8 Simple Steps for Improving Your Underwater Macro Photography
By Martin Nobs
Hello, fellow underwater photographers. I’m Martin. Originally from Switzerland, I’ve been living abroad for the past seven years working in the diving industry and sharing one of my greatest passions; underwater macro photography.
So read on as I explain some tricks to improve your underwater photography, especially when it comes to tiny critters.
# 1 Mind Your Gear
No gear is the best gear! You should choose the camera you like best and buy a housing and flash lights with it. I promise this is the best gear, no matter what all the professionals say.
If you don’t believe him, be sure to check out the Ocean Pulse article Scags Says for more underwater photography advice!
Prepare. Before diving, remove and check all the o-rings of your housing and make sure the buttons work. If necessary, lube your o-rings and look at the groove they sit. Particles like dust, sand grains, or hairs can prevent a proper seal!
Do those steps in a clean place and work systematically. I also recommend taking a test shot to see if the strobe fires as it should. You can even prepare your camera the night before you go diving so that you won’t be in a rush the next day.
#2 Have Manners Underwater
The golden rule is never to touch, move or disturb marine life to get your WOW shot!
Not only can many critters bite or give you a nasty sting, but you could also harm them. For example, you might remove the slimy mucous coating that protects them from bacteria and infections by touching some marine life.
Also, make sure that you have perfect buoyancy all the time. You don’t want to disturb the environment by kicking the reef or ruin your photo by stirring up the sediment from the seafloor.
#3 Choosing Your Subject
Look for a marine animal that is not moving very fast. This will make getting clear shots easier. For example, try shooting blennies or a pretty nudibranch. The ocean is full of fantastic subjects to photograph.
#4 Getting the Right Angle
Try to shoot across or slightly upwards. You probably have a nicer background in your picture if you do so. Try not to shoot from above unless your subject is more beautiful when seen from above, for example, the pretty pattern of a sea star or a coral.
I love finding subjects sitting somewhere on top with a negative background, so I can play with aperture and shutter speed to make it either pretty blue or rather dark.
#5 Focus
Focus is a combination of lens aperture and light. Smaller apertures will force all the light from outside to pass through the lens and concentrate on the image sensor. As a result, a bigger part of the image will be in focus.
The first thing people look at in a photo is the eyes, so you want to make sure they are in focus. This can be the eyes of a fish or the rhinophores of a nudibranch.
Of course, there is marine life without eyes, like corals, sponges, or anemones. Just find a pretty part of it that you can center on your screen and focus on.
# 6 Depth of Field
Depth of field is the zone within a photo that appears sharp and focused. But there is also an area both in front of and behind your point of focus that appears sharp.
That area corresponds to the depth of field. So by adjusting your camera settings, you can determine the amount of your image that turns out sharp and the amount of your image that ends up blurry.
In macro photography, a shallow depth of field puts more focus on the subject itself. Controlling the amount of the photo in focus is one of the photographer’s best tools to help draw the viewer’s eye where they want it.
For example, you can easily make the eyes of an animal stand out in the photo by creating this blurry background using a shallow DOF.
#7 Avoid Backscatter
Strobes mainly cause backscatter, or the internal flash lighting up particles in the water between the lens and the subject, and is easier to see against a dark background. You might see divers with two strobes on their camera housings, but for your macro shots, one strobe is usually enough.
Position your strobe so that it’s lined up with the front of your housing. Point it downwards at a 45-degree angle if your subject is close to your housing. That way, you don’t illuminate too many floating particles in the water.
Sometimes a little bit of backscatter isn’t bad, though, like you can see below in my photo of a Christmas tree worm. It gives it an even more Christmas-like feeling with a little bit of “snowfall” in the background.
#8 Rule of Thirds
Probably you have settings on your camera where you can see a grid on the screen or through your viewfinder. Use this grid to position your subject in the picture.
The rule of thirds is a composition guideline that places your subject in the left or right; respectively, the upper or lower third of your image, leaving the other two-thirds more open. While there are different rules of composition, the rule of thirds generally leads to compelling and well-composed shots.
You can still crop your photos afterward to follow this rule, but some subjects may not allow you such a composition. Sometimes it’s just as good to put the animal right in the middle.
Final Advice to Underwater Photographers
Dare to be different!
We all see things differently. Photograph your subjects how you see them, not how everyone else does.
“IT’S NOT WHAT YOU LOOK AT THAT MATTERS; IT’S WHAT YOU SEE.” - Henry David Thoreau
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Good luck and happy bubbles!
Will you come back and write about diving in Japan?
Would love to help!