Mastering Underwater Photos by Heath Robinson
We can all think of a time when we have experienced something truly amazing beneath our oceans surface, yet we were unable to capture it.. Today we will be running through a few things we have learnt and overcome the past few years, to help you capture that amazing underwater experience.
When photographing living creatures such as the ones seen above, there are a few things you should consider before getting in the water. We have a few questions we ask ourselves before attempting to capture anything. 1. Could it harm me? 2. Could it harm the creature? 3. Is it worth it? Obviously if either the creature or ourselves are in danger we don’t attempt anything, but if we feel comfortable with what we are about to do we go right ahead and give it go. Once in the water, getting your body in the correct position at the right time is very important when it come to getting the shot. This obviously depends on how much time you have before the creature moves on or conditions change. We always try and watch the creature’s actions for a while before approaching it, this allows us to get a slight understanding of how it feels about us being in its habitat and whether it is safe to approach. Once we are comfortable that the creature is okay with us being there we slowly approach it. The most successful way we have found to do this is to stay about 10 meters away and dive straight down until you are level with the creature, then slowly move towards it. Once we approach the creature we always stay at a distance where the creature is disturbed as little as possible, as we are in their habitat capturing them.
Photographing personal captures requires different things to be considered to be able to get the perfect shot. Once you have captured a fish it always seems to be a mad rush to get it in the boat and on ice and a lot of the time you forget to get the shot or you’re in such a rush that you ruin the shot. The first thing we do to avoid this is make sure the fish is put out of its misery as soon as possible. We do this because we have had past experiences where we have lost fish due to not braining them before getting photos and also because the fish stops stressing making them look better in the photos. The next thing we do is position the person with the fish so that the sun is shining directly behind them, this makes for a very cool sun ray effect. Or we try and get the sun shining directly on them and the fish, this really shows off the fish and makes for a great photo. When displaying the fish, we always try and display the whole fish, either horizontally or directly vertical. Both are great techniques that tend to show the true size of the fish, resulting in an awesome shot. A few other small things we do is make sure the best looking side of the fish is directed at the camera, the person being photographed is either returning to the surface or is at least fully underwater and that there is no other divers or objects in the background behind the person being photographed.
All these skills are useless without correct preparation. What ever you are planning on photographing there are things that must be done to ensure you get the perfect shot. It may sound dumb, but these few steps make or break your trip and the content that you capture. Always make sure your SD cards are fully cleared, and all batteries including spares are 100% charged, so that when you get the opportunity to capture that amazing experience you can. Also make sure you check that the lens is clean before taking a photo, there is nothing worse then ruining the photo due to water or dirt on the lens. We hope this will help you the next time you are venturing beneath the surface on the hunt for that perfect photo! Take a look at some of our favourite underwater photos we’ve seen.
