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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY
Creative Lighting System works.
Whichever lighting system you
decide on, one common problem
faced by divers using strobes is that
of backscatter. This is when the light
from your strobe illuminates
particles in the sea, which show up
in your image as unsightly small
white dots – a bit like dust particles
on the sensor. While the amount of
backscatter is ultimately dictated by
sea conditions and therefore out of
your control, there are some steps
you can take to minimise its
appearance in your underwater
images. The most common way to
do this is to position your strobes to
the side of your camera. If you’ve
invested in a decent waterproof
housing for your CSC or DSLR then
it should have attachment points
that allow you to place the strobes
on external arms that can often be
repositioned on the fly to allow for
more creative lighting techniques.
Colour issues
In addition to blocking out sunlight,
Using specialist
water also filters out certain colours
underwater
– with red being the biggest victim,
followed closely by orange and will boost the vibrancy
yellow. If you don’t take any steps to
© W W W .IS T OCKPHO T O . C O . UK
counter this effect, then depending processing, however if you are
on the kind of water you are in, your shooting JPEGs you’ll ideally want
underwater images will display to get it as close as possible at the
either a deep blue/grey cast time of shooting. If your camera
(tropical blue seas) or a green cast allows you to set a manual white
(temperate waters). In addition, balance and you are shooting in
colours will be washed out and ambient light without flash, then
lacking in punch. There are three this is a good practice to follow. Just
main ways you can fix this to get remember to switch your camera
more vibrant and realistic colour back to its AWB setting if you want
from your images: using a custom to use flash at any point – otherwise
White Balance setting, using a your images will look very red!
specialist underwater filter, and The use of specialist underwater
post-processing your images in colour correction filters is another
Lightroom or suchlike. Professional way to boost the vibrancy of your
underwater photographers often images. Most of these are red in
use a combination of them, or even appearance and are designed to
all three. Ideally you should shoot filter out the blues and greens that
in Raw as this will give you more become dominant as you go deeper
control when post processing. While underwater. Because they block
Raw capture comes as standard on green and blue light (rather than
CSCs and DSLRs, the Olympus TG-4 add red) you will lose between one
is the only off-the-shelf waterproof and 1.5 stops of light with one
compact to offer Raw capture, with attached, which may require you to
the rest being JPEG-only. raise your camera’s sensitivity. Used
In terms of white balance, some at depths of below 3m they will help
waterproof compacts have a range to restore lost colour and will make
of useful underwater presets. Failing images of colourful reefs pop with
this, the ‘cloudy’ setting is a useful the same colours your eyes can see.
colour-correction filters alternative. Of course, if you are Just be careful not to use flash with
shooting Raw then white balance red underwater filters as this will
of your images can be easily adjusted at post- produce a strong red tint in your
image. The effect is not so
pronounced when shooting at
distance, but close up and reds
will dominate the image.
Composition and
general advice
Being able to hold your breath and
freedive a metre or two will allow
you to get closer to your subjects,
which will often help you to get
better images. One rule of shooting
underwater is that subjects will look
closer than they actually are. Even
so, it’s generally advisable to get as
close as possible to your subject as
this will reduce the amount of water
between you and the subject, which
in turn will increase the intensity of
the ambient light (or the power of
your strobe). Also, getting closer
reduces the red-filtering effect of
water, meaning your images will be
more vibrant with truer colour.
Most professional underwater
photographers tend to prefer using
and still fit them all into the frame.
wideangle lenses as these enable
them to get closer to their subjects
As a rule you should try to keep the
sun behind you when you shoot too,
to help illuminate your subject. That
said, rules are there to be broken, so
don’t be afraid to experiment.
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