Digital U/W Photography

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This page has no particular purpose other than to show divers who think they can't take good pix, or that u/w photography is difficult, to think again!

TIP #1: Since you got this far read all of the 3 pages.  You'll get lots of info and NO sales pitch..

OK, here we go.....

ANYONE CAN TAKE GOOD PIX UNDERWATER!  Underwater photography is a lot easier (and ultimately cheaper) with the advent of digital cameras and housings! 

YOU CAN DO THIS!  The ability to take pix like these is pretty simple. Keep to the basics, which are:

(1) take pix when the water conditions let you

(2) get close to your subject

(3) use upward angles

(4) kind of plan what you want to show others. 

For starters, let me explain the pictures with this article.  These pix were taken by Pete Peterson (the writer) who normally takes a bunch of video.   Also, they were taken with a VIDEO camera that has an option to take digital stills.  It has absolutely NO bells or whistle whatsoever (unlike a true digital camera), no strobe, no interchangeable lens, and uses a 32mb chip set on medium resolution. 

They were taken quickly. All of the photos were taken with no more than 30 seconds at each place on the dive.  They were downloaded onto the computer in 15 minutes, and shrunk a little to fit on the web pages so they wouldn't take you an hour to load. 

I've arranged a particular order to the pix to show how you can sequence pix together to let non-divers get the feeling of diving, but I have not taken the time to make them all aligned, etc., nor have I added any description of the subject that you would normally include when sending these or showing them to others.  Quite honestly, almost any digital u/w camera would probably result in better quality pix and this is where the new Sealife camera might really benefit divers.

THE LITTLE ONBOARD TV: One of the neatest things about digital photography is looking thru the "little tv" on the back of the camera. You see exactly what will be in the pix.  And, after taking it you can immediately look at it again some cameras will let you DELETE it if you don't like it right there.   Try doing this with film! Hah.   On the other hand, if you like it it's instant gratification AND you can show it to your dive buddy and impress them with your photographic skill.

 

CLEANSING THE PIX: Once you download the pix you then can take them and change them to make em' look more presentable using a number of different programs.  As an example, look at the two pix below.  I changed the contrast on the right one and added a color shift to the anemone fish, and brightened and sharpened the white anemone in the background.  This took me about 5 minutes to do in Photoshop. I have not altered any of the other pix.

   

TELL A STORY: None of the following pix would win any awards, but who cares.  Take pix to enjoy looking at them and showing them to family and friends!   On to the dive:

 

   

Try taking a "look down" shot, then take a series of closer shots from different angles, finishing up with a pix of what the photographer is shooting.  This establishes where the dive was, gives a feeling of "depth" and then gets more specific as to exactly what the photographer is doing.

On wide shots you can get away with shooting downward, but DON'T do it on close-up shots.

 

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