Five tips for taking better underwater photographs

You’re on a beach getaway and would love to come back with some killer photos from the day you spent snorkelling or scuba diving in turquoise blue waters. Here are five basic tips to help you get those shots.
  1. Make sure your camera is sealed in a watertight case.
  2. Use anti-fog droplets on the lens before putting the camera in the watertight case.
  3. Shoot parallel to the ground and lower. Don’t point your camera into the light! The light should always be to the side or behind you.
  4. Have some kind point of reference so that we can tell where we are. This could be showing a hint of the ocean floor, a reef, the surface of the water above you, etc. Unless your motivation is to make a picture that feels like oblivion.
  5. Adjust the white balance (if your camera model has this feature). Without it, the picture will come out very bluey-green. White balancing will tone that down to give you truer colors, which is great if you don’t have Photoshop or any other picture-editing software.
Reefscape by Nick Hobogood

Photo credit: Wiki user Nick Hobgood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reefscape.jpg

Check out National Geographic’s David Doubilet for some excellent underwater photography.

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