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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

A word of warning, some of the images in this post are difficult to look at, if you don’t like to see images of destroyed reef please don’t look any further.

I find it sad that I need to preface a post like this, but unfortunately, its a fact of life these days in many areas around the world.  There are many reasons why different people in different countries participate in “dynamite fishing” but I won’t get into the economical, cultural or population based aspects of it, instead the goal of this post is to show the damage that blast fishing can have on a coral reef.  A lot of people are unaware of the reality of illegal fishing, and nothing can describe the damage better than a series of photos to go along with a short article.  On a recent dive trip, I was swimming along a beautiful reef, one of my favourite sites in this particular island group, when I began to notice evidence of bomb damage.  The first thing I happened to notice was 5 or 6 really large morays all within a few metres of one another; as this is a strange occurrence, I started looking around the area to see why this would be?  Large morays in this area don’t usually congregate unless there is an unusual food supply around.  Sure enough, looking at the hard coral, I noticed several cracks in the coral heads.  A few metres further on there was a large patch of rubble that was obviously bombed.  Not only was it bombed, it was done recently, either earlier that day or the day before.  The reason I could tell it was fresh was due to the fact the broken areas were bright white and the presence of several dead and shredded fusiliers under the coral heads!  Sadly, I had found the reason for the presence of the large morays: they were attracted by the smell of the dead fish on the bottom that were obviously victims of illegal dynamite fishing.  Thankfully, there was only one small area of the reef affected, in fact, many of my fellow divers were unaware that they were looking at dynamite fishing and were surprised to learn what caused the damage.

Two weeks later, I returned to this same remote island group with another set of guests; before diving this site, I briefed them about the previous damage we had encountered and told them to expect a small area of damage midway through the dive.  After jumping in and enjoying a great start with lots of soft coral and small tropical fish, we came around the corner to where I expected to see a small patch of damage; only to be confronted with wide scale destruction!  What had been a few square metres of damage two weeks earlier was now a patch of devastation about the size of a soccer/football field!  Obviously our friendly neighbourhood reef bombers had been back during our absence and continued where they had left off.  Not only was the reef in terrible condition, there was actually one unexploded bomb lying on the bottom!  One of my fellow divers pointed it out to me and of course I immediately wanted to take a photo of it, however, as I got closer I felt a sense of trepidation as I don’t know too much about these devices.  Obviously, I was a bit apprehensive that it could explode at anytime, maybe even my strobes would set it off? So I turned those off 🙂  I didn’t get too close, but I managed to take a photo of it and then made my way out of the area.  We didn’t go back to that reef again due to the instability of this item.

Basically, a “fish bomb” is a mix of kerosene and fertilizer that is stored in a discarded beer or soft drink bottle and then thrown into the sea where it sends out a large shockwave.  This shockwave kills all fish in the area including those in the water column such as fusiliers and surgeonfish, as well as those on the reef like butterflyfish and damsels.  Some of the fish float to the top where the fishermen simply scoop them up with a net, but the vast majority sink to the bottom due to damage to their swim bladders; these fish are not so easily collected and therefore go to waste.  The high level of dead and wasted fish and the severe damage to the coral means that a bombed area of reef is no longer a productive part of the ecosystem, a very inefficient method of fishing indeed!  Sadly, there was not a lot we could do as this remote location is far from any patrols and regular enforcement doesn’t take place.

Enough about trying to describe it, I think the best way to understand dynamite fishing is to show the damage in photos:

Here is another of my articles from a few years ago in Scuba Diver Australasia magazine, this one is entitled “Reef Respect” and its about the importance of photographers and divers respecting the corals and marine life while underwater.  Some of the accompanying photos are tough to look at.. You can also find this at Wetpixel

Reef Respect

When I first started diving for a living the number of divers with a camera in their hand were relatively few and far between.  Serious divers would carry a Nikonos V or video camera while those who were after a bit of fun would often have a Sea and Sea MX10 at their disposal.  However, with the recent explosion of digital photography, it seems everyone now has a camera of some description; from small compacts to multi strobed housed SLR monstrosities.  This is great in some respects, as the art of underwater photography has really blossomed and these images are being shown in more and more mainstream media helping to raise awareness of our fragile eco-system.  However, as popular as photography has become it’s having an inverse affect on what we love; the reefs of the world.  As we should practice what we preach, here are some guidelines the conscientious photographer should follow in order to protect the underwater environment.

 Placement

As photographers, we spend a lot of time with a subject looking for the perfect angle and trying to capture the essence of that animal.  Whereas the average diver often gives only a cursory glance and moves onto the next subject.  As we spend an inordinate amount of time in one place, we have to be more aware of our positioning and surroundings than everyone else.  Unfortunately, many careless photographers don’t care about their surroundings and zero in entirely on their subject.  Not only does this give photographers a bad name, but it destroys the reef and reef life around them.  Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this: look around before you settle in for a photograph.  Be sure that your fins will not be resting in an anemone or sponge, keep some air in your BCD in order to keep your torso off the ground, have your “danglies” clipped onto you, and use a finger to keep yourself steady.  It is far easier to keep your balance if you use your left hand as a steadying tool rather than on the camera.  By looking around before you settle in for a photo, it’s easy to find a bare patch or rock in which to support yourself.  Don’t just stick your hand out to grab the closest object if you find yourself losing buoyancy! Not only could you damage a delicate coral, you may stick yourself on a poisonous creature.  And of course nothing ruins a photo more than the off balance diver who tries to skull their hands to keep off the bottom, this results in stirring up backscatter particles in front of the lens.  When you are finished photographing your subject, take a breath and allow yourself to float away from the bottom before you start kicking your fins.  Trying to kick off the bottom will result in a major dust cloud and broken bits of coral flying everywhere.

