8 Ways to Improve Your Photos on a Single Dive!

Another in the series of previously published Scuba Diver Australasia In Focus articles

8 Ways to Improve Your Photography on a Single Dive

It’s a brand new year and I am sure there were lots of underwater goodies in the stockings of avid divers during Christmas.  For those who received a new camera, it may seem like the “latest and greatest” camera should be able to take stunning pictures straight out of the box.  However, sadly that is just not the way it works with underwater photography; don’t be dismayed however!  Here are 8 tips to consider on your first dive with that great new piece of technology.

Get closer

Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia, Pacific Ocean

This is the single most important piece of advice for any new underwater photographer.  Although it’s tempting to use the ever present zoom control on your compact camera, it’s always best to use your fins to “fill the frame” as opposed to the zoom dial.  Getting physically close to the subject adds a host of positives to your photography.  Foremost, it means there will be less water between your camera and the subject; this means less backscatter and richer colours in your photos.  It also means you can utilize a higher numbered f-stop in order to maximize how much of your photo is in focus.  Remember, the higher the number, the better the depth of field.  However, don’t just ignore that zoom dial, it does have an important role in photography.  When you have gotten as physically close as you can to your subject, but the composition still doesn’t work right, utilize the zoom dial to isolate your subject and fill the frame before you shoot.

Use Add On Lenses

Porecelain Crab on Soft Coral

If Santa was kind, you may have also received some “add on” accessories with your housing.  This could be a macro lens, a wide angle lens or even better: an external strobe.  By utilizing all the tools at your disposal, your chances of a stunning photo increase exponentially.  One of the drawbacks of a compact camera is a relatively narrow field of view when it comes to pure wide angle photography.  In order to light up an entire sea fan, soft coral or charismatic megafauna, a wide angle lens is a must.  By allowing you to fill the frame with your subject from a closer distance, it allows all of the benefits discussed above.  To really make the colours of a soft coral “pop” you need to have your camera as close as possible to the subject.  A wide angle “add on” allows this but at the same time does not restrict you to only big subjects on a single dive.  The beauty of the compact housings is the ability to change these “add on” lenses underwater.

For the critter lovers there are also “macro” lenses available.  Although many compacts come equipped with a macro preset, it is very limited in its usefulness underwater.    Some brands of camera will not allow zoom while in the macro mode and others even restrict the use of flash.  In order to fill the frame with your subject you need to be mere centimetres away from it!  Obviously this does not work well when it comes to shy fish or invertebrates as they won’t often allow a diver to get that close.  By adding a supplemental macro lens you can enjoy the benefits of zooming in tight on small subjects without having to get so close that it runs away.  There is even the ability to stack macro lenses on top of one another for that extra tiny pygmy seahorse.

Use an External Strobe

Lembeh10MV-1097

Lembeh10MV-442

The greatest “add on” you can add to your system is the external strobe.  One of the drawbacks of the compact camera is the shadow that it casts over the subject from the lens mount.  The only cure to this bit of frustration is adding an external strobe and arm set to your system.  By getting the strobe up and away from the lens, you will eliminate shadowing right away.  Another major benefit of an external strobe is the ability to minimize image ruining backscatter.  An external strobe allows you to utilize “edge lighting” and not illuminate particulate directly in front of the camera.  A third major advantage of an external strobe is the power output available.  By having a wider and stronger flash, larger objects can be lit properly to bring out rich and pleasing colours.

Shoot Up

Seafan and Snappers

This may sound simple, but by getting low and shooting up, your photos gain a whole new dimension and contrast.  One of the most common mistakes a beginner makes is to hover above their subject and shoot directly down on it.  This results in the recognizable anemone and clownfish combination looking not like a bright and beautiful bit of nature but rather more like a bowl of spaghetti and orange meatballs. By getting down to the anemone’s level and shooting straight or a little upward, the fish will look like a fish and the anemone can look like a “technicolour dreamcoat”. In wide angle photography, the advantage of shooting up is instantly obvious.  By aiming toward the surface, you achieve rich, colourful foregrounds contrasted against deep blue backgrounds.

