Underwater Digital Photography - Part 1

Step 1: Tip 1: Perfect your scuba skills

Sharpening up your scuba skills will lead to one of the most important features of any photograph: a sharp image.

By keeping still with controlled breathing, you'll not only keep the camera steady, but will avoid contact with delicate marine life. Remember the divers' mantra: "Take only pictures and leave only bubbles, not clouds of sediment and broken coral..."

Once you've mastered perfect neutral buoyancy, you'll also be able to approach your subject and take your picture without scaring it away.

Step 2: Tip 2: Maintain your equipment

The most important part of camera care is cleaning and lubricating the O-ring. The O-ring is there to protect your equipment from water by creating a watertight seal. In order for the seal to work, it must be flawless. That means no nicks, cuts, sand or hair on its surface. If it does, your underwater photo equipment will more than likely flood, and use desiccants inside your camera housing to keep the camera dry, and the lens free of fog.

Perhaps as important an aspect in camera care is washing the outer housing after every use in fresh water. You mustn't ever let saltwater dry on the joints of the controls and metal fittings. A good half hour soak will do the trick.

Step 3: Tip 3: Compose your shot

Composition is the arrangement of elements such as lines, patterns and angles to create a pleasing image. It's this well-composed shot that will win competitions or get you that publishing credit.

Use the Rule of Thirds, by mentally dividing up the frame into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. Centre the subjects on these lines or where they intersect.

Pay attention to foreground - the space between the viewer and the subject - and background - the area behind the subject. These shouldn't be distracting to the viewer, but can provide depth, a crucial feature of a good picture.

Negative space - such as blue water or distant out-of-focus objects - is just as crucial, because it can provide balance.

Step 4: Tip 4: Get close

Water creates optical illusions: that is, objects underwater appear larger and closer than they actually are. So you must learn to judge distance underwater.

The manual for your camera will tell you the minimum focusing distance for your lens. Get as close as it will allow to your subject and as a general rule no further than around 4 to 6 feet from it. Unless of course your subject is a giant manta or whale shark!

Getting closer to your subject means there's less water between you. And the less water there is, the less optical distortion, the less particles and the better your picture.

Step 5: Tip 5: Shoot up

Underwater, the angle that one shoots at is another important consideration. It's always best to try to shoot marine life from slightly underneath. This provides both size and depth to the creature. When one shoots downward on a fish, the entire picture tends to flatten out.

Shooting up also helps create separation between the subject, the foreground, the background and the negative space.