Current

In wide angle photography there is another dilemma that comes into play: current.

It’s not easy to keep yourself in place taking a photo if you have current pushing you along.  If you find a subject along a current swept wall there’s an easy way to stop yourself and get that photo.  Simply turn around and face into the current and steady yourself with a one or two finger grip on a bare patch on the wall.  By doing so, you won’t have to fin a lot and therefore not kick any fragile sea-fans or soft corals.  Once you are finished, push yourself away from the wall with that hand, don’t kick with your fins in an attempt to turn around!  This will only result in damaging the marine life around you.

Getting Sticky With It

Cameras aren’t the only recent development that have gained in popularity the last few years; “pokey sticks” a type of stainless steel rod, are now just as commonly seen as cameras.  When used appropriately, these are a great asset to photographers and non photographers alike, as they allow the user to hold themselves away from the bottom with one hand instead of grasping onto coral and other fragile organisms.  But, used in the wrong hands, these instruments can be a weapon of destruction.  Many talented dive guides are able to use these tools in a professional manner by ruffling the dirt in front of a mantis shrimp hole or tapping on a rock to get the attention of an octopus.  There is no problem with this, as long as it’s done in a gentle manner.  However, many regular divers and photographers have now taken it upon themselves to use their “sticks” to try to manipulate the critters on the reef.  Oftentimes, it’s not done in a gentle way and photographers are the guiltiest species of all as they try to pry a mimic octopus out of its hole for a once in a lifetime shot.  Photographers are also guilty of tempting dive guides to do this in exchange for a healthy tip.  Unfortunately, this scenario is playing out more and more often in popular diving spots and its effect can be seen by dwindling numbers of creatures on dive sites.  As responsible photographers we can have a great influence over the behaviour of others, by showing an example and not doing it ourselves and encouraging over zealous dive guides not to do it for our benefit as it’s not acceptable behaviour.

Patience!

Don’t rush in to take photos or prod a mantis shrimp with a stick, as your intended subject will only retreat back into its hole.  Instead of trying to force subjects into certain behaviour, it’s far better to display patience with marine life and allow them to act naturally.  By watching your subject from a comfortable distance, you can gauge their natural patterns and behaviour.  It will also give them a chance to get used to your presence and gradually allow you to get closer.  You can then move forward and hopefully get that winning shot.  In this vain, also remember that you can’t disturb or potentially harm animals in an attempt to add the perfect photo to your portfolio.  Deliberately bending seafans to get a better angle of a pygmy seahorse or pulling the arms off of a crinoid to shoot a shrimp are completely unacceptable behaviour for everyone.

Courtesy is Everything

It’s not only the marine life that should be treated with courtesy but your fellow divers and photographers as well.  As most dive resorts practice “group diving”, odds are you will be diving with other photographers and divers when you are underwater.  In order for everyone to have a successful dive, it’s common courtesy to take a few photos of a subject and then move along so others also get a chance.  If it’s a subject that you have a particular desire to spend a lot of time with, wait until everyone else has taken their photos and then come back to shoot it again.  Also, be careful when you leave a subject you have been shooting.  Be sure that you don’t disturb it when you leave in order to give your fellow divers a chance to shoot it as well.

Flashy Behaviour

Do you hate it when someone comes up to you and takes your photo with a bright flash?  This is the same feeling that fish and crustaceans feel when photographers barrage them with light. The sensitivity of the optical nerve of organisms that live underwater is far greater than humans due to living in a dim environment.  Therefore, the effect of bright strobes is felt much more so by the oceans’ inhabitants.   In order to lessen your impact upon marine life it’s wise to limit the amount of photos you take of any particular subject.  Not only will you be taking photos of that cute little pygmy seahorse, everyone else on the dive will too!  By being patient and waiting for your subject to get in position before firing off a shot, you will have far less impact on it than those who “machine gun” image after image in order to capture one perfect shot.  The sea life will thank you for it.

At the end of the day, we all love photography and can’t wait to get back in the water after our latest trip has ended.  Unfortunately some of us have returned to places we have been in the past only to find the inhabitants we interacted with are no longer there!  Although this may be caused by natural events such as storm damage or coral bleaching, there is no denying that popular dive locations suffer from a large amount of diver damage as well.  By practicing considerate and safe photography you can lessen your impact and footprint on the coral reef.  If everyone does their part, by following the guidelines above, we will all benefit in the long run with a healthy and happy underwater world.

I found an interview of me from Manta Ray Bay Hotel in Yap, I don’t remember who shot the interview though!  Check it out, the manta footage is rather impressive even if I say so myself..

I am proud to announce that a selection of my images are now on display in the Liquidmocean Gallery in Sanur, Bali, Indonesia.  Founded by photographer Mark Thorpe of Liquidmocean the gallery houses a selection of water inspired images such as water droplets, surfing and wave photography, and of course my underwater images.  If you are in Bali please stop by the gallery which is located in the Six Point Building just off the Bypass beside McDonalds.  All of the canvas and fine art prints are available for sale and are the perfect addition to a home or business, custom sizing is available.  Hope to see you there!

Back in April I spent 14 days on the Damai Two with writer Terry Ward on a trip through the Moluccas region of Indonesia from Ternate in Halmahera, across to Ceram and finishing in Ambon.  The article is now published in the beautiful quarterly”Dive the World” magazine which is published in Denmark but available worldwide.  If you get a chance to purchase this magazine its really worth the investment, they really focus on photography and interesting stories.  Their website is www.dtwmagazine.com and you can sign up to subscribe direct from their site.