Think you need a fancy camera to take nice pictures underwater? Think again. Here are some tips and tricks to use your basic underwater camera to take pictures that will wow your friends and family, divers and non-divers alike!

1. How to take great
underwater pictures
with a basic camera
by Jessi Kingan, www.btsphoto.co

3. • It’s not the camera
• It’s different from shooting on land
• Water absorbs light and color
• There’s no such thing as “motionless”
• You have three dimensions to worry about: in front of you, your angle
on the subject, and your position relative to the subject (above or
below)
Some simple truths about underwater photography

4. $3,000 $300

5. Why spend all
that money?
• Of course, the $3000 camera setup
can do things the other can’t:
• Dedicated macro lenses allow
the photographer to get closer
• Ultra-wide-angle lenses allow
over-under shots
• Better low-light performance
• Off-camera flash results in less
back-scatter & more flattering
lighting
• However, the basic setup also has a
few advantages:
• Ability to switch on the fly
between macro and normal
mode
• Fits in your pocket!
• Easier to learn to use effectively

6. See if you can spot the difference between what
the $300 camera can do* and the $3000 Canon
500D
*The original presentation featured images from the now-discontinued Olympus
1030SW—much better cameras are now available in this price range today. The
excellent Canon S100 with housing is about $400 new and allows RAW
shooting and some manual control. Used Canon G11/G12 cameras can be
found for the same price. Some examples from Canon G12 are included here.

7. Shot with Olympus 1030SW

8. Banded Coral Shrimp, somewhere in the Caribbean
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

9. Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

10. Spotted Moray & Friends
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

11. Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

12. Spotted Eagle Ray, Creole Rock, St. Martin
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

13. Shot with Canon G12

14. Underwater Sculpture Garden, Grenada
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

15. Cup Coral “Blossoms”, Saba, Caribbean
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

16. Vanishing Star and Jewel Crab on Coral, somewhere in the Caribbean
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

17. Bubbles in blue water
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

18. Bubbles under ice
Shot with Canon 500D

19. Shot with Canon G12

20. Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

21. Silfra, Iceland
Shot with Canon G12

22. Shot with Canon 500D + Ikelite DS161strobe

23. In short: The camera you have is
better than the one you don’t
If you want to take the best pictures possible and money is no object, then buy
the best equipment possible. However, as we have seen, you do NOT need
very expensive equipment to get beautiful, colorful underwater pictures.

24. Tip #1:
Get close.
Get closer.
When shooting with natural light, the more water between you and your
subject, the bluer your picture will be.
When shooting with a flash, the more water between you and your subject, the
more particulate matter that can get lit up—backscatter.

25. Problem: Back scatter
Solution: Save the on-camera flash for macro photography, or use an external strobe

26. Tip #2:
Learn to white balance when
shooting with natural light.
If your camera has a manual white balance setting, learn how to use it, and
white balance frequently, every time you change depth.
If your camera doesn’t, but it has one or more underwater modes, learn about
them.

27. Problem: Green or blue cast due to improper white balancing
Solution: Use manual white balance, red filter, or camera’s underwater mode

28. Problem: Improper white balance for light source (white light added)
Solution: If you switch from shooting without a strobe to shooting with, make sure to
change the white balance settings!

29. Tip #3:
Shoot where the light is.
In shallow, clear water, when the sun is highest. This enables you to shoot
without flash and get clear pictures.

30. Green Turtle, Caye Caulker, Belize
Shot with Canon 500D without strobe

31. Tip #4:
Go for the stuff that doesn’t move so much.
Make it easy on yourself.

32. Crab, Koh Krok, Thailand
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

33. “Ghost Rider”, Creepy Statue, Halliburton, Utila, Honduras
Shot with Canon 500D without strobe

34. Tip #5:
Keep shooting!
Use your LCD to review.
Face it: fish butts aren’t as interesting as their faces.
One drawback to point & shoot cameras is that there tends to be a bit of
shutter lag, the delay between when you press the shutter button and when the
picture is actually taken. This may mean that the picture you frame is not the
picture you end up with. Keep trying!

35. Filefish, HTMS Suddhathip, Thailand
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

36. Shark & Ray Alley, Ambergris Caye, Belize
Shot with Canon 500D without strobe

37. Tip #6:
Think composition.
Foreground, background, separation, rule of thirds

38. Striped Goatfish, Koh Rongnong, Thailand
Shot with Olympus 1030SW

39. Tip #7:
Photoshop is your friend.
Making good photos great, and bad photos acceptable.

40. Photoshop can make a good photo better, and might make a bad
photo acceptable, but it will rarely, if ever, make a bad photo good.

41. This improperly white-balanced image was edited in Photoshop. The resulting image, at left, is still monochrome, but an
improvement. Compare the colors to the one shot with flash, below.

42. To some extent, it’s possible to improve an underexposed image. However, you inevitably
lose some detail. Shooting with the correct settings will give you much better results.

43. Tip #8:
Know your camera before you get in the water.

44. Jessi Kingan, www.btsphoto.coHappy shooting!