Underwater Video Top Tips Part 2

Step 6: Filming movement

Filming movement is an important skill to give your videos variety…

And this is where we come to The Zoom. After bad image stability, the most common fault in underwater video is the over-use of this effect. Excessive use of the zoom is called tromboning.

Used sparingly, a zoom can add emphasis to the subject, as can moving alongside your subject. This is called tracking and involves moving whilst filming at 90° to your direction of travel. It allows you to explore a scene or follow a subject with the subject distance constant.

Remember: Never track a subject from behind. There's nothing more boring than the back end of a fish.

Avoid "hose piping" at all costs! This is where you try and follow a swimming fish as it moves around the reef. This will only induce seasickness in your viewer. Instead try varying your shots…

Step 7: Vary your shots

When shooting underwater creatures, it's necessary to film from a variety of perspectives. Each sequence within a film should be filled with a variety of shots, angles and action.

For example… Wide-angle shots are great when used as establishing shots, but when used exclusively, they create nothing but boredom. Your film could have the tendency to become one long succession of sewn-together clips...

While actually filming, remember to mix up the type of shots you are taking. Get those wide-angle shots but don't forget the close-up.

Step 8: Pay attention to composition

Attention to composition is as important underwater as it is topside. However, underwater, the angle that one shoots at is probably an even more important consideration.

It's always best to try to shoot marine creatures 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.

Step 9: Film the action

When filming marine life it's always more impressive to film a type of behaviour than to simply film the fish itself. Filming the fish doing nothing but swimming creates a dull moving snapshot.

It's better to film that wrasse territorially swimming around the rocky reef, or perhaps a busy red mullet burrowing through the sand for small crustaceans is most definitely more interesting than one just swimming past.

Yes, filming an octopus is nice but shooting that same octopus prowling around his reef is the behaviour that will impress in the finished film.

Step 10: Practice

Like most things done well, filming underwater videos requires a great deal of time, patience and practice.

Read dive mags and instruction manuals, or even better, take a course to sharpen up your skills. Almost any dive centre across the world can offer certifications in videography.