Introduction to underwater photography + Cool examples of beautiful underwater photography from Jim Patterson

Underwater photography is the process of taking photographs under the surface of the water. It’s a very specialized genre of photography where professional as well as enthusiast photographers often take picture of fish and other marine life, but also tend to pursue photos of underwater landscapes, shipwrecks, caves, and even portraits of other fellow divers.

Underwater photography is usually taken when diving underneath the water, but it can also be taken while snorkeling as well as even swimming.

Underwater photography obstacles and concerns

1. Loss of color and contrast: the deeper you go underwater, the more everything seems to lose color and appear bluish or greenish even to the naked eye. That is because longer sunlight wavelengths (orange and red) are quickly absorbed by the water. This is an issue of concern not just when going deeper in a vertical manner, but also horizontally. This means, that the further away subjects get from the camera the more they appear colorless.

2. Waterproofing: obviously when you take your camera underwater, you are going to be concerned with safety and functionality as well as how to waterproof your camera and keep water from damaging your gear. You need to look for a camera housing that will well serve your needs, protect your gear, offer good enough functionality and accessibility, and be able to put up with the degree of depth you’re planing to go to.

3. Diving skills: having basic skills underwater are going to be essential for your safety, ease of activity, as well as image quality. You’re going to need to be able to move smoothly, get around quickly and so on, so this kinda changes the game a little bit.

Underwater photography equipment

I’m not gonna lie to you here, underwater photography can be quite an expensive hobby. You basically have 2 main options for waterproofing your camera: you can go with a hard case camera housing, or you can go with a water bag camera housing.

Three main concerns when trying to choose between a hard case and a water bag housing are: ease of use, functionality, and cost.

1. Functionality: With a hard case you usually have access to all camera knobs, buttons, and dials. So the functionality part is well covered here. The only drawback is, you have to have the hard case that is compatible with your camera manufacturer and model, because all the those buttons and dials are going to be on the outside of the hard case, corresponding to the appropriate buttons and dials on your camera. This can be a major disadvantage if you’re planing to use multiple camera bodies underwater, you’re gonna have to get a compatible hard case for each body.

   With the water bag however, you don’t really have to worry about camera compatibility. You can use any kind of body, you can attach a flash gun, and you can use your choice of lens and the water bag will accommodate all that. But you have to keep in mind that you need an AFS lens, cause the front part screws onto your lens, so you can’t have it unscrewed and moving around.

2. Ease of use: With the hard case you have all the buttons and dials out there and ready for you to use, so once you get used to it it basically becomes like shooting with just a regular camera.

   With the water bag, your buttons and dials can be a bit harder to reach, and the LCD screen might be a difficult to clearly see.

3. Cost: W hen it comes to price, a hard case can be quite more expensive than the water bag. Well obviously since you have all the ease of use, smaller size, and all accessible functionality. On the other hand, you’re kinda stuck with one camera and whatever comes on board with it in terms of lens, flash,…etc

   The water bag is less costly than a hard case, and it’s also easier to travel with since a hard case on an SLR can be quite bulky!

Dealing with light & color in underwater photography

To ensure the best color quality in your shots, you need to get as close to your subject as possible (making sure not to harm yourself in the process of course!). For that, most professional photographers go with a wide angle lens, or even a macro lens to be able to get close to their subject while maintaining sharp focus. A short lens or a macro lens offers shorter minimum focusing distance.

The closer you get to your subject underwater, the less water is going to be there between the lens and the subject, the less horizontal color loss there will be and the more vivid your shots will turn out to look.

To balance all that vertical color loss of longer wavelengths, you might also need to use a strobe. A flash would compensate for any vertical color loss, and provide a full spectrum visible light to the overall exposure.

Tips for better underwater photography

1. Shoot in RAW underwater so that you can fix any white balance problems back in post processing.

2. If you’re planing on diving very deep, consider getting an external flash so that you would be able to light the subject while having the flash facing away from the front of the lens, to avoid backscattering.

   Backscattering is when the flash light reflects off of small unseen particles in the water, between the camera lens and the subject. You might need an extra set of hands to hold the external flash. Alternatively some photographers will use two strobes that are attached to the camera body from each side far from the lens, to light up the subject with only the edge of the light beams.

3. Get as close as you can to your subject for better color and image sharpness

4. Setup your camera, flash, and housing indoors before getting in the water and try your hands at the gear. Everything will work underwater same as it does outside, except for the focusing which will be faster outside and the flash would be more powerful than underwater.

5. Take a variety of close up shots as well as underwater scenic shots for different compositions and more interesting results.

Cool examples of beautiful underwater photography from Jim Patterson

Jim Patterson is a part time, semi-professional photographer residing in Santa Cruz, California, USA. Jim has a profound love for the ocean and landscape photography. His journey in photography began with simple snapshots of nature using an old Canon SLR with a couple lenses. In the year 2000, he lost that camera. By year’s end, he had invested in some higher end Nikon SLR gear and an underwater housing with strobes in order to document the beauty he was seeing while scuba diving the kelp forests of California.

In 2008, his inspiration moved to landscape photography, specifically seascapes near his home. The switch from using strobes and fast shutter speeds while diving to tripods, filters, and long shutter speeds was new and exciting and allowed for his creativity to flourish.

For more beautiful landscape, seascape, and underwater photography of Jim Patterson, please visit his website here or check out his flickr photostream right here.