This is a very well known fact that 70% of Earth comprises of water. Hence, one may find a large number of varieties such as fishes, coral reefs and many more to capture. This is what excites people and they are attracted towards underwater photography. Consider following beginner tips while pursuing underwater photography.
- First of all you must try and get your diving skills perfect and then you can start exploring underwater photography. One should try and maintain steady hand technique with no camera shake.
- Get as close as possible to the subject- this should be around 12 inches, which will give your photos more clarity and color. This is where wide angle or macro lens is helpful as you can shoot close ups without losing focus.
- Strobe or flash usage – this will serve as good illumination source as the light decreases as you go deeper in water. This adds true color to your photographs. Strobe also helps in freezing motion which is very helpful in capturing fast moving fishes.
- Composition – you should try and fill the entire frame of your camera while shooting. This will cut down on unwanted details and the subject will be the sole focus point.
- Stay shallow – As a beginner one should remain shallow where the sunlight is perfect. This will real color to your pictures.
- Use a color correcting filter – Due to the color loss which occurs at various depths in water, there are a lot of blues in the shot. To avoid this, red filters are used which corrects the color balance of your photograph.
- Controlling the camera is very important factor in underwater photography. Hence, beginners should set the camera to highest resolution and lowest ISO.
- One should use definite shutter speeds for sharper images. The shutter speed for still objects should be 1/30th, for slow moving objects it should be 1/60th and for fast moving objects it should be 1/125th faster.
- If you don’t want to use flash and if you want to shoot in ambient light, you must either use underwater mode or a manual white balance.
- Careful approach – One should go slow while approaching the subject, without surprising them. You should spend as long time as possible with the subject. This will give more opportunities for a perfect shot.