5 Easy Underwater Photography Tips

When you think of sum­mer, the chances are you will think of water. Sum­mer means water and whether you are swim­ming in it or float­ing on top of it, cap­tur­ing under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy is a great way to cap­ture your sum­mer fun and memories.

If your plan­ning on play­ing in the water this sum­mer or cap­tur­ing shots of some­one who is, I’ve put togeth­er some tips for how you can cap­ture your under­wa­ter photography!

Underwater Photography Tips

Have the Proper Equipment

If you want to start dab­bling in under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy, you will either need an under­wa­ter cam­era or an under­wa­ter cam­era hous­ing ele­ment. Chances are you aren’t going to run out and buy an under­wa­ter cam­era. They can be extreme­ly cost­ly, but remem­ber, you don’t have to break the bank to get fun under­wa­ter shots this summer. 

You can get inex­pen­sive under­wa­ter point-and-shoot cam­eras if you want to avoid the expense, or get an under­wa­ter pouch, or case and start with your cell­phone. If you are a bit more seri­ous about under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy you can pick up a water­proof case meant for shal­low depths, for your DSLR or mir­ror­less cam­era. With any cam­era or phone case you want to make sure that you fol­low all instruc­tions pre­cise­ly so that your cam­era does not get damaged.

Ditch Manual Mode

This will be one of the only times I ever tell you to use a shoot­ing mode oth­er than man­u­al mode, but when shoot­ing under­wa­ter, Aper­ture Pri­or­i­ty mode will be your friend. You will find it real­ly dif­fi­cult to stay under the water and set every­thing up, so hav­ing the set­tings ready to go will help a lot.

That’s why I would sug­gest that you set your aper­ture, com­pose and go under­wa­ter. Also, remem­ber that shots that are tak­en half in the water and half out are real­ly inter­est­ing as well.

Don’t Forget About the Light

I always say, shoot for the light and not the loca­tion and shoot­ing under­wa­ter is no dif­fer­ent. Remem­ber your light­ing. The light in your under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy is just as impor­tant as your land shots. 

The light under the water is dif­fer­ent from above, and you will need to con­sid­er this when expos­ing, as you can eas­i­ly over­ex­pose your shots.

Stay­ing near the sur­face-don’t go below 15 feet or so-will help you get the best light and remem­ber to set white bal­ance to day­light. Also remem­ber that shoot­ing at Gold­en Hour is just as mag­i­cal under the water as it is above the water.

Have a Subject

Just like when you are tak­ing pic­tures on land, you always want to make sure that you have a defined sub­ject. Whether it’s an indi­vid­ual in por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy or a moun­tain in land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy, you want to make sure you have a defined sub­ject in your under­wa­ter shots as well. Use a friend to prac­tice, find a cool piece of coral, or rock for­ma­tions just under the surface. 

Fol­low your sub­ject, cap­ture them head­ing to the sur­face, com­ing towards you or swim­ming from the side. Remem­ber to be patient, over­shoot and as when tak­ing any pho­to­graph, use the rules of composition.

Have Fun

This is key and real­ly impor­tant to not ruin your time in the water or per­haps ruin your vacation. 

Remem­ber to have fun and let the sto­ry unfold nat­u­ral­ly. The kids are in the pool to have fun and enjoy sum­mer, don’t make them work as your mod­els. Instead, cap­ture them enjoy­ing their friends, the sum­mer, and the water. 

Sit back and observe and then cap­ture the moments. 

Under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy can be both expen­sive and intim­i­dat­ing but you can do it eas­i­ly and afford­ably. Don’t forget…You will need gog­gles, an abil­i­ty to hold your breath, and some patience but you can do it!

Respect the envi­ron­ment, take care of your equip­ment and prac­tice, prac­tice, practice.