Waterproof Cameras

Underwater Photography is very different from land photography. There are many different variables that affect lighting, aperture and focus. Basic Composition rules as understood in land photography will apply. Getting a good shot of underwater creatures will require some thought and imagination.

When photographing fish and other creatures try to focus on the eyes of your subject. This will create a center of interest. Finding interesting angles while maintaining eye focus will create unique and intriguing compositions. Keeping proper spacing in your frame of the image will be imperative. Make sure if possible that your subject is slightly off center. Subjects should have good "white space" on either side of them, often referred to as room to swim in fish photography.

Swimming around the subject will allow you to explore different angles and lighting scenarios. Getting up close often gives better image quality and focus on the subject. Many interesting shots have been captured by getting slightly below the subject and shooting upwards, always keeping the eyes in focus.

Try to seek out a background that does not hide the subject or distract from it. If necessary try using a smaller aperture to blur out a distracting or unwanted background. Use of differing angles can create interesting shots. Diagonal composition lines can be difficult to obtain but make interesting photos. This would be when your subject fills the frame from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner.

Getting up close and personal can create some intriguing photos as well. Try filling the entire frame of your image with the subject of your photo. Remember to keep focused on the eyes, and keep your subject slightly off center.
Shooting for color can be fun, try to shoot complimentary colors with one another, blue and yellow are good together, as are red and green.

Use leading lines in your composition to draw viewers into your photo. Leading lines are parts of the image that tend to lead our eyes into the photo, often to accentuate an interesting image that is off-centered. An S-curve is an additional tool used to show off an interesting image. This involves having an S-curve shape working through the photo leading the viewer to the main focus of your image.

The most important rule about composition is that there are no hard, fast rules. Composition is an art form, practicing fearless and imaginative photography will allow you to grow and learn as a photographer.

As most people know, getting the best underwater shots means getting the best waterproofing for your camera to start. There are a number of great products out there that can protect your camera underwater--even in deep waters--without sacrificing image quality. Here's a quick run-down of some waterproofing methods you can use when taking your camera out for some shots.

The Aquapac is one such item. The Aqua pack is a heavy-duty plastic bag with an amazing seal that protects the camera from sand, water and anything else. When using this method, make sure you place the camera in the bag in a dry atmosphere to prevent fogging. Also, don't use a flash or it will reflect on the packaging and give you a whiteout. The picture quality with an Aquapac isn't ideal though, so if you want crystal-clear shots try a container made of hard plastic or glass. These containers are much more expensive but will ensure unrivaled quality.

Next, here are some tips to help you get the best possible underwater shots. Don't use your digital zoom above all else. Also, try to cover the housing in front of your internal flash when using an external strobe to prevent backscatter. You should also keep your external flash far away from the housing to reduce the risk of backscatter. If you're having trouble focusing your camera, try using a dive light. This will allow your camera to adjust its focus automatically.

There are a number of mistakes beginners commonly make when shooting underwater shots. Before you head out, make sure your JPEG image quality is set high enough so the pictures have a high quality when you view them. You don't want to spend an entire session shooting on a low picture quality! Also, don't oversaturate your photos. Here's another great idea: think about what you'll see before you go and set your strobe and f-stop before hand. This will prevent you from missing a great shot because you're trying to fix the settings. If you find a great static background underwater look around for a foreground subject. If you find a great static foreground subject you can wait for a background to swim by. These tips will ensure you get the best quality underwater shots with minimal effort!

Is Lighting Important in Underwater Photography?

Underwater photography can be quite a difficult task. You might think that it is the same as all photography, but will find the pictures to be severely overexposed or underexposed due to lighting difficulties. Too much light will result in colors being too white and not true to the subject you are photographing and too little light results in dark colors in the photos. The deeper you are in the ocean, the more difficult the lighting becomes and taking photographs in underwater caves can prove to be a nightmare.

To produce quality underwater photos, it is essential to understand the inner workings of your camera. The total amount of light used for exposure in your photo is controlled by the shutter cycle. A long exposure captures more light with less intensity and a series of short shutter cycles captures less light with more intensity. This is the same principal of taking outdoor photos with sunlight taken into consideration, which may overexpose or underexpose your picture.

