the extremes won't work: if you meter
off the sun, the image will be underexposed, if you meter the dark rocks, it will be
overexposed. Water is blue in the tropics, blue or green in California, or deep green in
places like British Columbia, but the principle is the same. It takes some practice, but
in your mind you learn which area of the background water matches 18% gray. Personally, I
use the center-weighted meter in my F4, scan the water and bracket from there. Some people
use a small spot meter and do the same, although I think this makes it a bit more
difficult than it needs to be. There are external meters made by Sekonic and Ikelite, both
of which work very effectively. Once you get the hang of it, it really is easy and much
more reliable. Of all the pro u/w shooters I've talked to, they all do some variation of
this technique.
Naturally, you need to adjust exposures this way often during a single dive. The sun
goes behind a cloud, you reposition yourself, whatever; just scan the water and re-set.
With enough experience, you almost don't need to meter all the time, as the settings can
become routine. For example, in clear tropical water with ASA100 film, I know a typical
exposure looking up at the surface is about f/5.6 or f/8 at 1/250. This can be a lifesaver
when those rare mating Coelacanths happen to swim by, and you don't have time to meter.
3) USING STROBES FOR WIDE-ANGLE
As mentioned, strobes are an integral part of u/w photography, not an option. Most of
the time you will use them as fill-flash, restoring the color and contrast that is
inherently lost as you descend underwater. Sometimes there are wide-angle shots that are
100% strobe, such as at night, or the interior of caves and shipwrecks. Along with getting
the right ambient light exposure, learning how to use strobes effectively is crucial.
Strobe technique isn't necessarily that hard, but there are fair number of choices in
equipment and approaches. For that reason, they will be covered in a separate article. In
a nutshell, you can use the automatic TTL functions of the Nikonos or your housed camera,
or expose manually using guide numbers. Both techniques are valid, although almost all
pro/serious amateur shooters use the manual approach for wide-angle.
MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY
Doing macro underwater shares many of the same concepts as shooting on dry land. The
main difference would be that ambient light is often not part of the equation. Use of
tripods is almost unheard of; that's not to say it's never been tried, but it would
generally cause more problems than it would solve. Most macro shots that include open
water will appear with a black background, since there isn't enough ambient light to
balance with the flash. The only way to effectively get ambient light into u/w macro
images is to angle the shot toward the surface, in much the way you would with wide-angle.
This shot of a Salp was shot straight up at the surface, with the
sun backlighting the animal.
When it's feasible it makes for a nice effect, providing a blue/green background instead
of the usual black.
Beyond that, u/w macro is about learning how to light with 100% strobe. Which strobes
and lenses to use is covered in other articles, but the concepts are simple enough. You
can use only one strobe; personally I think two is far better, if only for the options it
gives you. Utilizing 2 strobes, you can experiment with different ratios, shadow effects
etc.
This shot of a China Rockfish was made with one strobe, simply
because my other one died during the dive.
Shots such as this anemonefish would be difficult to achieve with
only one strobe since it is more evenly lit with few shadows.
Some people go as far as using three strobes, although this strikes me as overkill.
Personally, I shoot most of my macro with the Nikkor 105mm/2.8 Micro, often at f/11 or
f/16. I feel this is a good compromise between depth-of-field and optimal sharpness. Many
people shoot at f/22 all the time. One of the biggest challenges of macro u/w is
controlling the background elements. Depth-of-field preview is difficult to utilize, so
you have to rely on experience and your best guesswork. Coral reef environments are very
crowded and complex places, so finding "clean" backgrounds is not easy.
The payoff of course, is that marine life makes for fantastic macro opportunities. The
possibilities for strange and colorful photographs are endless. Most of my absolute
favorite images, both of mine and other u/w photographers, were done in the macro realm.
WHERE TO BUY
Not every camera store carries underwater equipment, but two of photo.net's sponsoring
stores do. They are ADORAMA
and B&H
PHOTO. Purchases made from these stores via these links result in support for
photo.net and help keep this site running, so check them out and see if they can help.
