JonW's Guide to Simplified Underwater Photography

Here are pictures from my most recent dive trip. The underwater shots were taken with a Canon PowerShot SD1000 camera (shown below) and the above water ones with a much newer Canon PowerShot ELPH 100HS. If you like the quality of these pictures then please read on.

I'm often asked how I especially get such great colors in my underwater shots. If you are looking to get into underwater photography or to simply improve the pictures you are already taking, here are my tips and techniques. I hope you find them useful.

1 - Keep it simple

2 - and inexpensive

Recently I bought a housing for my current 12 megapixel Canon PowerShot ELPH 100HS but I haven't used it diving yet.

These small digital cameras by Canon and Nikon (and many others) all take good pictures and are suitable for underwater use if there is an underwater housing available for it. If the primary camera you use does not have a housing available for it then consider getting a new camera that you can get with a housing. These small cameras are usually less than $200 and the housings are between $150-$300. These are the housings made for SCUBA diving and typically are rated to 130 feet or better, and are not the inexpensive ones for snorklers rated for 10 feet of depth.

Note that this class of camera does not usually offer raw mode. I haven't found this to be a problem for me. If your camera has raw and you want to use it, that's fine.

Also note that the camera manufactures make only a limited number of housings for each model and if your camera is older the housing for it may no longer be available. In that case check eBay or think about getting a newer model for which you can get a housing.

IMHO here are the really important features in a digital camera for underwater use:

• Able to set manual white balance
• Able to set continuous shooting mode (will take multiple shots if you hold down the shutter button)
• Able to turn OFF the flash

Get a good size memory card - they are very reasonable these days. You should be able to hold at least 1000 pictures on an 8 or 16G memory card, which should be enough for a whole week dive trip. Bring a second one, just in case. Also get an extra battery so you can have one charged and ready to go when you need it.

3 - Shoot only available light - no flash!

For really good flash results you need two external flashes sync'ed together and positioned on arms above and on either side of the camera. This setup is bulky, expensive, fragile, and usually requires its own very padded travel case that will either count for your carryon bag or you will have to pay to have it checked. It's batteries are yet another thing that requires recharging and attending to, and is one more thing that can fail when you need them.

Don't get me wrong - you can take some incredible underwater shots with a good flash setup. For me I just don't think it's worth the expense and hassle. I may miss out on some low-light pictures of some fish life, but there are plenty of other interesting things to get nice pictures of, and I don't take my camera on night dives.

Not shooting flash maximizes your battery life and completely eliminates the problem of backscatter.

So now you're probably thinking, how do I get good color without illuminating with flash. Keep reading, especially about white balance below.

4 - Camera Settings

• Set Program (non-auto) mode
• Set Flash Off
• Set AF (auto-focus) assist beam and face detection off
• Set digital zoom off
• Turn on auto-ISO setting so the camera will increase the ISO in low light conditions
• Turn Review off (this shows you the shot you just took for a few seconds, causing you to miss the next shot)
• Turn Mute on (your not going to need to hear your camera make noises underwater)
• Turn off auto power down and lens retract power saving settings
• Set the LCD brightness to about 50% - with experience you may want to adjust this

With my Canon camera I get two dives before the battery runs out. I resist the urge to review the shots I took on the first dive so I won't run out on the second. Unless I'm on a live-aboard I will not open up the camera housing on a boat between dives, even if the battery died during the first dive.

5 - Set White Balance Manually

The deeper you dive the less red light there is. Without setting the white balance all your pictures will be blue. Setting the white balance will compensate for this and bring back the colors when you later process the pictures on your computer.

Every 5-10 feet I ascend or descend I reset the white balance as follows:

1. (On my Canon camera) I press the Function button, select white balance, then manual. After I've done this once, pressing the Function button takes me right there again

2. I pull out my white plastic dive slate (on a retractor attached to my BC), point the camera at it, and press the button that then sets the white balance (on my camera it's the Menu button)

3. Press the Function button to exit Function mode. Now I'm ready to take pictures at this depth

If your camera has an underwater shooting mode you still need to set the white balance manually. When I put my Canon PowerShot ELPH 100HS in it's underwater housing a button on the housing forces the camera into underwater mode and one of the few things I can change is the white balance. Good enough - all other settings I wanted I set on dry land before putting the camera into the housing.

6 - Getting the Shot

• Get as close to the subject as you can and never use zoom. You want the least amount of water possible between the camera and subject, otherwise the subject will seem out of focus due to particles in the water

• As best you can, frame your shots well rather than depending on cropping after the fact

• Often the edges of your picture will not be sharp, due to either the glass on the underwater housing, the quality of the lenses in these small cameras, and/or the fact that you will usually be shooting with the lens wide open. You may like this effect as it tends to drive the viewers attention to the middle of the picture, but you may not. Keep this in mind when framing your shots

• After you identify something to shoot, keep the subject in the frame and your shutter half pressed (to set the focus and exposure) as you float by it (or visa versa), and then press the shutter just before the right moment. Most things underwater move

• For the sharpest shots hold your breath with your lungs half full and hold the camera steady when you press the shutter release button. This is pretty basic, but easy to forget underwater

• Anticipate the shot and take it just before you otherwise think you should so the time lag won't make you miss it. This is especially important with fish life and when drift diving. For these conditions especially consider holding down the shutter release button to take multiple shots and later choose which one(s) are keepers. This works particularly well for subjects that are moving towards you

• To avoid having all your pictures looking down and showing the tops of everything, cruise a few inches above the bottom and take pictures from the perspective of the fish. You get much more interesting seascapes and shots of fishlife. Bouyancy control is key here so you don't crash into things and damage the reef

• Perhaps the best fish life shots are on the top of the reef where there is more light and more fish life. If I have air left at the end of a dive and I'm underneath the boat I will often sit or lay down on the sand and quietly wait for things to happen (such as yellow-headed jawfish popping out of their holes)

7 - Post Processing in your Digital "darkroom"

For each image I like enough to at least clean up:

1. Open the image file in Elements. I'm usually dragging it from another program I use for quick viewing

2. Select Enhance > Auto Levels - this brings back the color and clarity, especially the reds

3. Often there is a slight blue or green color cast I want to remove by selecting Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color Cast. I then click the eyedropper in an area of gray, white or black and see if it gets better. If not I press the reset button and try again elsewhere in the picture until the colors are as I remembered them. If there is a diver in the picture I use their tank with the eyedropper, otherwise usually a shadow on the sand if there is any in the shot

4. If I want to crop the image I do that now

5. If I'm going to reduce the size and/or resolution (if it's going on the web) I do that

6. Then I sharpen the edges (only) by selecting Enhance > Unsharp Mask with the settings: Amount: 85%, Radius: 1.0 pixels, Threshold: 4 levels (thank you Scott Kelby). This should always be the last thing you do before saving. If you want a softer image then skip this step

7. Save as a new .jpg or .jpeg file with a more meaningful filename. Never overwrite your originals!

1. as uploaded from the camera
2. after applying Auto Levels
3. after removing any color cast
4. after Unsharp Mask applied

1
2
3
4