I find that a good underwater digital camera with TTL (through-the-lens) metering will take all of the guesswork out of your artistry. This type of camera has an auto exposure lens which measures the light through the lens as you are seeing the subject and it chooses the correct exposure for you. A SLR (single-lens reflex) camera is generally digital for the utmost clarity and includes the quality of TTL. This type of camera is great for beginners with it's no fail properties. This camera will meter the light with an imaging sensor that is located under the mirror. It uses light metering and autofocus to obtain perfect underwater photos. Most of the advanced models have a bracket or dot that is visible through the lens and you place the dot or brackets on or around the main subject of your photo. This is where the lighting and exposure is set for that area of viewing. For example, if you are looking at a group of fish and one in particular is your main subject, then you use the dot or brackets to focus on that particular fish.

I definitely recommend these types of cameras to the beginning underwater photographer for success. Many people call this a point and click camera because you don't have to adjust anything. The camera does all the work for you and it is definitely worth it's weight in gold when capturing your memories of beautiful underwater fish and sea life. It is just too disappointing to go diving and see the perfect photo, that when developed, is much less in quality than what you actually saw.

Understanding camera settings underwater can be complicating. Most people decide to use one and stick with that one setting. If you could understand each setting, it will give you more of a variety of photo shots underwater. Then, you can choose more than one setting when you take photos. This will make it even more fun and adventurous. You will be amazed at the photos you take. Your photos can look professional. This article will talk about some of the basic information on three camera settings for underwater, what they do and what they mean. The three settings discussed here are F-Stops, ISO, and shutter speed.

F-Stops

The F-Stops setting will control what your background looks like. You may want to have a slightly blurry look to your photo. This can be done by increasing or decreasing the numbers on this setting. The thing to remember is that when the numbers go up, this will mean a smaller lens or range, aornd when the numbers go down, the lens will open me. So, up means less and down means more. This will take some time to remember, but practice makes perfect. Be patient and have some fun seeing what kinds of photos you can get with each setting. You can try one type of setting at a time each time you go underwater. When you go back up, take some notes. This will help you to remember as you write it down and keep track of your photo shoots.

ISO Settings

The next camera settings underwater to learn about are the ISO settings. This has to do with the grain. Grain is basically the speed of your camera when taking photos. Have you heard anyone say the words “noisy photo” before? They were talking about the grain and their camera. They say it is better to have a noisy photo than to have taken a blurry one, but if you were trying to take a blurry photo, that is great! Some blurry photos come out wonderfully!

Shutter Speed

The next setting on your underwater camera is shutter speed. The shutter speed affects motion. Have you ever seen a photo that looks like someone’s hands were trembling when they took the photo? This can be very frustrating if all of the photos developed are like this. Sometimes, with the shutter speed not set right, you can end up with a photo that has blue behind it.

I am assuming that if you are reading this article, you have already done some underwater photo taking and are familiar with diving. If you haven’t been diving yet, you may want to take some diving lessons first to get comfortable with the diving part before you begin underwater photography. Then, you can learn all about camera settings underwater.

It's that time again. Summer time - time for vacation, swimming pools, beaches, snorkeling, and scuba diving. And like me, you've probably thought about getting an underwater camera to capture those moments under the water that can't be captured with a normal camera. How many times have you been under the water when the most picture-worthy moment happened? Whether it was the stunning rainbow fish that was swimming right under you, close enough to touch... or the charade-like antics of your son as he swam under the water. Regardless of your interest, an underwater camera frees you up to take those shots that previously were off limits. But how do you know what kind of camera to purchase? Like standard digital cameras, underwater cameras come in a variety of price ranges, each with different features, abilities, storage capacity, and quality levels. Before you begin looking for your camera, determine what you want to use it for. Do you take an annual beach trip and you just want additional snapshots of the family to put in your album? Do you travel frequently and love to take detailed pictures of ocean life? Think about the times you would use the camera, and why you want to take the pictures. If you're an amateur photographer and getting the perfect shot is important to you, you might want to look into which features suit you best. However, if you just want candid shots of your family and don't bother with settings very often anyway, one of the basic models might work perfectly well for you. Something else to consider is how you'll be printing the pictures. If you intend to use the pictures for posters, advertisements, competitions, or you print them for the purpose of selling them, a higher megapixel camera will be important to you. You need the option to print at the largest size possible. You might look also at the zoom features, especially if you'll be wanting to zoom in on smaller objects. Overall, the best approach is to consider your usage, your motive for taking pictures, and your desired objects of photography, and then to take a look at which features you do and don't need. Remember, too, to budget in extra money for accessories. See if you can find something you could use in our underwater camera reviews...