 Shoot Vertical

Soft Coral in Blue Water Mangroves

Shooting vertically is another simple trick with major rewards.  Although it may seem a little unnatural at first, a quick turn of the camera will bring out the natural lines of subjects that a horizontal viewpoint can’t display.  Think facial portraits, nudibranches, or eels; all of these subjects are well represented by a vertical composition.  Another thing to remember is the rule of thirds; align the eyes or main part of the subject along the top or bottom third of the frame in order to create depth and balance in the photo.

Stop, Watch, Shoot

Lembeh10MV-2514

The most memorable photographs are ones that capture the behaviour of the subject.  The underwater world hosts a plethora of animals that perform a variety of interesting activities night and day.  Eating, fighting, mating, and cleaning actions are a small sample of different actions that marine life exhibit.  However, it’s not an easy task to capture these behaviours on camera.  Simply seeing a shrimp cleaning the mouth of a grouper  does not mean you can get a photo.  If you rush in as quick as possible to capture the moment, you will be shooting yourself in the foot.  In order to shoot behaviour sequences properly it takes patience and a bit of stealth.  The smart way to approach these events is to “stop, watch, and shoot”.  By stopping to watch the action from a respectable distance, you give the animals time to become aware and comfortable with your presence.  You can then slowly close the distance until the subjects are within the focal distance and fire away.

Critical Review and the Histogram

 By far the greatest advance of photography in the digital age is the instant feedback found on your monitor.  Unfortunately, not enough folks use this tool to their advantage during a dive.  The monitor can be used to check the focus, the lighting, and for any distractions throughout the frame such as a wayward diver in the background.  In order to utilize this properly you must look at the entire frame, not just the main subject.  It’s often the negative space (everything but the main subject) that makes or breaks the photo.  Take the time to step back from the subject and look intently at your photo, don’t just take a series of shots and move on to the next subject.  By critically reviewing the photo while still in front of the subject, you can make fine adjustments and take the photo again.  The “histogram” is the best way to double check exposure, especially in very bright conditions.  By understanding how to read the histogram you can adjust settings appropriately in order to achieve the best exposure.  There is plenty of information about reading histograms freely available on the internet.

Know Your Camera!

One downfall of many new photographers is their eagerness to jump straight into the water without learning all the capabilites of their camera.  In order to capitalize on capturing wildlife, you need to know how to change settings such as shutter speed, f-stops, EV compensation, and the macro button as quickly as possible.  As the situation changes underwater, you don’t have time to fiddle too long trying to figure out where a particular button is.  By practicing on land and reading the instruction manual, you will gain a great advantage underwater as it becomes second nature to change settings on the fly.

Although it may sound like a lot, these 8 steps are quick and easy to implement once you have a plan in place.  If Santa was nice, he may have included a strobe and macro lens along with your camera and housing.  This will get you on the way to great photos as soon as you hit the water.  But if that’s not the case, don’t let the lack of these items hold you back, implement the other ideas above and you are well on your way to improving your photography on a single dive.

Favourite Images of 2012

As I did last year (link here) I have chosen 10 photos that showcase some of my favourite images from 2012.  This year though I have a disclaimer to go along with it.. I didn’t take a lot of photographs!  I spent a lot of time on the Dive Damai and the Damai Dua throughout the year, but I spent a lot of that time training staff, ongoing maintenance projects, dealing with the inevitable local bureaucracy (which there was a lot of in 2012 as Damai continues to blaze new trails in Indonesia, which means dealing with new local governments and local residents who aren’t used to a boat load of tourists showing up on their door!  Trust me, there is a lot of work/haggling in the background that the guests don’t see, always a fun part of the job 🙂 )  And, I did a lot of photo instruction and dive guiding as well, so although I spent a lot of time underwater, I didn’t shoot too much for myself.  However, I certainly got to dive a lot of new places, see new things, and document the good and the bad.  I will sort of break these images into sets in order to speak about them in context because some are not necessarily beautiful photos, but they sure do get the mind working…

The first image is from my first foray into Komodo in the “off season” of January, a much under rated time of year to experience this magical place, especially the south end of the islands.  With blue seas and warm water at Horseshoe Bay it truly is different than visiting in “high season”.  However, one lasting image I took away from this trip was something I saw outside of the park to the east where Rinca Island meets Flores, not much more information is needed, just look at the picture.. freshly dynamited coral head!

KomodoMV12-218

Sticking with Komodo, here are a couple of images that remind us of why we go there!  Komodo really is my favourite destination in Indonesia due to the variety of encounters to be had.  If you get the chance to go from November through to February its an opportunity not to be missed as the exploration possibilities in the south are great.

Close Encounters with a GoPro and a Dragon in Rinca

KomodoMV12-1088

Photo Stitch of 5 Images of the Iconic Horseshoe Bay, South Rinca

KomodoMV12-1140

The next image is from a small village on a small island north of the island of Ceram. I have visited this area 3 times now, and I am pretty sure that is the only 3 times that any foreigners have visited this particular village.  Here are some of the local woman sharing a laugh with Kat, one of the ladies on the trip, great communication does not rely on a common language as can be seen here!

Tourist Laughing with Locals

Another island village that we were the first foreigners to visit was on the far eastern tip of Lifamatola to the north west of Ceram and south west of Halmahera.  As we traveled south from Halmahera on the way there, we were followed by this amazing yet ominous storm cloud formation.

Storm Clouds on the Horizon

I spent a lot of my time in 2012 shooting wide angle photography, in fact, as I peruse my photos I seem to have shot macro a total of 3 times in 2012, on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of January in Horseshoe Bay!  As part of my wide angle series, I shot a lot of scenics and was always in search of interesting hard coral scenes.  For some reason I just love a healthy hard coral garden, when others get bored of all the hard coral, I am just amazed with the foundations and designs and can spend all day taking natural light photos of healthy reef.  Here is my favourite of 2012

Coral Reflecting on the Surface, South Loloda Islands, Halmahera Province, Indonesia

Hard Coral and Reflection

One dive also stands out for an amazing cave filled with golden sweepers, no words necessary.

Spice Islands, Maluku Region, Halmahera, Indonesia, Pacific Ocean

Of course with the good comes the bad… I also was witness to a lot of hard coral damage throughout the year, in fact, it really made me angry!  I had the chance to explore a lot of Halmahera and the North Maluku areas where I documented a lot of reef destruction.  A lot of reef in this region has been badly damaged, here is the worst, a tiny seamount in the middle of nowhere that had the potential to be a stunning dive site but local dynamite fishermen have completely destroyed it!  It really was the most complete amount of devastation I have ever seen to hard coral.

Bombed Coral

Luckily, it was only a week or two later that we found this gem of a dive site with amazingly in tact hard coral not a couple of miles away from a major population centre!  It really was incredible to find a huge coral garden of this delicate cabbage/lettuce coral in such great shape amongst a lot of damage in nearby reefs.  This was the last dive I did in the Halmahera area and allowed me to depart on a happy note!  But, it also made me sad to know that so many of the reefs in the area used to look like this!  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all doom and gloom in Halmahera, there are some very good dives in the area.  In fact, the Bacan government and the Jailolo government in the west (among others) are now actively promoting dive tourism and are really working with the local communities to help protect and educate folks about coral conservation and how it will positively affect them if they help preserve their ocean.  I can see this area really taking off in the future as there is some great diving, it just needs support, nurturing, and some more exploration.  Divers Lodge Lembeh have also opened a resort in the eastern side of Halmahera in Weda Bay that is supposed to have some stunning reefs, but we never did make it that far north into Weda.

Hard Coral Garden

My last image is dedicated to my friend Andy Shorten, he just loves my whaleshark photos!  I was lucky enough to do 3 trips to Cendrawasih Bay in 2012 and had perfect photo opportunities.  I like this image the best as it gives the idea of a mother whale shark teaching her baby to feed.. (although its a large male pushing a smaller one out of the way!)

Two Whalesharks

That’s it for 2012, I hope you enjoyed the photos and that some of them taught you a little something as they did for me.  Onward to 2013 where I hope to spend more time underwater with a camera, see you in the water!